In a copy of Burnet's _Telluris Theoria Sacra_ (in Latin),
containing only the two first books (1 vol. 4to., Lond. 1689), there
is the following entry in Bishop Jebb's hand-writing:--
"From the internal evidence, not only of additional matter
in the margin of this copy, but of frequent erasures and
substitutions, I was led to suppose it was the author's copy,
illustrated by his own annotations and improvements. The
supposition is, perhaps, sufficiently corroborated by the
following extract from the _Biographia Britannica_,
vol. iii. p. 18.
"'It seems it was usual with Dr. Burnet, before he published
any thing in Latin, to have two or three copies, and no more,
printed off, which he kept by him for some time, in order to
revise at leisure what he had written _currente calamo_,
and sometimes, when he thought proper, to be communicated to
his particular friends for their opinions, &c.'
"This copy, as it does not differ from any of the editions of
1689, was certainly not one of those _proofs_. But the
Doctor's habit of annotating on his own Latin books after they
were printed, renders it extremely probable that this book was
a preparation for a new edition. It would be well to compare it
with the English translation."
The nature of many of the corrections and additions (which are very
numerous), evidently shows a preparation for the press. I have
compared this copy with the English edition, published in the same
year, and find that some of the {228}corrections were adopted; this,
however, but in a few instances, while in one, to be mentioned
presently, a palpable mistake, corrected in the MS. Latin notes,
stands in the translation. The English version differs very
materially from the Latin. The author says in his Preface:--
"This English version is the same in substance with the
Latin, though I confess, 'tis not so properly a translation,
as a new composition upon the same ground, there being
several additional chapters in it, and several new moulded."
The following are examples of corrections being adopted: P. 6. Latin
ed. "Quod abunde probabitur in principio libri secundi." For the
last word _subsequentis_ is substituted, and the English has
_following_. P. 35. "Hippolitus" is added to the authorities in
the MS.; and in the English, p. 36., "Anastasius Sinaiti, S.
Gaudentius, Q. Julius Hilarius, Isidorus Hispalensis, and
Cassiodorus," are inserted after Lactantius, in both. P. 37.
"Johannes Damascenus" is added after St. Augustin in both. P. 180. a
clause is added which seems to have suggested the sentence
beginning, "Thus we have discharged our promise," &c. But, on the
other hand, in p. 8. the allusion to the "Orphics," which is struck
out in the Latin, is retained in the English; and in the latter
there is no notice taken of "Empedocles," which is inserted in the
margin of the Latin. In p. 11. "Ratio naturalis" is personified, and
governs the verb _vidit_, which is repeated several times. This
is changed by the corrector into vidimus; but in the English
passage, though varying much from the Latin, the personification is
retained. In p. 58., "Dion Cassius" is corrected to "Xiphilinus;"
but the mistake is preserved in the English version.