The failure of the earlier of these attempts at revision arose in part from the imperfect state of the texts upon which they were based. This soon became obvious, and Biblical scholars saw that for some time to come their labours must be spent rather in laying the foundation for a future revision than in attempting it themselves, and this in three distinct departments. The first of these was the collection, as described in the last lecture, of the material supplied by ancient manuscripts, and by early versions and quotations. In this department a long succession of faithful men have laboured, amongst whom may be mentioned Brian Walton, who in 1657 published his famous Polyglot Bible in six folio volumes, giving in addition to the original Hebrew and Greek, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Æthiopic, and Persian versions; Dr. John Mill, whose New Testament was published in 1770, and of whom it has been justly said that “his services to Bible criticism surpass in extent and value those rendered by any other except one or two men yet living;”[101] Dr. Richard Bentley, who, having himself collated the Alexandrine and other ancient MSS., and by various agencies amassed a large store of critical material, published in 1720 his “Proposals for Printing” revised texts both of the Greek New Testament and the Latin Vulgate; Dr. Kennicott, who in 1760 aroused public attention to the importance of collating all Hebrew MSS. made before the invention of printing, and who personally, or through the aid of others, collated more than six hundred Hebrew MSS., and sixteen MSS. of the Samaritan Pentateuch; John Bernard de Rossi, professor of Oriental languages in the University of Parma, who in 1784-8 published the results of the collation of seven hundred and thirty-one MSS., and of three hundred editions of the Hebrew Scriptures; and, to come to more recent times, Dr. Constantine Tischendorf, Dr. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, and Dr. Frederick Henry Scrivener, whose names are to be held in the highest honour, as of men who have rendered invaluable service to their own and future generations in the exhausting and self-denying work of the collation of Biblical MSS., and through whose care and accuracy the means of obtaining an exact knowledge of a large number of most precious documents have been placed within easy reach of all.