Nec scire, utrum sis albus, an ater homo:
It is not, I say, from any idle curiosity of this kind, that the cautious examiner makes this demand; but because every new circumstance stated, every new fact adduced, furnish additional materials to work with, and supply means either to corroborate or disprove the point contested. Thus, for example, if it should be said in the present instance, that this gentleman’s name is Johnson,—that he lives in the county of Derby,—that he has been possessed of these papers for several years, that his great grand-father derived them from Sempronius, from whom he purchased an estate in the year , and Sempronius from Titius, who was an Attorney that had been employed by Shakspeare, or Heminge, or Condell, in law-business, and on the death of some one of these persons without a will, got possession of them; if this or any other similar narrative should be given, then every one of these facts might be controverted, and eventually either strengthen or diminish the credit of the MSS. in question.
Persons who are not conversant with
