Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/196

122 I meant to give him satisfaction as publicly as I had injured him. Here the matter rested, and I thought Dr Bentley was satisfied, especially since I found Mr Bennet persisted in his account, and supported it with further proofs, and the Doctor seemed willing to let the dispute drop, by his not writing to me any further about it, or discoursing Mr Bennet concerning it, to whom my letter plainly referred him. In this mistake was I for two years and a half after the edition of Phalaris; till at last Dr Bentley's Dissertation came out, and convinced me that he had had vengeance in his heart all the time, and suspended his blow only till he could strike, as he thought, to purpose. In this angry discourse of his, he tells the world the same story, bating a circumstance or two which he has altered, that he had told me before in his letter

Startled at these assertions thus revived after a long silence, and improved in print, I examined Mr Bennet again very strictly and particularly. He assured me that every word he had writ to me upon this occasion was punctually true, and that Dr Bentley's account, where it differed from his, was entirely false. He