Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Select Bibliography
- Note on the Text
- The Invisible Spy
- BOOK I
- CHAP. I Introduction
- CHAP. II Contains some premises very necessary to be observed by every reader; and also an account of the Author's first Invisible visit
- CHAP. III Presents the reader with some passages which cannot fail of being entertaining to those not interested in them, and may be of service to those who are
- CHAP. IV Concludes an adventure of a very singular nature in its consequences
- CHAP. V Contains the history of a distress, which, according to the author's private opinion, is much more likely to excite laughter than commiseration
- CHAP. VI Shews, that tho' a remissness of care in the bringing up of children, can scarce fail of being attended with very bad consequences; yet that an over exact circumspection, in minute things, may sometimes prove equally pernicious to their future welfare
- CHAP. VII Will fully satisfy all the curiosity the former may have excited
- CHAP. VIII Contains a very brief account of some passages subsequent to the foregoing story, with the author's remarks upon the whole
- BOOK II
- VOL. II
- BOOK III
- BOOK IV
- VOL. III
- BOOK V
- BOOK VI
- BOOK VII
- BOOK VIII
- Editorial Notes
- Silent Corrections
CHAP. I - Introduction
from BOOK I
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Select Bibliography
- Note on the Text
- The Invisible Spy
- BOOK I
- CHAP. I Introduction
- CHAP. II Contains some premises very necessary to be observed by every reader; and also an account of the Author's first Invisible visit
- CHAP. III Presents the reader with some passages which cannot fail of being entertaining to those not interested in them, and may be of service to those who are
- CHAP. IV Concludes an adventure of a very singular nature in its consequences
- CHAP. V Contains the history of a distress, which, according to the author's private opinion, is much more likely to excite laughter than commiseration
- CHAP. VI Shews, that tho' a remissness of care in the bringing up of children, can scarce fail of being attended with very bad consequences; yet that an over exact circumspection, in minute things, may sometimes prove equally pernicious to their future welfare
- CHAP. VII Will fully satisfy all the curiosity the former may have excited
- CHAP. VIII Contains a very brief account of some passages subsequent to the foregoing story, with the author's remarks upon the whole
- BOOK II
- VOL. II
- BOOK III
- BOOK IV
- VOL. III
- BOOK V
- BOOK VI
- BOOK VII
- BOOK VIII
- Editorial Notes
- Silent Corrections
Summary
To the PUBLIC
I have observed that when a new book begins to make any noise in the world, as I am pretty certain this will do, every one is desirous of becoming acquainted with the author; and this impatience increases the more, the more he endeavours to conceal himself. – I expect to hear an hundred different names inscribed to the Invisible, – some of which I should, perhaps, be proud of, others as much ashamed to own. – Some will doubtless take me for a philosopher, – others for a fool; – with some I shall pass for a man of pleasure, – with others for a stoic; – some will look upon me as a courtier, – others as a patriot; – but whether I am any one of these, or whether I am even a man or a woman, they will find it, after all their conjectures, as difficult to discover as the longitude.
I think it therefore a duty incumbent on my good-nature to put an early stop to such fruitless inquisitions, and also at the same time to satisfy, in some measure, the curiosity of the public, by giving an account of the means by which I attained the Gift of Invisibility I possess.
Know then, gentle reader, that in the former part of my life it was my good fortune to do a signal service to a certain venerable person since dead: – he was descended from the ancient Magi of the Chaldeans, inherited their wisdom, and was well versed in all the mystic secrets of their art: – besides his gratitude for the good office I had done him, he seem'd to have found something in my humour and manner of behaviour that extremely pleased him; – he would often have me with him, and entertain'd me with discourses on things which otherwise I should not have had the least idea of.
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- The Invisible Spyby Eliza Haywood, pp. 7 - 14Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014