Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/241

Rh it. I had formerly made a promise to my worthy friend Mr. Wotton, to give him a paper of some reasons, why I thought Phalaris's Epistles supposititious, and the present Æsopean Fables not to be Æsop's own. And upon such an occasion, I was plainly obliged to speak of that calumny: for my silence would have been interpreted as good as a confession: especially considering with what industrious malice the false story had been spread all over England; for as it's generally practised, they thought one act of injustice was to be supported and justified by doing many more.

The gentleman is pleased to insinuate, that all this is pure fiction; and that I writ that dissertation out of revenge, and purely for an occasion of telling the story: the very contrary of which is true; for I was unwilling to meddle in that dissertation, because I should be necessitated to give an account of that story: as it will plainly appear from Mr Wotton's own testimony, which I have by me under his hand:

I do declare, that in the year 1694, when my Discourse about Ancient and Modern Learning was