Excerpt from The Works of William Paley, D.D, Vol. 1 of 4: And an Account of the Life and Writing of the Author IT may be deemed, if not the duty, yet often the interest, of an editor or a biographer to keep himself out of sight but I may seem so obviously chargeable with an affectation of delicacy and scrupulosity if I pretend to only a silent concern in this edition, that it can scarcely be expected I should not avail myself of a few words to explain the design with which it is sent out of my hands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.