1*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 2*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "+//ISBN 0-9673008-1-9//DTD OEB 1.0 Document//EN" 3*46439007SCharles.Forsyth "http://openebook.org/dtds/oeb-1.0/oebdoc1.dtd"> 4*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<html> 5*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<head> 6*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/x-oeb1-document; charset=utf-8" /> 7*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/x-oeb1-css" href="devil.css" /> 8*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<title>The Devil’s Dictionary: Preface</title> 9*46439007SCharles.Forsyth</head> 10*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<body lang="en-us"> 11*46439007SCharles.Forsyth 12*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<h1>Preface</h1> 13*46439007SCharles.Forsyth 14*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<p class="firstpara"><i>The Devil’s Dictionary</i> 15*46439007SCharles.Forsythwas begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and was continued in a desultory way at 16*46439007SCharles.Forsythlong intervals until 1906. In that year a large part of it was published in 17*46439007SCharles.Forsythcovers with the title <i>The Cynic’s Word Book</i>, 18*46439007SCharles.Forsytha name which the author had not the power to reject or happiness to approve. To 19*46439007SCharles.Forsythquote the publishers of the present work:</p> 20*46439007SCharles.Forsyth 21*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<p class="indentpara">“This more reverent title had previously been forced upon him by the religious scruples of 22*46439007SCharles.Forsyththe last newspaper in which a part of the work had appeared, with the natural 23*46439007SCharles.Forsythconsequence that when it came out in covers the country already had been 24*46439007SCharles.Forsythflooded by its imitators with a score of ‘cynic’ books—<i>The Cynic’s This</i>, <i>The Cynic’s That</i>, 25*46439007SCharles.Forsythand <i>The Cynic’s t’Other</i>. Most of these books 26*46439007SCharles.Forsythwere merely stupid, though some of them added the distinction of silliness. 27*46439007SCharles.ForsythAmong them, they brought the word ‘cynic’ into disfavor so deep that any book 28*46439007SCharles.Forsythbearing it was discredited in advance of publication.”</p> 29*46439007SCharles.Forsyth 30*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<p class="indentpara">Meantime, too, some of the enterprising humorists of the country had helped themselves to such 31*46439007SCharles.Forsythparts of the work as served their needs, and many of its definitions, 32*46439007SCharles.Forsythanecdotes, phrases and so forth, had become more or less current in popular 33*46439007SCharles.Forsythspeech. This explanation is made, not with any pride of priority in trifles, 34*46439007SCharles.Forsythbut in simple denial of possible charges of plagiarism, which is no trifle. In 35*46439007SCharles.Forsythmerely resuming his own the author hopes to be held guiltless by those to whom 36*46439007SCharles.Forsyththe work is addressed—enlightened souls who prefer dry wines to sweet, sense to 37*46439007SCharles.Forsythsentiment, wit to humor and clean English to slang.</p> 38*46439007SCharles.Forsyth 39*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<p class="indentpara">A conspicuous, and it is hope not unpleasant, feature of the book is its abundant illustrative 40*46439007SCharles.Forsythquotations from eminent poets, chief of whom is that learned and ingenius 41*46439007SCharles.Forsythcleric, Father Gassalasca Jape, S.J., whose lines bear his initials. To Father 42*46439007SCharles.ForsythJape’s kindly encouragement and assistance the author of the prose text is 43*46439007SCharles.Forsythgreatly indebted.</p> 44*46439007SCharles.Forsyth 45*46439007SCharles.Forsyth<p style="text-align: right">A. B.</p> 46*46439007SCharles.Forsyth 47*46439007SCharles.Forsyth</body> 48*46439007SCharles.Forsyth</html>