 Hermippus, my friend. I once heard someone observe that ancient philosophers conducted most of their teaching in the form of dialogue, but that this method of composition has seldom been practiced in more recent times and has rarely succeeded in the hands of those who have attempted it. Accurate and logical argument, which is now expected of philosophers, naturally leads to a methodical and didactic style that immediately explains the point without introduction and then proceeds without interruption to deduce the proofs on which it is established. Presenting a philosophical theory in conversation is seldom natural. The dialogue writer, by departing from the direct style of composition, desires to free the performance and avoid the convention of author and reader, but encounters instead a worse difficulty, that of conveying the image of pedagogue and pupil. If the dispute is conducted in the spirit of good company by introducing a variety of topics and preserving a proper balance among the speakers, so much time is lost in preparation and transitions that the reader will hardly find it is worth sacrificing order, brevity and precision for the graces of dialogue. However, there are some subjects to which the dialogue form is especially well suited and where it is preferable to the direct and simple method of composition, any doctrine which is so obvious that it scarcely admits of dispute but is so important that it cannot be too often repeated seems to require some such method. The novelty of the style may compensate for the triteness of the subject, the lively conversation may enforce the precept and the variety of lights shed by the various people and characters will appear neither tedious nor redundant. Any philosophical question that is so obscure and uncertain that human reason can reach no agreement about it, if it is treated at all, seems to lead us naturally to the style of dialogue and conversation. Reasonable people may be allowed to differ where no one can reasonably be certain. Opposing opinions, even without a decision, provide delightful amusement. And if the subject is unusual and interesting, a book carries us in a way into good company and unites the two greatest and purest pleasures of human life, learning and friendship. Happily, these circumstances are all to be found in the subject of natural religion. What truth is so obvious, so certain as the existence of God, which the most ignorant ages have acknowledged, and for which the most refined geniuses have ambitiously endeavored to produce new proofs and arguments? What truth is so important as this one? The ground of all our hopes, the surest foundation of morality, the firmest support of society and the only principle that ought never to be absent for a moment from our thoughts and meditations. But when we treat this obvious and important truth, what difficult questions arise concerning the nature of that divine being, its attributes, its decrees, its plan of providence? These have always been the subject of dispute among people. Human reason has not reached certainty about them. But these topics are so interesting that we cannot restrain our restless inquiry into them, though nothing but doubt, uncertainty and contradiction have so far been the result of our most careful research. I had an opportunity to observe this, when, as usual, I spent part of the summer with Cleonthe's, and was present at the conversation he had with Philo and...