Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/259

Rh the reason why I then demanded the book, was my journey into the country. I was to make so long a stay there that it was not fit to expose the book all that while to the hazard of being lost. I told the bookseller then that I was to be absent for two months: but it appears now upon record, that I was four months at Worcester. And how many accidents might have happened in that time? Should I, who was under a trust, and accountable to God and man, run such a risk without any warrant? The Editor and his witnesses may calumniate as they please; but I wish I could as well justify my lending the MS. out, as my calling it in.

The bookseller concludes that I made some reflections from time to time, when he spoke to me from Mr B. but, considering his employment, it may not be proper to add an account of them. So that he puts off that piece of work to one Dr King, of the Commons, as the Examiner styles him. Now, what he means by "reflections," or what harm there is in "making reflections," I do not understand. A great person, one of the Examiner's family, made a whole book of "Reflections," and I never yet heard it was counted a