suspect that I could point out the place in which these precious
"folia Sibyllae" of Gray's lie interred; they would no doubt be found
among other Sibylline leaves of Mason, in two large boxes, which he left
to the care of his executors. These gentlemen, as I am informed, are so
extremely careful of them, as to have intrepidly resisted the
importunity of some lovers of literature, whose curiosity has been
aroused by the secreted treasures. It is a misfortune which has
frequently attended this sort of bequests of literary men, that they
have left their manuscripts, like their household furniture; and in
several cases we find that many legatees conceive that all manuscripts
are either to be burnt, like obsolete receipts, or to be nailed down in
a box, that they may not stir a lawsuit!

In a manuscript note of the times, I find that Sir Richard Baker, the
author of a chronicle, formerly the most popular one, died in the Fleet;
and that his son-in-law, who had all his papers, burnt them for
waste-paper; and he said that "he thought Sir Richard's life was among
them!" An autobiography of those days which we should now highly prize.

Among these mutilators of manuscripts we cannot too strongly
remonstrate with those who have the care of the works of others, and
convert them into a vehicle for their own particular purposes, even when
they run directly counter to the knowledge and opinions of the original
writer. Hard was the fate of honest Anthony Wood, when Dr. Fell
undertook to have his history of Oxford translated into Latin; the
translator, a sullen, dogged fellow, when he observed that Wood was
enraged at seeing the perpetual alterations of his copy made to please
Dr. Fell, delighted to alter it the more; while the greater executioner
supervising the printed sheets, by "correcting, altering, or dashing out
what he pleased," compelled the writer publicly to disavow his own work!
Such I have heard was the case of Bryan Edwards, who composed the first
accounts of Mungo Park. Bryan Edwards, whose personal interests were
opposed to the abolishment of the slave-trade, would not suffer any
passage to stand in which the African traveller had expressed his
conviction of its inhumanity. Park, among confidential friends,
frequently complained that his work did not only not contain his
opinions, but was even interpolated with many which he utterly
disclaimed!

Suppressed books become as rare as manuscripts. In some researches
rel