3.
When I take into my hands an ancient copy of the Gospels, I expect that it will exhibit sundry inaccuracies and imperfections: and I am never disappointed in my expectation.

The discovery however creates no uneasiness, so long as the phenomena evolved are of a certain kind and range within easily definable limits.

Thus:-- 1.

Whatever belongs to peculiarities of spelling or fashions of writing, I can afford to disregard.

For example, it is clearly consistent with perfect good faith, that a scribe should spell [Greek: krabatton][15] in several different ways: that he should write [Greek: outo] for [Greek: outos], or the contrary: that he should add or omit what grammarians call the [Greek: n ephelkystikon].