CHAPTER X.
CAUSES OF CORRUPTION CHIEFLY INTENTIONAL.
IV.

Omission.
[We have now to consider the largest of all classes of corrupt variations from the genuine Text[258]--the omission of words and clauses and sentences,--a truly fertile province of inquiry.

Omissions are much in favour with a particular school of critics; though a habit of admitting them whether in ancient or modern times cannot but be symptomatic of a tendency to scepticism.] Sec.

1.
Omissions are often treated as 'Various Readings.' Yet only by an Hibernian licence can words omitted be so reckoned: for in truth the very essence of the matter is that on such occasions nothing is read.

It is to the case of words omitted however that this chapter is to be exclusively devoted.