ABSTRACT
BP 37, fols. 170–84. The manuscript is in Boyle’s own youthful hand, with original pagination. Fols. 171–2 are misbound, and should come at the end. Whereas the remainder of the text is evidently a fair copy, these represent the residue of an earlier recension, in smaller format. At the point of transition from the fair copy to the earlier draft, there is a brief repetition of the text, and the two versions are not quite identical. However, the decision to effect the transition from one version to the other in this way was apparently Boyle’s own, since the original pagination of the manuscript continues to include these leaves. The text ends part of the way down a page, so it may never have been completed. All blanks in the text are Boyle’s own. Throughout the text, Boyle repeatedly leaves a choice of phrasing, either by giving two versions each enclosed by soliduses (or, in some cases, one version followed by a blank), or by adding an alternative above the line without deleting the original word or phrase. The former have been reproduced in the text exactly as in the original (it should be noted that these soliduses are Boyle’s, in contrast to the editorial ones used — here as throughout this volume — to indicate the foliation of the manuscript); the latter have been recorded in endnotes, using the formula ‘duplicated by’ to denote the word inserted above the line. In the manuscript, the first word on each page is sometimes capitalised, whereas in the catchword it is not; for this reason, these capitals have here been ignored. There is some variation in ink and handwriting, suggesting that the manuscript was completed in stages. On the background to the work, see above, pp. xv–>xxi; on the history of the manuscript, see p. lix; on previous editions, see p. xii.
