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accompanied with his Excellency Spanhemius; hand in hand with whose collection the Doctor's collection appears, and in multiplied instances concurs. All which, notwithstanding, after all this industry and leisure, so employed as is before described, and upon a design so long since formed: this self same Dr. Bentley is a notorious plagiary. But how so? why, because Mr. Stanley also had fallen upon the same design of collecting the fragments of Callimachus, and had made some little beginnings in the work, an imperfect draught of which is still preserved: and this imperfect draught of Mr. Stanley's collections, the Doctor had the misfortune to have put into his hands; and in this imperfect draught there are (in a considerable number of instances) the same quotations, and (in some very few) the same corrections as are in the Doctor's more finished piece. Building upon this, you conclude your work is done, and to place the matter beyond dispute, invite the reader to Mr. Bennet's shop, in St. Paul's Church-yard, (p. 32.) where he will see the self same words and syllables in Mr. Stanley's manuscript, as in Dr. Bentley's printed collection. (p. 76.) This seems so fair an appeal that the unwary reader is presently taken with it. For what farther satisfaction would one desire in such a case than ocular demonstration? What fuller conviction than so apparent matter of fact? All which notwithstanding, I shall not scruple to pronounce that reader very thoughtless upon whom this way of arguing shall pass for demonstration. For both Mr. Stanley and the Doctor having fallen upon the same thought of collecting the fragments of Callimachus, that there should be some of the same quotations in the one as in the other is so far from being a convictive evidence of the latter having transcribed them from the former, that the nature of the thing renders it impossible to have been otherwise: unless we must suppose some strange chance so to have divided the course of their reading, that they should not so much as have dipped into the same books. For if they both read the same authors, and both with a design of collecting the same fragments; it is impossible but that so far as from the time of their having entered upon that design, they kept pace with each other in the course of the reading, they must also (allowing for here and there an oversight) have transferred into their collections the same quotations. And had Mr. Stanley carried on his work farther, Dr. Bentley's collection must also of necessity, without his ever having seen Mr. Stanley's, have fallen in with it oftener than now it doth, and his some additions, as you call them, have been proportionably fewer than they now are. So that (to remind you of the state of the question) to make good your accusation of plagiarism against Dr. Bentley upon the account of Mr. Stanley's MS. one of these two points ought to have been more particularly insisted upon; either that Mr. Stanley's collection was a very complete one, those some additions of the Doctor's being but few and inconsiderable in comparison of what he is supposed to have found readily collected to his hands by Mr. Stanley; the direct contrary to which is the truth the case: Or else, that those other some quotations, which you charge upon him as borrow'd from Mr. Stanley, were such chosen pieces, and lying so much out of the way of the Doctor's reading, that NO. XVIII. VOL. IX.

Cl. Jl.

2 A

he would certainly have missed of them, had he not found them in your MS. of which I say the same as of the former; the citations of Mr. Stanley's MS. being the most easily come at of any in the whole set; and lying so full in the Doctor's daily walks, that he could not but have stumbled upon them, even whether he would or no. And yet you run on from the beginning to the end upon your wild and groundless supposition, which you take for granted, without offering one syllable in proof of it, (Sup. p. 5.) that the Doctor had never met with those citations any where else, or never observed them till he lit upon them in your MS. This is that grand supposition which supports all your proofs: which therefore, when upon a review of the Concessions before laid down, you shall see so miserably betrayed, you will find cause to blame your own incircumspection, and wish you had been more sparing of your compliments.

And now, Sir, as for the promise which I made you of a comparison between your Concessions and your Assertions; I think I may save myself that labour, and leave it to the reader, from what hath been already said to collect how far those liberal encomiums bestowed upon the Doctor for his industry, and the several other peculiarities of his character, so happily qualifying him for undertakings of this nature, will go to discharge him of the foul imputation of plagiarism; and how inconsistent the one part of the character you give us of him is with the other part of it.

"Tis not for that the necessity of the cause requires this precaution and exactness, that I am thus grave, and (if I may so say) mathematical in making my approaches to the argument, but out of the respect I bear to your person, whom, being altogether unknown to me, I would not willingly affront; which construction might be made of it, should I answer your suggestions in so slight and superficial a manner, as if they did not deserve a more thorough consideration. And besides, those so emphatic terms in which you press on your accusation upon the Doctor, will plead my excuse, if I be at more pains than otherwise could have been judged necessary to bestow upon it so serious and operose a reply. Undeniable proof, ocular demonstration, matter of fact, manifest conviction: these, sure, are too weighty things to be passed over with a loose harangue. The nature of your evidence in general, I think, hath been already sufficiently considered. I proceed now in due form and manner to lay in (which was the next thing proposed) my Exceptions against your Proofs in particular. All your allegations therefore against the Doctor I admit to pass for good evidence, or (if you will have it so) undeniable Proofs; those only which fall under these Exceptions following, excepted.

EXCEPTION 1.

The several passages taken out of the old lexicographers and scholiasts (Supr. p. 8. & seq.): with whom the Doctor being so familiarly acquainted, cannot be supposed to have overlooked those quotations with which those authors must needs have supply'd him.

EXCEPTION 2.

The passages marked out in the indexes of books. For the Doctor

being presumed to be so well versed in indexes, cannot be presumed, when he was upon collecting the fragments of Callimachus, to have been at a loss for such of them, as those indexes would most readily have directed him to.

EXCEPTION 3.

The several fragments or testimonia relating to Callimachus extant in Vulcanius and Dacier's editions of that author. (Antw. 1584, 12mo. Paris, 1675, 4to.) For the passages there extant the Doctor, whose practice it is to consult the several editions of books, must needs have seen which yet make up a considerable part of the instances you produce against him, as proofs of his plagiarism from your MS.

EXCEPTION 4.

Those Quotations which the Doctor had actually printed before ever he saw your MS. (In Ep. ad fin. Malel.) or which are taken from authors with whom it plainly appears he was before then very familiarly acquainted.

EXCEPTION 5.

Those citations or corrections in which Mr. Stanley's Collection, Mr. Spanheim's, and the Doctor's concur. For if Mr. Spanheim could without the help of your MS. light upon many of the same things which are in your MS. why might not Dr. Bentley do the like? unless we must suppose the Doctor to have been less diligent in searching after the fragments of Callimachus, or less curious in correcting the failures of others: which both your own words, and the plain matter of fact (as will appear to any one that shall compare the Doctor's collection with any of the other collections printed together with his) manifestly confute.

EXCEPTION 6.

Such passages which are not to be met with in any book whatsoever, whether printed or MS. save only in Mr. Stanley's collection. For the Doctor taking such delight in quotation, having been so long upon this collecting design, treasuring up his collections into common-place, being presumed to have read all authors in critic, spending his time in turning over old MSS. and fetching his quotations out of the odd corners of books, where scarce any body else would look for them: I cannot imagine what one of all your proofs may be presumed to have escaped so diligent a search; unless produced out of some such books, whether printed or MS. which the Doctor never had the possibility of seeing.

EXCEPTION 7.

And lastly, I except also out of the number of proofs those few corrections in which Mr. Stanley's manuscript collection, and the Doctor's printed one concur, though not to be shewn in any book in the world, saving in those two. For the Doctor having been so critically exact in correcting the fragments of Callimachus, and having proved the exactness of his judgment upon so many difficult places untouch'd by Mr. Stanley, he cannot reasonably be presumed to have

overlooked those other so manifestly corrupt lexicons which no man that understood any thing belonging to Callimachus, could have passed by unobserved (as that of Aixdλan for 'Exáλy, n. 52. v. Spanhemii fragm. p. 278.); nay, which any schoolboy that had but grammar enough to scan a Greek verse, would have rectified (as that of dévdgov for devopeo, n. 49.). And of this kind are most (if not all) of those corrections, which you charge upon him as stolen from Mr. Stanley. Though both Mr. Stanley's and Dr. Bentley's talent at these stort of studies being well known, it had been no such strange jumping of wits, if they had in more instances of this kind hit upon the same conjectures which yet they have so rarely done (and then only in places of the most obvious emendation) that there was no need of laying in this caveat.

And thus much for the Exceptions I had to make against your Proofs, all of them founded upon your own Concessions; which you cannot in honour retract: though indeed you have given little more than what I might honestly have assumed for the Doctor without becoming your debtor. But since you were so over and above obliging, I was willing to close in with you upon your own terms. Especially most of those things being delivered with such a peculiar gracefulness and decency of style, which my unpractised pen could never have attained to. Nor can you now say, that I have any-where abused or misrepresented you, having all along recited your own words and syllables, put no forc'd interpretation upon them; nor charged them with consequences which they do not naturally bear. And 'tis but agreeable to the law of arms, if one can make ones self master of the enemy's artillery, to turn it upon themselves and if your testimonies for the Doctor must be of no weight, 'tis a most unequitable demand that your testimonies against him should be of greater. So that till you can produce some such proofs as will not fall under some or other of these Exceptions, the Doctor may still be, for all his having seen your MS. as free from the crime of plagiarism as the man that never saw it.

There are some sorts of transactions, wherein the preliminaries rightly adjusted, the whole affair is soon brought to a conclusion: of which kind I take to be our present controversy. The reader, who understands any thing of the nature of the subject we are upon, cannot but by this time begin to perceive how the case stands between the Doctor and your MS. and where things are like to end. I must however, were it only for form sake, enter into the detail of particulars, which I shall do in this method.

First, I shall take some decads of your proofs just in order as they lie, and try them by the rules before given, subjoining to them at convenient distances, some proper remarks, which added to those general observations already made, you will have no cause to think yourself neglected, or complain that I have done my work but by halves. Aud by that I shall have taken this course with three or four decads of your proofs (for they are a great number of them in all) I shall presume upon it, that both you and my reader will be well enough content I should hold my hand, and dispatch the rest of them by wholesale. To place

things under an easy view to the eye, I must make use of two of the letters of the alphabet, the one to represent (as as it were) the Plaintiff, and head the allegations, the other to represent the Defendant, and father the replications. The former shall be V. standing for Vindicator, the other from its order in the alphabet, W.

The first Decad of Proofs.

V. The citation out of Harpocration, "Axrix dywv nai rà i§-as in Dr. Bentley, p. 305. n. 1. (Proof 1.)

W. And as in Mr. Spanheim, p. 293. n. 11. Exception 5. Harpocration is a lexicographer. Exception 1. "Tis marked out in the index to Harpocration. Exception 2. (L. B. 1683, 4to.)

V. The same citation out of Suidas, ibid. (Pr. 2.)

W. With Suidas the Doctor is very conversant. Concession 3. Exception 1.

V. An epigram out of Martial, n. 2. (Pr. 3.)

W. In Dacier's Callimachus inter Testimonia Veterum, Exc. 3.
V. The citation out of Clemens Alexandrinus, n. 2. (Pr. 4.)

W. Index to Clem. Alex. Exc. 2.

V. Another of the same, n. 3. (Pr. 5.)

W. Index again.

V. Two citations out of Didymus upon Homer, n. 5, 6. (Pr. 6, 7.) W. Not Proofs.

V. A quotation out of Servius upon Virgil, n. 7. (Pr. 8.)

W. Index to Servius upon Virgil, Exc. 2. (4to. 1648.)

V. Another of the same, n. 8. (Pr. 9.)

W. Index again.

V. A citation out of Stobæus, n. 11. (Pr. 10.)

W. Index again, Exc. 2. in Vulcanius his Callimachus, p. 138. or in Dacier's p. 152. Exc. 3.

AN INQUIRY INTO THE

VERSIFICATION OF HOMER,

AND

THE USE OF THE DIGAMMA

IN HIS POEMS.

THE subject of the following discussion was undertaken with a view of unfolding the laws of Homer's versification, and of examining the validity of certain theories respecting the use of the Æolic Digamma in his Poems. When my attention was more particularly turned to this subject, in consequence of an examination of the other metres used by the Greeks, I was very much

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