PREFACE. 195 



on the subject that can be extracted from Gruter s 

 volume. 



The duty of transcriber Gruter appears to have per 

 formed tolerably well ; there are but a few places in 

 which the text is manifestly corrupt ; but since he has 

 attempted nothing more, it is to be regretted that he 

 has left us without any information as to the fate of 

 the original manuscripts ; not one of which, I believe, 

 is known to be in existence. There is not one of them 

 which would not be well worth examining, if it could 

 be found ; not only for the correction of the text, but 

 because some interesting questions as to date might 

 possibly be cleared up by help of the interlineations 

 and alterations. 



Another question well worth asking is, what became 

 of those moral and political pieces which Gruter had 

 received from Boswell, and had by him in 1653, and 

 intended to publish ? I cannot hear that he ever 

 did publish anything answering the description ; and 

 unless lie transferred them to* Dr. Rawley to be in 

 cluded in the Opuscula (1658), which does contain 

 a few things of the kind, they remain to be ac 

 counted for. 



The unpublished English pieces, of which he an 

 nounces his intention to bring out a Latin trans 

 lation (an intention which I cannot learn that he 

 ever fulfilled), may have been only copies of those 

 which were published by Dr. Rawley in 1657. These 

 were afterwards translated into Latin by S. J. Ar 

 nold, and included (see Acta Eruditorum, vol. xiii. 

 anno 1694, p. 400.) in an edition of Bacon s Op 

 era Omnia which was published at Leipsic in that 

 year. 



