4 June 1803

Evidence

Best

3 Original with transcript

11.

3 as between original

and transcriptions

written evidence

3. Comparison the third: Original with transcriptious evidence.

The /Of the/ superiority of the former there can be neither dispute nor doubt /is altogether out of doubt/. In the case of transcriptitious evidence the maximum /highest pitch/ of ideal perfection would be /is/ equality with respect to the original: and to this /at this absolutely/ highest pitch it can seldom be thought /will seldom happen to it/ to stand in the opinion of a Judge. Intentional and Fraudulent intention on the part of a transcriber will always present a possible cause of departure: unintentional incorrectness, the result of human infirmity, presents such a cause, the efficiency of which as can not in any ordinary instance be regarded as being in a considerable degree improbable. By successive revisals or even by a single the security may be carried to a degree sufficient for practice even in the most important cases: but mathematically and strictly speaking absolute equality with the original is a limit towards which a transcript may be ever rising higher and higher, but up to which it can never rise.