Chapter 2 Editor ① Preface

Thomas Paine's writings have been written for more than a hundred years, and Thomas Paine's words will continue to be read as long as people love free and honest language. Compilation of this edition was not an easy task, because when I compared the various modern editions with the editions of the same year, I found that the former was full of errors.Many words were left out, right became wrong, entire paragraphs (several pages in total) were omitted, and sometimes even a sentence was inserted inexplicably.The inserted sentence, apparently originally intended as a footnote, was incorporated into the text when it went to press.In this way, the words spoken in 1791 appear to be placed in a very inappropriate place.Comparing some of the earlier editions, I found discrepancies between them, in some cases caused by Paine's own modifications.

In order to provide the best reading possible, I have consulted the first edition (Johnson Co., 1791), second, third, sixth, seventh, and eighth editions (Jordan Co., 1791 and 1792) of this work , the popular edition of Symonds & Co. (1792)—according to MD Conway, this edition was carefully revised by Paine himself—published in Dublin (P. Bisson Company Edition), Carlyle Edition (1819), New York Edition (1830), Glass Edition (1833), Library New Edition (1837), Edward Will Rolleve Edition, James Watson Edition (edited by Watson himself, published by Holyoke-Frederick Farrer & Co.), Free Thought Publishing Co. (1883), JM Weller & Co. (1891) and MD Conway & Co. ( year).I have proofread fourteen of these editions verbatim, and have read through the rest with great care.The earliest edition in which I found wording altered was Watson's (probably due to careless proofreading); later editions (excluding the undated editions of Mr. Watson's editions, but also have a number of changes peculiar to themselves, the most notable of which is the omission of a large number of footnotes and several passages of the text.I had noticed the more important changes in those editions, but found the words "this paragraph [or 'this note'] omitted from the new edition" to be very glaring, so after page 102 all these omissions are only Marked with an asterisk.

This edition is based on the three versions of Johnson, Jordan and Symonds.I have also given due attention to Paine's own corrections, but have followed the author's inspiration rather than his opinion where the changes seem to have lost rather than added to the force of the text.In order to present it to today's readers as much as it did when it was published in 1791, the original spelling, unique punctuation, and the practice of sometimes capitalizing and sometimes not capitalizing letters have been restored.The sentence structure cannot be modernized without destroying the strength of the original, and combining eighteenth-century wording with Jumaru-century spelling does not make the book coherent.Restoring the original spelling and the original grammar completely strengthens the general effect and brings the reader closer to the time in which the book was written.

In "Part II" I pointed out all the passages of the Attorney General's indictment in 1792, upon which Paine was tried.As far as I know, this has not been done in any previous version. I would like to thank John M., Robinson, and others for lending me some rare volumes. Hypatia Bradlow Bonner ① is the editor of the original book. - translator