refuted, has been since repeated by Mr. Cureton.
He maintains that the Syriac text of the Ignatian Epistles cannot be an
epitome, because that "we know of no instances of such abridgment in any
Christian writer." To commence with the West,--is not Mr. Cureton
acquainted with the manner in which Rufinus dealt with the _History_ of
Eusebius? Have we here no specimens of abbreviation; no allusion in the
prologue to "omissis quae videbantur superflua?" Has Mr. C. never looked
into that memorable combination of the independent works of three
contemporaries, entitled _Historia Tripartita?_ and, not to wander from the
strictest bounds of bibliography, will any one presume to boast of having a
copy of this book printed prior to that now near me, (a spectacle which De
Bure could never get a sight of), "per Iohannem Schueszler regie vrbis
Augustensis ciuem," anno 1472? But let us go to the East in search of
compendiums. Did not Theodorus Lector, early in the sixth century, reduce
into a harmony the compositions of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret? How
does Assemani speak of the first two parts of the Ecclesiastical History of
Zacharias Rhetor, supposed to have been written _in Syriac_, about the year
540? "Prima est _epitome_ Socratis, altera Theodoreti." (_Biblioth.
Orient._, tom. ii. cap. vii.) On this occasion, manifestly, ancient records
are encountered in an abridged Syriac form; a circumstance which will not
strengthen the Curetonian theory relative to the text of the Ignatian
Epistles. Again, bearing in mind the resemblance that exists between
passages in the interpolated Epistles and in the Apostolic Constitutions,
with the latter of which the _Didascalia_ of Ignatius seems to have been
commingled, let us inquire, Did not Dr. Grabe, in his _Essay upon the
Doctrine of the Apostles_, published in 1711, unanswerably prove that the
_Syriac_ copy of this _Didascalia_ was much more contracted than the
_Arabic_ one, or than the _Greek_ Constitutions of the Apostles? Is it not
true that extracted portions of these Constitutions are found in some old
MS. collections of Canons? Has not Cotelier furnished us with an
"_Epitome_," compiled by Metaphrastes from Clementine counterfeits,
concerning the life of S. Peter? And, to descend from the tenth to the
sixteenth century, are we not indebted to Carolus Capellius for an
"_Epitome Apostolicarum Constitutionum, in Creta insula repertarum_," 4to.,
Ingolstad. 1546?

(42.) When MR MERRYWEA