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knowledged abilities and learning. But I claim no ſuch allowance; for I ſaid only what I ſtrictly and ſincerely thought. Not chooſing however to ſpeak confidently and poſitively of a matter concerning which I could not be certain, I uſed the words—"ſeems now finally ſettled." I had not then undertaken to publiſh an edition of Shakſpeare, nor regularly collated a ſingle play of that author with the authentick copies. When my admiration of his innumerable beauties led me to undertake an edition of his works, I then thought it my duty to exert every faculty to make it as perfect as I could; and in order to enſure a genuine text, to collate word by word every line of his plays and poems with the original and authentick copies; a taſk equally new and arduous. By this laborious proceſs I obtained one thousand six hundred and fifty four emendations of the text; that is, I found that the text of this author, notwithſtanding all the well-employed diligence and care of the late editors in correcting the errors of former copies, and rejecting the adulterations introduced in the ſecond folio and the ſubſequent impreſſions, ſtill remained corrupted in ſixteen hundred and fifty four places, and I corrected it accordingly; not as that word is ſometimes underſtood, by capricious innovation, or fanciful conjecture, but by the reſtora-
