Eusebius styles it), has long since
disappeared; but it is plain from the foregoing account of it by a
competent witness that it must have been a most unsatisfactory
performance. It is not easy to see how room can have been found in such a
scheme for entire chapters of S. Luke's Gospel; as well as for the larger
part of the Gospel according to S. John: in short, for anything which was
not capable of being brought into some kind of agreement, harmony, or
correspondence with something in S. Matthew's Gospel.

How it may have fared with the other Gospels in the work of Ammonius is
not in fact known, and it is profitless to conjecture. What we know for
certain is that Eusebius, availing himself of the hint supplied by the
very imperfect labours of his predecessor, devised an entirely different
expedient, whereby he extended to the Gospels of S. Mark, S. Luke and S.
John all the advantages, (and more than all,) which Ammonius had made the
distinctive property of the first Gospel.(222) His plan was to retain the
Four Gospels in their integrity; and, besides enabling a reader to
ascertain at a glance the places which S. Matthew has in common with the
other three Evangelists, or with any two, or with any one of them, (which,
I suppose, was the sum of what had been exhibited by the work of
Ammonius,)--to shew which places S. Luke has in common with S. Mark,--which
with S. John only; as well as which places are peculiar to each of the
four Evangelists in turn. It is abundantly clear therefore what Eusebius
means by saying that the labours of Ammonius had "_suggested to him_" his
own.(223) The sight of that Harmony of the other three Evangelists with S.
Matthew's Gospel had suggested to him the advantage of establishing a
series of parallels throughout _all the Four Gospels._ But then, whereas
Ammonius had placed alongside of S. Matthew _the dislocated sections
themselves_ of the other three Evangelists which are of corresponding
purport, Eusebius conceived the idea of accomplishing the same object by
means of a system of double numerical _references_. He invented X Canons,
or Tables: he subdivided each of the Four Gospels into a multitude of
short Sections. These he numbered; (a fresh series of numbers appearing in
each Gospel, and extending from the beginning right on to the end;) and
immediately under every number, he inserted, in vermillion, another
numeral (I to X); whose office it was to indicate in which of his X
Canons, or