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Preface.

The first edition of The Pilgrim's Progress, of which an exact reproduction is now placed before the public, was issued by "Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultrey near Cornhill, 1678." At the present time, but one copy of that edition is known to exist. It is in the library of H. S. Holford, Esq., through whose kindness the publisher has been enabled to produce the present fac-simile. The unique and priceless original is a compact volume, printed on yellowish grey paper, from, apparently, new type; and so perfectly has it been preserved, that it seems to be in precisely the state in which it left the publisher's shelves. It is a book as full of material peculiarities as any that ever taxed the correctness of a fac-similist; and it may not be out of place to draw attention to some of them.

The spelling and grammar are frequently

frequently both inaccurate and in-
consistent, from a modern point of
view; but to this, which is scarcely
a peculiarity, we have to add a very
irregular use of capital letters, the
greatest profusion of italics, the
employment now of asterisks and
now of letters for reference to
the notes, and the use of certain
characters differing in form from
modern letters, and not commonly
used in books of the seventeenth
century. The italick and the st
which occur in the Introduction to
the First Part, and also in the
Second Part, are examples of these
obsolete letters; and the in the
word Progrefs, at the head of every
page, is of very rare occurrence.

But this edition has other charac-
teristics which render its interest

still more vital. The marginal
comments, which some
some modern
editors have seen fit to omit, are
there in all their quaint force: in
one case the temper of Christian, as
described in the text, is summarized
in the side-note thus: "Christian
snibbeth his Fellow"; in another
place Bunyan ejaculates in the mar-
gin, "O brave Talkative"; and in

numerous

numerous instances these notes have a value of their own, either as samples of the rough vernacular of the author's original book, or as indications of his mode of thought.

This first edition, more than any subsequent one, is replete with quaint expressions in rugged SaxonEnglish, and with other elements of style which induced Bunyan to say in his "Apology":

"This Book is writ in such a Dialect As may the minds of listless men affect." And although the great allegorist never materially changed his handiwork, he did make alterations in his grammar and orthography in the course of the eight editions which he lived to revise. Add to this that his numerous editors have also carried on the work of modification for nearly two centuries; and it will at once be evident that it is a matter of real importance for the reading public of to-day to see what Bunyan really wrote and issued in the first instance.

To compass this end, no pains have been spared. In all those matters of orthography, grammar, rough or quaint expression, typo

graphical

graphical peculiarity, &c., above referred to, absolute reproduction has been the one aim. Indeed, as regards typography, the present edition is strictly a lineal descendant of that of 1678; for the type now used has been cast from moulds made in 1720, which were taken from the Dutch type used for that first issue. The paper, too, is a close imitation of that manufactured two centuries ago.

It will be noticed that the type of the Second Part is slightly smaller than that of the First Part; and there also the fac-simile principle has been adhered to. The explanation of this change of type is to be found in the fact, of which the modern reader need scarcely be reminded, that the Second Part was not issued with the First, but six years later, in 1684.

It should be mentioned here, that while the volume is a page for page fac-simile of the original, it has been thought needful to incorporate the conversation between Christian and Mr. Worldly-Wiseman which first appeared in the second edition, printed the same year as the