Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/193



[pp. 2–10]

four or five years ago, the worthy Dean of Christ Church, Dr Aldrich, of whose College I was then a member, desired me to undertake an edition of Phalaris. I could deny him nothing to whom I owed so much, and therefore, as unfit as I thought myself for such a task, I undertook it. In order to it, a manuscript Phalaris in the King's Library was to be consulted. It was of no age or worth, I heard, being written but just before the Restoration of Letters; however, it was a manuscript, and therefore not to be neglected, especially since we had no ancient copies, either in England or anywhere else, that I could hear of.