his so-called "Alexandrine Recension."
But then, on the Critic's own hypothesis, (as we have seen already,) Codex
B. ought, on the contrary, to have _contained_ it. How was that
inconvenient fact to be got over? Griesbach quietly remarks in a foot-note
that Codex B. "_has affinity_ with the Eastern family of MSS."--The
misfortune of being saddled with a worthless theory was surely never more
apparent. By the time we have reached this point in the investigation, we
are reminded of nothing so much as of the weary traveller who, having
patiently pursued an _ignis fatuus_ through half the night, beholds it at
last vanish; but not until it has conducted him up to his chin in the
mire.

Neither Hug, nor Scholz his pupil,--who in 1808 and 1830 respectively
followed Griesbach with modifications of his recension-theory,--concurred
in the unfavourable sentence which their illustrious predecessor had
passed on the concluding portion of S. Mark's Gospel. The latter even
eagerly vindicated its genuineness.(10) But with Lachmann,--whose
unsatisfactory text of the Gospels appeared in 1842,--originated a new
principle of Textual Revision; the principle, namely, of paying exclusive
and absolute deference to the testimony of a few arbitrarily selected
ancient documents; no regard being paid to others of the same or of yet
higher antiquity. This is not the right place for discussing this
plausible and certainly most convenient scheme of textual revision. That
it leads to conclusions little short of irrational, is certain. I notice
it only because it supplies the clue to the result which, as far as S.
Mark xvi. 9-20 is concerned, has been since arrived at by Dr. Tischendorf,
Dr. Tregelles, and Dean Alford,(11)--the three latest critics who have
formally undertaken to reconstruct the sacred Text.

They agree in assuring their readers that the genuine Gospel of S. Mark
extends no further than ch. xvi. ver. 8: in other words, that all that
follows the words {~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~} is an unauthorized addition by some later
hand; "a fragment,"--distinguishable from the rest of the Gospel not less
by in