at this day in an extravagantly large number of copies
[probably, if reckoned under the six classes of Gospels, Acts and
Catholic Epistles, Pauline Epistles, Apocalypse, Evangelistaries, and
Apostolos, exceeding the number of four thousand]. There is nothing like
this, or at all approaching to it, in the case of any profane writing
that can be named[12].

And the very necessity for multiplying copies,--a necessity which has
made itself felt in every age and in every clime,--has perforce resulted
in an immense number of variants. Words have been inevitably
dropped,--vowels have been inadvertently confounded by copyists more or
less competent:--and the meaning of Scripture in countless places has
suffered to a surprising degree in consequence. This first.

But then further, the Scriptures for the very reason because they were
known to be the Word of God became a mark for the shafts of Satan from
the beginning. They were by consequence as eagerly solicited by
heretical teachers on the one hand, as they were hotly defended by the
orthodox on the other. Alike from friends and from foes therefore, they
are known to have experienced injury, and that in the earliest age of
all. Nothing of the kind can be predicated of any other ancient
writings. This consideration alone should suggest a severe exercise of
judicial impartiality, in the handling of ancient evidence of whatever
sort.

For I request it may be observed that I have not said--and I certainly
do not mean--that the Scriptures themselves have been permanently
corrupted either by friend or foe. Error was fitful and uncertain, and
was contradicted by other error: besides that it sank eventually before
a manifold witness to the truth. Nevertheless, certain manuscripts
belonging to a few small groups--particular copies of a
Version--individual Fathers or Doctors of the Church,--these do, to the
present hour, bear traces incontestably of ancient mischief.

But what goes before is not nearly all. The fourfold structure of the
Gospel has lent itself to a certain kind of licentious handling--of
which in other ancient writings we have no experience. One critical
owner of a Codex considered himself at liberty to assimilate the
narratives: another to correct them in order to bring them into (what
seemed to himself) greater harmony. Brevity is found to have been a
paramount object with some, and Transposition to have amounted to a
passion with others. Conjectural Criticism was e