Hieroglyphic Tales

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Hieroglyphic Tales

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hieroglyphic Tales, by Horace
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Title: Hieroglyphic Tales
Author: Horace Walpole
Release Date: November 20, 2004 [EBook #14098]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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HIEROGLYPHIC TALES ***

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[Transcriber's Note: Archaic spellings in the original text have been
retained in this version.]

HIEROGLYPHIC TALES.
_Schah Baham ne comprenoit jamais bien que les choses absurdes &
hors de toute vraisemblance._
Le Sopha, p. 5.

STRAWBERRY-HILL: PRINTED BY T. KIRGATE, MDCCLXXXV.

PREFACE.
As the invaluable present I am making to the world may not please all
tastes, from the gravity of the matter, the solidity of the reasoning, and
the deep learning contained in the ensuing sheets, it is necessary to
make some apology for producing this work in so trifling an age, when
nothing will go down but temporary politics, personal satire, and idle
romances. The true reason then for my surmounting all these objections
was singly this: I was apprehensive lest the work should be lost to
posterity; and though it may be condemned at present, I can have no
doubt but it will be treated with due reverence some hundred ages
hence, when wisdom and learning shall have gained their proper
ascendant over mankind, and when men shall only read for instruction
and improvement of their minds. As I shall print an hundred thousand
copies, some, it may be hoped, will escape the havoc that is made of
moral works, and then this jewel will shine forth in its genuine lustre. I
was in the greater hurry to consign this work to the press, as I foresee
that the art of printing will ere long be totally lost, like other useful
discoveries well known to the ancients. Such were the art of dissolving
rocks with hot vinegar, of teaching elephants to dance on the slack rope,
of making malleable glass, of writing epic poems that any body would
read after they had been published a month, and the stupendous
invention of new religions, a secret of which illiterate Mahomet was the
last person possessed.

Notwithstanding this my zeal for good letters, and the ardour of my
universal citizenship, (for I declare I design this present for all nations)
there are some small difficulties in the way, that prevent my conferring
this my great benefaction on the world compleatly and all at once. I am
obliged to produce it in small portions, and therefore beg the prayers of
all good and wise men that my life may be prolonged to me, till I shall
be able to publish the whole work, no man else being capable of
executing the charge so well as myself, for reasons that my modesty
will not permit me to specify. In the mean time, as it is the duty of an
editor to acquaint the world with what relates to himself as well as his
author, I think it right to mention the causes that compel me to publish
this work in numbers. The common reason of such proceeding is to
make a book dearer for the ease of the purchasers, it being supposed
that most people had rather give twenty shillings by sixpence a
fortnight, than pay ten shillings once for all. Public spirited as this
proceeding is, I must confess my reasons are more and merely personal.
As my circumstances are very moderate, and barely sufficient to
maintain decently a gentleman of my abilities and learning, I cannot
afford to print at once an hundred thousand copies of two volumes in
folio, for that will be the whole mass of Hieroglyphic Tales when the
work is perfected. In the next place, being very asthmatic, and requiring
a free communication of air, I lodge in the uppermost story of a house
in an alley not far from St. Mary Axe; and as a great deal of good
company lodges in the same mansion, it was by a considerable favour
that I could obtain a single chamber to myself; which chamber is by no
means large enough to contain the whole impression, for I design to
vend the copies myself, and, according to the practice of other great
men, shall sign the first sheet my self with my own hand.
Desirous as I am of acquainting the world with many more
circumstances relative to myself, some private considerations prevent
my