The Martyr of Carthage A Tale Author:Edward Wilson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1845 Original Publisher: J. Burns Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select... more » from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: PREFACE. There is something in the scenes of history during the decline of the great Roman monarchy, which cannot be contemplated without painful reflections on the parallel afforded to them in some of the social evils under which our rich and prosperous country is now labouring. The pagan superstitions, scarcely credited by the people among whom they were cherished, were yet made the pretence of the persecutions suffered by the Christian Church: and in a time of general indifference to all vital truth, we seem to find that no class or party are marked out as putting themselves beyond the pale of toleration, except those who, shewing some signs of earnestness in what they believe and do, tacitly reproach the mass of men who dwell at ease and conform without inquiry to the popular creed and superstitions of a world which is a pleasant world to them. It may, perhaps, be worth inquiring, -- to thosewho view these things, as Gil Bias did after his imprisonment, a little in a moral point of view, -- how much of real paganism there is in this contentment to leave things just as they are, and this determination to oppose all that would labour to amend the faults which old negligence may have left, and new perversity may be striving to perpetuate, in our present system of faith, policy, and morals. And the picture, which it is here endeavoured to draw of the bitter times, when a falling empire put itself in arms against the only portion of its citizens that had worth enough to check the torrent of decay, may not be without its use, if it induces one serious mind to weigh more dee...« less