THE

YOUNG PHILOSOPHER:

A NOVE L.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

By CHARLOTTE SMITH.

Of MAN, when warm'd by Reafon's pureft ray,
No flave of Avarice, no tool of Pride;

When no vain Science led his mind aftray,

But NATURE was his law, and GoD his guide.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED POR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES,

IN THE STRAND.

PREFACE.

IT is, I believe, in a work written by Mrs. Sarah Fielding, and now out of print, called "The Art of Tormenting," that I have read the following fable:

"A fociety of animals were once difputing on various modes of fuffering, and of death; many offered their opinions, but it was at length agreed that the sheep, as the most frequent victim, could give the beft account of the ago nies inflicted by the teeth and claws of beasts of prey."

If a Writer can best describe who has fuffered, I believe that all the evils arifing from oppreffion, from fraud and chicane,