'Because those critics are blinded by invincible prejudice in favour of two unsafe guides, and on behalf of Omission.' We have already seen enough of the character of those guides, and are now anxious to learn what there can be in omissions which render them so acceptable to minds of the present day.

And we can imagine nothing except the halo which has gathered round the detection of spurious passages in modern times, and has extended to a supposed detection of passages which in fact are not spurious.

Some people appear to feel delight if they can prove any charge against people who claim to be orthodox; others without any such feeling delight in superior criticism; and the flavour of scepticism especially commends itself to the taste of many.

To the votaries of such criticism, omissions of passages which they style 'interpolations,' offer temptingly spacious hunting-fields.
Yet the experience of copyists would pronounce that Omission is the besetting fault of transcribers.

It is so easy under the influence of the desire of accomplishing a task, or at least of anxiety for making progress, to pass over a word, a line, or even more lines than one.