The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Journal to Stella, by Jonathan Swift

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Title: The Journal to Stella

Author: Jonathan Swift

Release Date: July, 2003 [Etext #4208]
Posting Date: January 28, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JOURNAL TO STELLA ***

Produced by Les Bowler

THE JOURNAL TO STELLA

By Jonathan Swift

With preface, introduction and notes by George A. Aitken.

(Numbers thus (5) refer to the Notes at the end, which are arranged by
"Introduction" or by "Letter 'number'".)

PREFACE

The history of the publication of the Journal to Stella is somewhat
curious. On Swift's death twenty-five of the letters, forming the
closing portion of the series, fell into the hands of Dr. Lyon, a
clergyman who had been in charge of Swift for some years. The letters
passed to a man named Wilkes, who sold them for publication. They
accordingly appeared in 1766 in the tenth volume of Dr. Hawkesworth's
quarto edition of Swift's works; but the editor made many changes in
the text, including a suppression of most of the "little language." The
publishers, however, fortunately for us, were public-spirited enough to
give the manuscripts (with one exception) to the British Museum, where,
after many years, they were examined by John Forster, who printed in his
unfinished "Life of Swift" numerous passages from the originals, showing
the manner in which the text had been tampered with by Hawkesworth.
Swift himself, too, in his later years, obliterated many words and
sentences in the letters, and Forster was able to restore not a few of
these omissions. His zeal, however, sometimes led him to make guesses at
words which are quite undecipherable. Besides Forster's work, I have had
the benefit of the careful collation made by Mr. Ryland for his edition
of 1897. Where these authorities differ I have usually found myself in
agreement with Mr. Ryland, but I have felt justified in accepting some
of Forster's readings which were rejected by him as uncertain; and the
examination of the manuscripts has enabled me to make some additions and
corrections of my own. Swift's writing is extremely small,