unknown when it was carried out, is such an idea as no sane man could entertain for a moment. The friends of Simonides had better get out of the matter as soon and as decently as they With regard to himself we imagine he is past recovery, and what is more, can henceforth not expect to be listened to, even when he speaks the truth. At one time we fell in with the opinion that it was a monomania, a strange hallucination, but after what he has said and written, and after a close and long examination of the work we think so no longer. can. Our attention has been turned more especially to the New Testament, the peculiarities of which, both as to its writing and its text, we have tried to ascertain. In addition to the remarks we have already made, we have sundry miscellaneous observations to offer. We notice that some of the letters of the text are of different types. Such are the differences of aspect presented by the Codex, that it becomes highly probable, as Dr. Tischendorf says, that it was not all written by one scribe, but by three or four. These scribes may have been "professional caligraphers" to whom separate portions were assigned in order to secure the completion of the undertaking within a reasonable time. It is well known that the production of large and elaborate MSS. was a slow and tedious process, and one which often occupied years. Every letter had to be painted, rather than written, and the minute accuracy required forbids the idea of hasty production. Not only are there such variations as we have named, affecting the formation of particular letters, and the aspect of the whole; there are noticeable peculiarities in regard to certain letters in particular positions. Every one is aware that towards the end of a line some letters are often much smaller than others; and it is so here. This is not what we mean. We refer to certain letters of the alphabet, as mu and omega, which vary in a most remarkable manner. Towards the end of a line they not unfrequently belong to quite a different type. For instance the mu, instead of being like our capital M, is frequently made almost exactly as in the Dublin Codex; and the omega is often made in quite an exceptional manner. Other variations occur, uniformly at or near the end of lines, or in titles and notes, suggesting at first that they must have been originally omitted and subsequently added. The dissimilar portions are, however, in many cases so joined on to the text, that after all, it seems likely they must in such cases be from the hand of the original writer. It will be for expert palæographers to determine whether the forms to which we allude do not possibly suggest a later date for the Codex than is assigned by Dr. Tischendorf. These exceptional forms of letters, we repeat, also occur out of the text in inscriptions, subscriptions, and additions. Another speciality which will have to be considered is the contractions or monograms which are to be found in certain positions, and so far as we can ascertain, in the same positions as the variants above named. For these contractions and monogrammatic forms, Dr. Tischendorf has found it desirable to cast special types. We have observed eight or ten of these combinations, some of which are certainly very ancient, but of others we know nothing. The next point to which we allude is a remarkable custom concerning the final letter of each line. It is unnecessary to remark that the poetic books, being written stichometrically may terminate any line by any letter which ends a word. These letters will most commonly be either a vowel, or a consonant used in grammatical inflections. Exceptions will be chiefly in proper names, as for instance, Jacob, Moab, etc., where b ends a word, but is no Greek termination. All this is clear enough, but how in the case where the termination of a line has no reference to sense? In a poetical book a line is often cut in two without any regard to the division of words or syllables. In the ordinary prose portions of four columns to a page, the most obvious rule has been to have fourteen letters on an average in a line. There are by no means uniformly fourteen, but if sixteen occur in one line, only twelve in another, and so on. The last letter of a line is not always the last of a word, as in Hebrew, nor the last of a syllable, as with us: a monosyllable even may be divided, so that ex for example, may have e at the end of one line, and at the beginning of the next. All this is plain, and might be accounted for by the desire not to exceed the number of letters in a line. It is not all, however. We have found, on examination, that in spite of this seemingly mechanical procedure, a principle of selection was adopted in regard to the final letters. For anything we know, the same principle may prevail in all other similar MSS. We cannot tell, but as far as we have had time and opportunity to examine, we have seldom found it lost sight of. The principle is, that while any vowel may end a line, more than half the consonants are systematically excluded from that position, and only five are generally admitted to occupy it. The bearing of this will be seen when we repeat that divisions of words and syllables are disregarded in this circumstance. So, then, although it would seem that a line may end anyhow, as a rule, it only ends in one of twelve letters. We have found, at present, scarcely an exception to this in the New Testament, save that once the scribe in advertently ended his line with delta, but he straightway erased it and carried it on to the head of the next line. The regular terminal letters are any of the vowels, and λ, μ, v, p, σ. We have found a few exceptions, mostly in reference to x. There may be other exceptions, but the uniformity with which the principle is carried out will be apparent to any one who takes the trouble to examine. We have looked into Codex A, and we found several exceptions both in the Old Testament of Baber, and the New Testament of Waide, where and έ for example, occasionally end a line. Otherwise the rule seems generally to hold good there also. In the next place we have looked into Barrett's fac-simile of the Dublin MS., and although so imperfect, we find similar uniformity with the same casual exceptions. The fac-similes given by Dr. Tischendorf at the end of the Sinaitic Codex, Vol. I., supply no exception; neither do those in Mr. Scrivener's Introduction. The Cambridge Codex has a peculiar arrangement. It is, however, not our purpose to pursue this inquiry, our object will be attained if these hints can be followed up and turned to practical account by palæographers." K In continuing our miscellaneous notes upon the Codex Sinaiticus, we may observe that the errors of the copyist in the portions examined by us are very numerous. Apart from peculiarities of spelling, which are to be found in others, as A and B, and which have been regarded as so many barbarisms in • Mr. Simonides may profit by them if he likes. A writer, rather friendly to him, wrote as follows in the Literary Churchman, after the meeting of the Royal Society of Literature above referred to : "Another speaker then rose, who had spent much time in examining the 'Sinaitic' fac-simile, and described in detail the difficulty of the achievement pretended to by M. Simonides. The speaker said that he had discovered in the course of his examination of the document a special peculiarity in its writing, which regularly repeated itself; and he could not, at that moment, more clearly specify it; but he challenged Mr. Simonides to sit down and write six columns from a Greek Testament, in the manner and size of this Codex, and in the time stated, with the view of doing over again what he said he had already done; as it would be easy to detect him, if he departed from this secret peculiarity which an inspection of the 'Sinaitic' MSS. had elicited. This was somewhat startling, and many persons were eager to see what would follow. But Mr. Simonides simply arose and accepted the challenge, and we heard no more of the challenger." We are sorry to say that there are mistakes here. The speaker in question did not "challenge" Mr. Simonides to write six columns from a Greek Testament, &c., but suggested in view of the peculiarity in question, that Mr. Simonides should write a sufficient number of lines to show that he was acquainted with the rule. Mr. Simonides was understood, not as accepting this present test or experimentum crucis, but as repeating what he before avowed in the Guardian, his readiness, under certain conditions, to write a Codex like the "Sinaitic," in the same space of time. This being the case, of course no more was heard of the imaginary challenger, who, moreover, could have had no further opportunity of being heard in a meeting burning with excitement, and where so many were so eager to speak. The report in the preceding extract is so far inexact. It may be well to add, that soon after, when the sitting had closed, Mr. dicating a period and a country in which Greek was not cultivated in its classic purity-the Egypt of the fourth and subsequent centuries, perhaps there are more serious mistakes. Frequent blunders of transcription occur, by which the wrong word has been put in. Sometimes there are important omissions of words, as of μη and oйk, etc.; or of whole clauses and sentences which are required to complete the sense. Most of these things have been observed and corrected by subsequent revisers, but not all of them. The number of ascertainable errors is truly remarkable, and cannot fail to strike any one who collates the MS. The question of really peculiar readings is one of much interest. And here we may say that they are of such a character and extent, that no Mosow edition of the Brothers Zosimas (which Simonides says formed the basis of the text, in his letter of Sept., 1862), nor any other edition, or number of editions, could supply an explanation of them. These various readings include omissions, additions, and transpositions, as well as verbal differences. Some of them are to be found in A, others in B, others in D, others in L, and so on. Many of them are specialities of particular MSS. But besides these, in connexion with which we invite particular attention to A, B, D, L, and the Claromontane, there are numbers which are not to be found in any other known MS. Where, for example, except here do we find in Rev. iii. 14, the reading ἡ ἀρχη της εκκλησίας του Θεου? Is this an error of the scribe, or did he find it in his copy? The state of the New Testament text generally is such as to forbid the idea of its being related to, or influenced by any printed edition. However it may stand related to some in certain parts it deviates widely, over and over again, from all the texts we know, whether printed or not. In the Gospels it many times agrees with B, D, and L, where they stand alone. We must, therefore, conclude that it can claim an independent position as reasonably as any other uncial MS. Its very errors and eccentricities strengthen this claim, whatever conclusion may be drawn from them as to its actual value. Simonides said, in answer to an inquiry made by the speaker alluded to, as to whether he knew the law referred to, "I know it." This he said both in Greek and in English, but he neither there, nor during the proceedings, undertook to give the very simple proof of stating its character. As the rules in regard to such writings must be very few: in this case, that the average number of letters in a line must be fourteen, and eight and forty lines to a page, but that certain consonants are to be avoided at the end of a line; Mr. Simonides would have produced an impression in his own favour, which would have been "startling," and which he must have felt the need of after the exhibition of those letters already referred to. The writer in the Literary Churchman is very correct when he says that Simonides did not explain how an expression in one of his MSS. had become exchanged for another after it had been objected to by Greek scholars. Before speaking of the amazing number of the corrections, which are best seen in the notices of Dr. Tischendorf, we have another word or two to say about the phenomena exhibited by the printed text. The Psalms have rubricated titles. Not only so, the Song of Solomon has a twofold division, a greater and a lesser one. The larger divisions are indicated by the capital letters A, B, T, 4. They are these, A. Chap. i. 1 to i. 14. T. Chap. iii. 6 to vi. 3. 4. Chap. vi. 4 to viii. 14. With regard to the minor divisions, they break up the book into numerous fragments, to each of which an explanatory rubric is prefixed. These inscriptions distribute the dialogue among the interlocutors, stating who they are, and often adding other details. They are of undoubted Christian origin, and belong to a period when the allegorical interpretation was established. That they are Christian will be seen in a moment from the following examples : I. 2. The bride. I. 4. To the damsels the bride tells what concerns the bridegroom, what he has vouchsafed to her. I. 4. The bride discoursing to the damsels. And they said. I. 4. The damsels to the bridegroom proclaim the name of the bride:-Uprightness loved thee. I. 4. The bride. I. 7. To the bridegroom, Christ. I. 10. The bridegroom to the bride. I. 12. The bride to herself and to the bridegroom. In this way the book is divided throughout, and we hope to print at an early date the whole of the Song, according to this arrangement, in an English version. Meanwhile, we invite to the subject the attention of critics, and hope they will be able to say what bearing, if any, these rubrics have upon the question of the date of the Codex. While speaking of divisions, it is to be noticed that the Gospels have in the margin the Ammonian sections and the Eusebian canons. The text is sometimes supplied with points, but they do not seem to follow any proper rule. There are occasional marks like commas; and one instance is noted where a quotation is specified by angular signs in the margin. By Dr. Tischendorf the quotation signs are referred to a corrector. Divisions are marked by spaces in or at the end of a line. The titles and colophons of the books are often accompanied by a peculiar floral or foliated ornament. The contracted words are much the same as in the older uncials--as the words for God, Lord, Christ, Jesus, Man, Son, David. These and a final n, as |