mmon: many ecclesiastical writers allude to it, and St. Jerome
especially does so; and the following spirited dialogue has reference
to his somewhat condemnatory allusions.

"Purple vellum Greek MSS.," says Breitinger, "if I remember rightly,
are scarcer than white crows!"

BELINDA. "Pray tell us 'all about them,' as the children say."

PHILEMON. "Well, then, at your next court visit, let your gown rival
the emblazoned aspect of these old purple vellums, and let stars of
silver, thickly 'powdered' thereupon, emulate, if they dare, the
silver capital Greek letters upon the purple membranaceous fragments
which have survived the desolations of time! You see, I do not speak
_coldly_ upon this picturesque subject!"

ALIMANSA. "Nor do I feel precisely as if I were in the _frigid_ zone!
But proceed and expatiate."

PHILEMON. "The field for expatiating is unluckily very limited. The
fact of the more ancient MSS. before noticed, the _Pentateuch_ at
_Vienna_, the fragment of the Gospels in the British Museum, with a
Psalter or two in a few libraries abroad, are all the MSS. which just
now occur to me as being distinguished by a _purple tint_, for I
apprehend little more than a _tint_ remains. Whether the white or the
purple vellum be the more ancient, I cannot take upon me to determine;
but it is right you should be informed that St. Jerom denounces as
_coxcombs_, all those who, in his own time, were so violently attached
to your favourite purple colour."

LISARDO. "I have a great respect for the literary attainments of St.
Jerom; and although in the absence of the old Italic version of the
Greek Bible, I am willing to subscribe to the excellence of his own,
or what is now called the _Vulgate_, yet in matters of taste,
connected with the harmony of colour, you must excuse me if I choose
to enter my protest against that venerable father's decision."

PHILEMON. "You appear to mistake the matter St. Jerom imagined that
this appetite for purple MSS. was rather artificial and voluptuous;
requiring regulation and correction--and that, in the end, men would
prefer the former colour to the intrinsic worth of their vellum
treasures."

* * * * *

We must not omit the note appended to this colloquy.

"The general idea seems to be that PURPLE VELLUM MSS. were intended
only for 'choice blades,' let us rather say, tasteful bibliomaniacs--in
book collecting. St. Jerom, as Philemon above observes, is ve