When indeed the omission dates from an exceedingly remote period; took place, I mean, in the third, or more likely still in the second century; then the fate of such omitted words may be predicted with certainty. Their doom is sealed. Every copy made from that defective original of necessity reproduced the defects of its prototype: and if (as often happens) some of those copies have descended to our times, they become quoted henceforward as if they were independent witnesses[335]. Nor is this all. Let the taint have been communicated to certain copies of the Old Latin, and we find ourselves confronted with formidable because very venerable foes. And according to the recently approved method of editing the New Testament, the clause is allowed no quarter. It is declared without hesitation to be a spurious accretion to the Text. Take, as an instance of this, the following passage in St. Luke xii. 39. 'If' (says our Lord) 'the master of the house had known in what hour [Greek: OKLEPTES] [Greek: ERCHETAI] [[Greek: EGREGOR] [Greek: ESENKAI]] [Greek: OUKANA] [Greek: PHEKEN] his house to be broken through.' Here, the clause within brackets, which has fallen out for an obvious reason, does not appear in Codd. [Symbol: Aleph] and D. But the omission did not begin with [Symbol: Aleph]. Two copies of the Old Latin are also without the words [Greek: egregoresen kai],--which are wanting besides in Cureton's Syriac. Tischendorf accordingly omits them. And yet, who sees not that such an amount of evidence as this is wholly insufficient to warrant the ejection of the clause as spurious? What is the 'Science' worth which cannot preserve to the body a healthy limb like this?