in other words, the proper lessons
collected out of the Gospels, and transcribed into a separate volume.
Let me freely admit that I subjoin a few observations on this subject
with unfeigned diffidence; having had to teach myself throughout the
little I know;--and discovering in the end how very insufficient for my
purpose that little is. Properly handled, an adequate study of the
Lectionaries of the ancient Church would become the labour of a life. We
require exact collations of at least 100 of them. From such a practical
acquaintance with about a tenth of the extant copies some very
interesting results would infallibly be obtained[146].

As for the external appearance of these documents, it may be enough to
say that they range, like the mass of uncial and cursive copies, over a
space of about 700 years,--the oldest extant being of about the eighth
century, and the latest dating in the fifteenth. Rarely are any so old
as the former date,--or so recent as the last named. When they began to
be executed is not known; but much older copies than any which at
present exist must have perished through constant use: [for they are in
perfect order when we first become acquainted with them, and as a whole
they are remarkably consistent with one another]. They are almost
invariably written in double columns, and not unfrequently are
splendidly executed. The use of Uncial letters is observed to have been
retained in documents of this class to a later period than in the case
of the Evangelia, viz. down to the eleventh century. For the most part
they are furnished with a kind of musical notation executed in
vermilion; evidently intended to guide the reader in that peculiar
recitative which is still customary in the oriental Church.

In these books the Gospels always stand in the following order: St.
John: St. Matthew: St. Luke: St. Mark. The lessons are brief,--
resembling the Epistles and Gospels in our Book of Common Prayer.

They seem to me to fall into two classes: (_a_) Those which contain a
lesson for every day in the year: (_b_) Those which only contain
[lessons for fixed Festivals and] the Saturday-Sunday lessons ([Greek:
sabbatokyriakai]). We are reminded by this peculiarity that it was not
till a very late period in her history that the Eastern Church was able
to shake herself clear of the shadow of the old Jewish Sabbath[147]. [To
these Lectionaries Tables of the Lessons were often added, of a similar
character to those