With
regard
to
the
fourth
section,
which
I
have
called
Liher
Positionum,
I
had
no
external
evidence
of
Eckhart’s
authorship,
but
Eckhart’s
genius
and
characteristic
outlook
seem
to
me
to
be
unmistakably
shown
in
these
arguments
in
which,
in
the
form
of
dialogues
between
master
and
pupil,
a
series
of
weighty
philo-
sophical
and
theological
questions
are
ventilated.
Further,
the
separate
items
of
this
work
which
only
loosely
hang
together,
I
have
met
with
only
among
Eckhart’s
writings.
The
title
I
have
borrowed
from
Trithemius’
Catalogue
(see
above)
;
it
might
have
been
made
for
it.
Obviously
my
text
is
not
all
of
equal
value
and
correctness
;
who
could
expect
it
?
With
the
numerous
pieces
preserved
only
in
late
and
bad
MSS.
it
was
often
impossible
owing
to
the
careless-
ness
of
the
scribe
to
unravel
the
manifold
confusion
of
thought
and
connection
;
how
was
I
to
restore
and
supply
words
and
whole
sentences
which
had
been
omitted
?
I
mean
to
comment
in
the
Notes
on
the
passages
which
seem
to
me
to
be
corrupt
and
give
the
emendations
and
conjectures
which
I
have
found
it
inexpedient
to
publish
with
the
text.
Of
another
kind
but
no
less
great
was
my
didiculty
with
those
passages
which
certainly
appeared
in
the
best
MSS.
but
showed
considerable
variations
among
themselves.
How
important
these
discrepancies
often
are
the
variants
will
show.
In
cases
of
this
sort
the
recognition
and
isolation
of
the
authentic*
from
the
unauthentic
later
additions
or
distortions
is
rarely
to
be
done
with
any
certainty
and
for
that
reason
I
have
sometimes
adopted
the
expedient
of
putting
the
variants
themselves
in
juxtaposition
in
the
text.^
As
to
the
diction
of
the
contents
of
this
volume,
which
I
have
neither
wished
nor
been
able
to
give
much
order
to,
I
have
followed
the
oldest
and
best
MSS.
which,
consistently
with
Eckhart’s
home
and
birthplace,
Strassburg,
are
written
almost
entirely
in
the
Alcmanic
idiom
:
Middle
German
and
the
speech
of
Cologne
do
appear
occasionally
but
notwithstanding
Eckhart’s
long
sojourn
on
the
lower
Rhine,
only
rarely
and
in
late
MSS.
Stuttgart,
^th
July
1857.
The
last
two
pages
of
Pfeiffer’s
Preface
arc
occupied
with
acknow-
ledgments
of
the
help
and
kindness
received
from
professors,
librarians,
keepers
of
archives,
etc.
Among
these
appear
the
names
of
Wackernagel,
P.
Gall-Morel,
Franz
Hoffmann,
and
the
Cardinal
Prince-Bishop
of
Breslau,
Melchior
von
Diepenbrock,
^
Many
examples
of
this
occur.
See
especially
I,
Ixxvi
and
II,
xi.
