Another gentleman is not surprised that Apocalyptic reading leads to a doubt of the "canonicity" of the book: it ought not to rest on church testimony, but on visible miracle. He offers me, or any reader of the _Athenaeum_, the "sight of a miracle to that effect, and within forty-eight hours' journey (fare paid)." I seldom travel, and my first thought was whether my carpet-bag would be found without a regular hunt: but, on reading further, I found that it was only a concordance that would be wanted. Forty hours' collection and numerical calculation of Greek nouns would make it--should I happen to agree with the writer--many hundred millions to one that Revelation xiii is superhuman. There is but one verse (the fifth) which the writer does not see verified. I looked at this verse, and was much startled. The Budget began in October 1863: should it last until March 1867--it is now August 1866--it is clear that I am the first Beast, and my paradoxers are the saints whom I persecute. [The Budget _did_ terminate in March 1867: I hope the gentleman will be satisfied with the resulting interpretation.] The same opponent is surprised that I should suppose a thing which "comes to pass" must be completed, and cannot contain what is to happen 1800 years after. All who have any knowledge of English idiom know that a thing _comes_ to pass when it happens, and _came_ to pass afterwards. But as the original is Greek, we must look at the Greek: it is [Greek: dei genesthai] for "must come to pass," and we know that [Greek: egeneto] is what is usually translated "came to pass." No word of more finished completion exists in Greek.