Bibliographic Note
The Vanity of Dogmatizing, the first work of Joseph Glanvill to
be printed, was published in 1661. It probably appeared around March
of that year since the dedicatory epistle, which also gives some
account of its composition, is dated March 1, 1660. (In those days
the year began on 25th March; so 1 March 1660 by Glanvill's reckoning
is 1 March 1661 by ours.)
The second edition is entitled Scepsis scientifica: or, Confest
ignorance the way to science . . . (&c.), and is dated 1665, though
it was presented to the Royal Society in December 1664.
The two editions are much the same except for some
rearrangements, minor stylistic changes, and slight omissions and
additions. Of these omissions, the one of most general interest is
the story on which Matthew Arnold based his Scholar-Gypsy. The
second edition does not contain the dedicatory epistle addressed to
Joseph Mynard, the Preface to the reader (a part of which, however,
was recast to form chapter III of the Scepsis), or the three
commendatory verses. In place of these the Scepsis Scientifica
contains the long dedicatory epistle addressed to the Royal Society.
Following the main treatise in the Scepsis scientifica there is
added a reply to Thomas White's Sciri, sine sceptices & scepticorum
a jure disputations exclusio (1663), which had attacked The Vanity
of Dogmatizing.
The final version of The Vanity of Dogmatizing is that in
Glanvill's Essays on Several Important Subjects in Philosophy and
Religion (1676). The first essay in this volume, Against confidence
in philosophy, and matters of speculation, is in the main a reprint
of the principal discourse as it appeared in the Scepsis
Scientifica, with further omissions and slight rearrangements. The
essay begins with the third chapter of The Vanity of Dogmatizing
(the fourth of the Scepsis Scientifica), the dropping of these
preliminary chapters being the only alteration in material of any
consequence. Of decided importance, however, are the stylistic
changes, which are complete and thoroughgoing.
This edition has been created by combining the full text of the
second edition (taken from an 1885 reprint by Kegan Paul, Trench &
Co.) with the dedicatory epistle, introduction, three poetical
testimonials and the story of the Scholar-Gypsy, in the first
edition (taken from a facsimile published by the Facsimile Text
Society, 1931). The spelling has been modernized.
The Dedicatory Epistle
To the reverend my ever honoured friend, Mr. JOSEPH MYNARD,
