In such cases, when the inadvertency was genuine and was unmingled with any overt design, it is much to be noted that the error seldom propagated itself extensively.] But next, well-meant endeavours must have been made at a very early period 'to rectify' ([Greek: diorthoun]) the text thus unintentionally corrupted; and so, what began in inadvertence is sometimes found in the end to exhibit traces of design, and often becomes in a high degree perplexing.

Thus, to cite a favourite example, it is clear to me that in the earliest age of all (A.D.

100 ?) some copyist of St.Luke ii.

14 (call him X) inadvertently omitted the second [Greek: en] in the Angelic Hymn.

Now if the persons (call them Y and Z) whose business it became in turn to reproduce the early copy thus inadvertently depraved, had but been content both of them to transcribe exactly what they saw before them, the error of their immediate predecessor (X) must infallibly have speedily been detected, remedied, and forgotten,--simply because, as every one must have seen as well as Y and Z, it was impossible to translate the sentence which results,--[Greek: epi ges eirene anthropois eudokia].