el according to S. Mark.

And yet, (let me say it without offence,) a very little attention ought to
be enough to convince any one familiar with this subject that the proposed
inference is absolutely inadmissible. For, in the first place, a
_solitary_ asterisk (not at all a rare phenomenon in ancient MSS.(199))
has of necessity no such signification. And even if it does sometimes
indicate that all the verses which follow are suspicious, (of which,
however, I have never seen an example,) it clearly _could_ not have that
signification here,--for a reason which I should have thought an
intelligent boy might discover.

Well aware, however, that I should never be listened to, with Birch and
Griesbach, Scholz and Tischendorf, and indeed every one else against me,--I
got a learned friend at Rome to visit the Vatican Library for me, and
inspect the two Codices in question.(200) That he would find Birch right
_in his facts_, I had no reason to doubt; but I much more than doubted the
correctness of his proposed inference from them. I even felt convinced
that the meaning and purpose of the asterisks in question would be
demonstrably different from what Birch had imagined.

Altogether unprepared was I for the result. It is found that the learned
Dane has here made one of those (venial, but) unfortunate blunders to
which every one is liable who registers phenomena of this class in haste,
and does not methodize his memoranda until he gets home. To be
brief,--_there proves to be no asterisk at all,--either in Cod. 756, or in
Cod. 757_.

On the contrary. After {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}, the former Codex has, in the text of
S. Mark xvi. 9 (_fol. 150 b_), a plain cross,--(_not_ an asterisk, thus
[symbol: x with dots in corners] or [symbol: broken x with corner dots] or
[symbol: inverse or open x], but a cross, thus +),--the intention of which
is to refer the reader to an annotation on _fol. 151 b_, (marked, of
course, with a cross also,) _to the effect that S. Mark xvi. 9-20 is
undoubtedly __ genuine_.(201) The evidence, therefore, not only breaks
hopelessly down; but it is discovered that this w