Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/200

126 without them. But he presently returned, and told me that the gentleman that owned them stayed at their shop for them, and could not spare them any longer. This is the true reason why I could collate no more of the abovesaid Epistles.

Witness my hand,

July 15, 1697.

,

I am bound in justice to answer your request by endeavouring, as far as I can, to recollect what passed between Mr Bennet and Dr Bentley concerning a MS. of the Epistles of Phalaris. I cannot be certain as to any other particulars than that, among other things, the Doctor said that if the MS. were collated it would be worth nothing for the future; which I took the more notice of, because I thought a MS. good for nothing, unless it were collated. The whole discourse was managed with such insolence, that after he was gone, I told Mr Bennet that he ought to send Mr Boyle word of it; that for my own part (I said then, what I think still) I did not believe that the various readings of any book were so