4 (as per margin)3, my compositor must now find work elsewhere. As to my Greek type, it must, after a short incarceration, go (what is ultimately) the way of all type. The same must be the account with the literary world. The following is my Cost of reprinting Hermann's Orphic, independent of all prim-ary expenditure. For composing 14 & a half half-sheets, at 25shllngs. For Cold Pressing . For Boarding 258 copies at 6d. each Receipts down to the 5th. April, 1828. 12 copies paid for by Mr. B. at 2s. 6d. 6 do. paid for by Messrs. Tr. & W... 1 do. sent for by a gentleman at Hampstead 3 do. forced upon H. B. M. Esq. at 3s. 6d. each 2 do. J. B. Esq. at 3s. 6d. each 1 do. N. G. Esq. 25 copies £18 2 6 1 17 6 remains unpaid £31 2 0 I must however most gratefully acknowledge the receipt of a book from a profound philosopher, of another book from a learned divine, and of some fac-similes from one of our greatest surgeons. Account of Copies. 25 as above 20 now out at various Booksellers'. 5 sent, by order of Act of Parliament, to [the King's Cutler's] No. 261, Regent Street. about 12 given away to various Reviews, &c. about 46 given away to various individuals. 258-108-150, now on hand. Before this half sheet could be finished, he suddenly obtained a most advantageous employment. Another compositor therefore terminates this Preface, together with some inordinately-copious Addenda. The door of my printing-room must then be closed. I earnestly solicit the prayers of the faithful, that I may never again be guilty of the horrible crime of scribbling. immediate destination of the brevier roman, which seems compiled from various founts, and bears an invincible antipathy to a straight line. It was the first modern type I ever bought, and sadly was I cheated in the purchase of it. But I left that type-founder; and bought some bourgeois, and also some small pica, of Caslon, whose type is well known to be the best in England. Albeit, I have still no italic for the small pica; and no accented letters for the roman brevier. My reader must have mercy upon my poverty, if in the greater part of this volume I have been forced to various typographi-cal shifts, such as putting an inverted 5 for a ç. &c. &c. The only advice which any one has yet condescended to give me, with regard to my manner of printing Greek, is, that I ought not to have omitted the breathings. And I confess, indeed, that I begin to think I have been in the wrong. At any rate I am ashamed of the trifling reason I gave for their non-insertion in the reprint of the Orphica (Preface, p. iv). In my present work the reader will perceive, that the greek quotations of my third appendix have the aspirate. I do not see any use in the lene: it only creates confusion. That the aspirate was pronounced by the Greeks is fully shewn by Αφ for ΑΠΟ e for TO, &c. &c. Servius (ad Æneid. 2; vid. Fabr., B. Gr., vol. 1, p. 147) says, either that the aspirate, or that the aspirated letters, were invented by Palamedes. And certainly the aspirate is very ancient. It has occasionally been sculptured as an H; and may also in some cases have replaced the Digamma. I can scarcely believe what is said in Dr. Valpy's grammar that "the old Dialects of Greece admitted few or no aspirates." I should have thought, that the more ancient a language was, the more it would have abounded in gutturals. I wish, that, at the end of Greek grammars, there was a list of all the aspirated roots. The student would then read ordinary Greek type with less hesitation about false prints. Nor would he find any great difficulty in reading an apneumatic, or spiritless, type. His principal hesitation would be at the word oy, and occa-sionally at H, ON, EN, EZ, EIC, HN, OIOC, and opoc: as also at some words rare in one or both senses, as AAIMOC, AAINOC, ΑΠΛΟΥΣ, ΑΥΤΑ, ΑΡΜΟΙ, ΕΙΣΑ, ΕΟΝ, ΟΠΗ , OCCA, ΟΔΕ WPA, WCAN. Sometimes there is no diversity of either accent or breathing in words, literally identical, but of very different derivation or mean-ing: as 'ΑΛΙΑ, 'ΑΠΤΟ, εικε, 'EWC, ΗΚΑ, ΤΟΝ, ΟΞΕΑ, ΟΥΛΟΝ, so that the use of those ΟΥΛΟΣ : ΟΥΡΩΝ, ογρος, and wτος; vaunted additaments is not perhaps so great as at first may be imagined. Moreover in some words the breathing seems to be unknown, or variable, or indifferent: as in ABPYNA AMAZA Aρnic AVW & AɣAINW AVIC, EANA & EEANA, EIAAW, Εγω & εγω, ΕΙΔΟ ENOC vetus, EрCH, EYW, HAоC, HAIBATOC, and AAOC. But I will say no more upon this subject, which is entirely above my faculties. I have no doubt it is fully investigated in a host of dissertations, which are in every body's hands, but which I cannot afford to purchase. The res angusta domi has obliged me to vow to buy no more books. Nearly a year ago I purchased Fabricius's Bibliotheca Græca, a very cheap and most learned and useful compilation; but there I stop. It is probably fortunate that my experiment has not succeeded, as I should have been at a loss what work next to fix upon. I am partial to Nonnus's Dionysiaca; but this work is of prodi-gious length, and moreover has not yet been sufficiently well edited, for me to know how to reprint it. A good Dictionary of early Greecian philosophers might be form-ed by arranging Diogenes Laertius in an alphabetical order, and correcting his errors and filling up his omissions by quotations from other authors; but this would be a voluminous publication, for which I have neither the intellect, nor the health, nor the library, nor the patience. I have thought of printing extracts from Clemens Alexandrinus. But the Fathers of the Church are shockingly out of fashion: a papist refers to them only for transubstantiation, grace, original sin, and so forth; while a protestant is afraid of them, and (except in determining the canon of the N. T.) impiously affects to despise them. When will these writings be considered, like others, to be useful-positively, as records of wisdom,-negatively, as records of folly? I consider no book so amusing as the Old Testament, or (as I have heard it called) "the compendium of ancient Hebrew Literature." I know indeed little more of Hebrew than the letters, and those only without the points; but, as this language has all the simplicity which it would retain among an unsocial people, I can manage, with the aid of a translation, to understand most of the words. If I ever printed any Hebrew, I would put all the proper names in capital letters, as I have done in the Greek. I would also divide both prose and verse into short lines, confident that the system of direct or indirect parallelism is so congenial to the language of the Hebrews, that it is often difficult to distinguish their prose from their verse. But my philosophical friends would laugh at my spending time about ancient treatises, which have been infinitely better printed by many a calculating hypocrite and officious zealot. Unhappy is the lot of the Hebrew sages to be condemned to the admiration of folly; while common sense, which, if free, might applaud, disdains, in its captivity, to do otherwise than ridicule. I know not what I shall do with the present volume. When in better health than usual, I determine to lock up the whole edition; when rather ailing, I determine to give away a few copies to par-ticular friends; when, finally, I consider that I have only a few months or days to live, I then determine to offer the whole edition for sale. At all events, the price marked on the book shall not be humble, I was decidedly wrong with regard to my reprint of the Orphic for what few purchasers there were, would probably as soon have paid seven shillings, as three and sixpence; and then again, in giving a copy away, the larger the sum marked, the greater present it seems." Price one Guinea" therefore ornaments the title-page of this volume; and any one silly personage, who will give this sum, will put more money into my pocket, than three more sensible men, who would only honour me with the cost price of between six and seven shillings. I terminate this my Preface by consigning all "Greek Scholars" to the special care of Beelzebul. If the reader wish for a graphical representation of Superstition, there are two engravings, in van Dale's "de Oraculis" (p. 1, & 308), which seem to express almost every species of sacerdotal knavery. These excite a smile; but the frontispiece of Schedius "de Diis Germanis" fills one with horror. Nothing can be more disgusting than the solemn hypocrisy of the priest and the brutal indifference of the priestess; while the headless bodies, around them, attest the power of cruel impostors, and the misery of a deluded people. |