[Transcriber's Note: Archaic spellings in the original text have beenretained in this version.]
Le Sopha, p. 5.
As the invaluable present I am making to the world may not please alltastes, from the gravity of the matter, the solidity of the reasoning,and the deep learning contained in the ensuing sheets, it is necessaryto make some apology for producing this work in so trifling an age, whennothing will go down but temporary politics, personal satire, and idleromances. The true reason then for my surmounting all these objectionswas singly this: I was apprehensive lest the work should be lost toposterity; and though it may be condemned at present, I can have nodoubt but it will be treated with due reverence some hundred ages hence,when wisdom and learning shall have gained their proper ascendant overmankind, and when men shall only read for instruction and improvement oftheir minds. As I shall print an hundred thousand copies, some, it maybe hoped, will escape the havoc that is made of moral works, and thenthis jewel will shine forth in its genuine lustre. I was in the greaterhurry to consign this work to the press, as I foresee that the art ofprinting will ere long be totally lost, like other useful discoverieswell known to the ancients. Such were the art of dissolving rocks withhot vinegar, of teaching elephants to dance on the slack rope, of makingmalleable glass, of writing epic poems that any body would read afterthey had been published a month, and the stupendous invention of newreligions, a secret of which illiterate Mahomet was the last personpossessed.
Notwithstanding this my zeal for good letters, and the ardour of myuniversal citizenship, (for I declare I design this present for allnations) there are some small difficulties in the way, that prevent myconferring this my great benefaction on the world compleatly and all atonce. I am obliged to produce it in small portions, and therefore begthe prayers of all good and wise men that my life may be prolonged tome, till I shall be able to publish the whole work, no man else beingcapable of executing the charge so well as myself, for reasons that mymodesty will not permit me to specify. In the mean time, as it is theduty of an editor to acquaint the world with what relates to himself aswell as his author, I think it right to mention the causes that compelme to publish this work in numbers. The common reason of such proceedingis to make a book dearer for the ease of the purchasers, it beingsupposed that most people had rather give twenty shillings by sixpence afortnight, than pay ten shillings once for all. Public spirited as thisproceeding is, I must confess my reasons are more and merely personal.As my circumstances are very moderate, and barely sufficient to maintaindecently a gentleman of my abilities and learning, I cannot afford toprint at once an hundred thousand copies of two volumes in folio, forthat will be the whole mass of Hieroglyphic Tales when the work isperfected. In the next place, being very asthmatic, and requiring a freecommunication of air, I lodge in the uppermost story of a house in analley not far from St. Mary Axe; and as a great deal of good companylodges in the same mansion, it was by a considerable favour that I couldobtain a single chamber to myself; which chamber is by no means largeenough to contain the whole impression, for I design to vend the copie