Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/201

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
BOYLE'S EXAMINATION
127

much worth, as that a person of Mr Boyle's honour and learning should be used so scurvily to obtain 'em. That scorn and contempt which I have naturally for pride and insolence, makes me remember that which otherwise I might have forgot.

Believe me, Sir, to be
Your faithful Friend
and humble Servant,
William King.

Doctors Commons, Octob. 13, 1697.

The case, then, between me and Dr Bentley stands thus: there is, on the one side, Dr Bentley's single assertion in his own cause; and these several concurring accounts from persons of probity and worth, on the other. The question now is (if it be a question), which of these ought to be credited? The point to me is so clear that I dare trust the most partial friend Dr Bentley has, to determine it.

Mr Bennet and Mr Gibson, I think, are so little interested in this dispute that they may be entirely depended upon. However, Dr King is a witness without exception, and the account he gives of one