Page:Arcana Coelestia (Potts) vol 1.djvu/8

iv The first complete American edition was published in Boston in the years 1837 to 1847, in twelve volumes octavo; and was a revision made on the basis of the translation of Clowes and his revisers. The first four volumes of this edition were issued by the "Boston Printing Society," and the rest of the volumes by private persons.

The second American edition was published in New York in ten volumes in the years 1853 to 1857, by "The American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society," being a reprint of the current English edition.

The third American (or "Rotch") edition is now in course of publication in 12mo. Fifteen volumes have already been issued, and four more have yet to appear. The first nine volumes were published in New York with the imprint of the "New Church Board of Publication," and the remainder are being issued in Boston with that of the "Massachusetts New Church Union." The whole of the plates have been prepared at the cost of the Rotch legacy. The work was undertaken at the suggestion of the Rev. John Worcester, and wholly under his direction. A set of rules was prepared for the guidance of the various workers, and volumes were assigned to them for revision (or retranslation if they so chose to make it) on the basis of the old Boston Revision, but with the understanding that the whole would be revised and harmonized by the Director, as editor, with the assistance of his brother, Mr. Benjamin Worcester. Up to the present time the revision or retranslation has been the work chiefly of the Rev. Samuel Mills Warren, the Rev. Samuel Howard Worcester, the Rev. Samuel C. Eby, Mr. A. L. Kip, the Rev. Theodore F. Wright, Ph.D., and the Rev. Horace W. Wright; but as the work of these gentlemen has been subjected by the two editors to most careful and uncompromising revision, they cannot fairly be held responsible for everything that exists in the several volumes or portions of volumes labored on by them. The death of the Director occurred during the preparation for the press of the thirteenth volume; since which time the direction of the work has been continued in the hands of the surviving editor, Mr. Benjamin Worcester. Although under the circumstances it was perhaps inevitable that the work should display consider-