siduity of Harmonizers,--the licentious caprice
of individuals;--what with errors resulting from the inopportune
recollection of similar or parallel places,--or from the familiar
phraseology of the Ecclesiastical Lections,--or from the inattention of
Scribes,--or from marginal glosses;--however arising, endless are the
corrupt readings of the oldest MSS. in existence; and it is by no means
safe to follow up the detection of a depravation of the text with a theory
to account for its existence. Let me be allowed to say that such theories
are seldom satisfactory. _Guesses_ only they are at best.

Thus, I profess myself wholly unable to accept the suggestion of
Ussher,--(which, however, found favour with Garnier (Basil's editor),
Bengel, Benson, and Michaelis; and has since been not only eagerly
advocated by Conybeare and Howson following a host of German Critics, but
has even enjoyed Mr. Scrivener's distinct approval;)--that the Epistle to
the Ephesians "was _a Circular_ addressed to other Asiatic Cities besides
the capital Ephesus,--to Laodicea perhaps among the rest (Col. iv. 16); and
that while some Codices may have contained the name of Ephesus in the
first verse, _others may have had another city substituted, or the space
after_ {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PSILI AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} _left utterly void_."(172) At first sight, this
conjecture has a kind of interesting plausibility which recommends it to
our favour. On closer inspection,--(i) It is found to be not only
gratuitous; but (ii) altogether unsupported and unsanctioned by the known
facts of the case; and (what is most to the purpose) (iii) it is, as I
humbly think, demonstrably erroneous. I demur to it,--

(1) Because of its exceeding Improbability: for (_a_) when S. Paul sent
his Epistle to the Ephesians we know that Tychicus, the bearer of it,(173)
was charged with _a distinct Epistle_ to the Colossians:(174) an Epistle
nevertheless so singularly like the Epistle to the Ephesians that it is
scarcely credible S. Paul would have written those two several Epistles to
two of the Churches of Asia, and yet have sent only a duplicate of one of
them, (_that_ to the Ephesians,) furnished with a different address, to so
large and import