Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/257

Rh time that the MS. was in his hands. I say, "five or six days"; the bookseller says, "a few"; Mr Boyle, "not nine." By the shortest account it now appears, as I said before, that he had more days to compare it in, than he needed to have hours. And how did he spend the last afternoon, which was more than sufficient to do the whole work in? Whether he undertook it for a reward, or out of kindness, the Editor was not very much obliged to him.

The bookseller adds further that I utterly refused to leave the MS. with him beyond Saturday, though he begged but to have it till Sunday morning, and engaged to oblige the collator to sit up at it all Saturday night. How false and silly this is, the sagacious readers must needs see and acknowledge. This was spoken on Saturday at noon, by the bookseller's own confession. And he had then free leave to keep it, and did keep it till the evening. And the whole collation was but the work of four hours, as I have proved by experiment. And yet he has the face to tell the world that he would engage the collator to sit up all night to finish it: when the whole might be done from the beginning to the end,