TO SIR GEORGE RICH.

My Dear Sir George,

Your zeal in the cause of religion, your accomplishments as a perfect Gentleman, and your virtues as a true Christian, induce me to dedicate to you the following avowal of my religious opinions. Though your high estimation as to public character should demand from me a less familiar tone of language in addressing you, still the thoughts of your past kindness, in the hours of my worldly abandonment, bid me lay aside those expressions which a more formal etiquette might require, and address you now as I would a true, a sincere, but most honored and respected friend. As I have received no special favor from you, but the ordinary manifestation of your kindness; and as I expect no more than your continuance of such civility, I hope you will not look upon those words as the result of adulation, nor the public consider them as the language of hypocrisy; for adulation never bends without some intended object, nor does hypocrisy ever act without some hope of compensation.

I would wish that these dedicatory lines should be also expressive of my gratitude for the kindness of my lately acquired friends. The warmth of my feelings urges me on to a public recital of their names, but a more cool reflection dictates to me at the same time the propriety of their silence. The useful instructions they have imparted—the domestic happiness of which they had often made me a partaker, and the evident anxiety they have displayed in contributing to my eternal interests, have made impressions on my mind which shall never be obliterated.

The proffered liberality of others I shall never forget—I mean those, who, when imagining me in a state of pecuniary embarrassment, have made me a tender of their purses. But let not my refusal on such occasions bespeak a want of humility on my part; but rather let it be attributed to the suggestions of that principle, which told me, that it is religion, and not emolument, which should constitute the chief object of my change.

While to you, Sir George, and my other lately acquired friends, I offer the warmest acknowledgement of my gratitude, I look with pity, at the same time, upon those who are the mere nominal professors of our faith—those who court one’s friendship when they imagine that either his name or his presence would be an addition to their unmerited popularity; but who would afterwards reject his intercourse, for no other cause than that of becoming a conscientious member of their religion. Such nominal adhesion to our faith is sometimes worse in its acts than the most avowed hostility to our creed.

I met with one or two others, whose elevated rank in life might point to a more distinguished course in religion, and whose conduct to me would afford a sufficient subject for complaint; but as my intended pamphlet is divested of any insidious reference, this dedication must be also freed from unbecoming personalities. Let, however, such individuals reflect that, should I refrain from the following avowal of my sentiments, the resources of a respectable relationship would furnish me with the means of independent subsistence. But the advancement of religion is my object—conscience must be my director—for emolument is not my theme.

Should any portion of the following pages be considered as couched in the language of either abuse or misrepresentation, let the fault be ascribed not to the intention, but to the unconsciousness of the writer; for I have never looked upon scurrility as proof, nor misrepresentation as argument. The one prejudices individuals against the writer, while the other serves only to confirm those errors which a mistaken zeal might be anxious to correct.

In pursuing those thoughts I find I have exceeded the usual limits of a dedication; however, I trust that the matter I had to convey will serve as an apology both to the public and to you, my dear Sir George, from

Your most obedient and
Ever grateful,

L. J. NOLAN.

Dublin, 14th February, 1835.