Page:The Life and Works of Christopher Dock.djvu/24

16 Saur found the manuscript in a place where he and his employees had thoroughly searched and it was at once published in the form in which it is herein reproduced.

The demand for the pamphlet was so great that a second edition was printed in the same year — 1770. A copy of this second edition is in the Library of the German Society of Philadelphia and the title page is reproduced herewith. The copy of the first edition from which the reproduction in this volume was made is in the library of the writer.

The German Mennonites of Ohio, in 1861, reprinted the second edition at the office of their church paper, “The Gospel Visitor,” at Columbia in that State. Governor Pennypacker records in his “Historical and Biographical Sketches” the following interesting incident attending the publication of this third edition in the German language: “A careless printer, who was setting type by candle light, knocked over his candle, and burned up one of the leaves of the original. The work was stopped because the committee having the matter in charge could find no other copy. Finally, in despair, they wrote to Mr. A. H. Cassel, of Harleysville, Pa., who, without hesitation, took the needed leaf from his copy and sent it to them by mail. Mirabile dictu! It was scrupulously cared for and speedily returned. It is difficult to determine which is the more admirable, the confiding simplicity of a book lover who willingly ran such a risk of making his own copy imperfect, or the Roman integrity which, being once in the possession of the