Advertisement to the Second Edition
It is necessary to explain the omission in the first edition of the
Preface ot the Vision of Judgment, as well as the cause of those
mistakes, obviously too considerable for mere errors of the press,
which are noticed in the errata. The fact is, that Mr. Murray the
bookseller, who was to have been the original publisher of the Vision,
sent the present publisher a copy not corrected by the author, and
also wanting the Preface,—from which copy the first edition was
consequently printed. It was not till after the First Number of
the Liberal had appeared, that the Publisher was informed there
was a Preface, and that the copy of the poem sent to him to print
from, was not the proper one with the neceseary corrections by the
Author. The only mode left of repairing this mischief, was to
print the Preface and the corrections for the poem in a Second
Edition, which is now done, and would have been done sooner,
but for the time lost,—first, in endeavouring (though unsuccess-
fully) to obtain the corrected copy, which had passed through the
Author’s hands,—afterwards in procuring his corrections a second
time from abroad. The reader need hardly be told, that the Au-
thor can with no more justice be held responsible for the mistakes
in the first edition, than if his poem had been published at once
from his MS. without the proofs being submitted to his revision.
And it should be mentioned as aggravating the evil in this case,
that the writings of the Author of the Vision of Judgment were
mostly printed from the rough and only manuscripts—and that con-
sequently he relied on seeing the proof-sheets, in order both to
correct the errors of the printer, and to make such alterations as
more mature consideration might suggest. This circumstance
made it a particular duty in the publisher to take every possible
care of the proofs corrected by the Author, and especially to see
that those proofs alone were followed in the final printing.
January 1st, 1823.
Ultimo aggiornamento
21.11.2024