INTRODUCTION.



Martin Luther died on the 18th of February, 1546, and the first
publication of his "Table Talk"-Tischreden-by his friend, Johann
Goldschmid (Aurifaber), was in 1566, in a substantial folio. The
talk of Luther was arranged, according to its topics, into eighty
chapters, each with a minute index of contents. The whole work in a
complete octavo edition, published at Stuttgart and Leipzig in 1836,
occupies 1,390 closely printed pages, equivalent to 2,780 pages, or
full fourteen volumes, of this Library.

The nearest approach to a complete and ungarbled translation into
English was that of Captain Henry Bell, made in the reign of Charles
the First, under the circumstances set forth by himself; but even
that was not complete. Other English versions have subjected
Luther's opinions to serious manipulation, nothing being added, but
anything being taken away that did not chance to agree with the
editor's digestion. Even the folio of Captain Bell's translation,
from which these Selections have been printed, has been prepared for
reprint by some preceding editor, whose pen has been busy in
revision of the passages he did mean to reprint. In these
Selections every paragraph stands unabridged, exactly as it was
translated by Captain Bell; and there has been no other purpose
governing the choice of matter than a resolve to make it as true a
presentment as possible of Luther's mind and character. At least
one other volume of Selections from the Table-Talk of Martin Luther
will be given in this Library.