Nodige bedenkingen op de niewe beweegingen, onlangs verwekt door den circulairen brief en andere middelen, tegen den auteur van 't boek de betoverde weereld

money; and thus prevent it from coming to light until it should seem to my fellow brothers (two of whom had spoken to me about it then) to be so fashioned that it could fulfill my own aim, which was to edify. Since I saw no way to do that (after having first understood everyone's judgment), it was sincerely my intention to keep it for myself, and above all my labor, to also suffer that financial loss. But the bookseller refused me; setting conditions which I could not in good conscience fulfill; of which I can show proof if it is required. Thus I could not prevent the Book, as it was printed by him in octavo a book size resulting from folding a sheet into eight leaves, up to 750 copies (he had not prepared more than that), from coming out in the meantime, and everyone saying their bit about it; some good and others bad. In the Preface I have also already said for what reason I had it printed here, which was the same that moved me previously to withdraw the printing from Leeuwarden a city in the northern Netherlands. Those 750 copies being too many to take the Book out of people's hands or to prevent reprinting; and too few to inform the world everywhere of the true contents, through which they might get a better opinion of it: so a second printing was necessary; especially to remedy in the best way what might have been offensive in the first. Therefore I have busied myself to learn through all ways what one person or another found to say against it: to improve it if necessary; or if it could be useful, to explain it somewhat more clearly. I added a register of those changes to the end of the first printing in quarto a book size resulting from folding a sheet into four leaves: but later, when that increase became too large and frequent during the reprinting, I left it out again so as not to cause confusion. For the buyers increased so greatly every day that the printer, even without my knowledge, began to print it once more from the beginning before the end of the first time could be printed; seeing that he had prepared too little for it: because he could not think that a book which had already been printed once, and that so recently, about which people spoke so much ill, would be so desirable