I will content myself with inviting attention to one or two samples of my meaning. It has been made a question whether St. Luke (xxiv. 7) wrote,--[Greek: legon, Hoti dei ton huion tou anthropou paradothenai], as all the MSS. in the world but four, all the Versions, and all the available Fathers'[340] evidence from A.D. 150 downwards attest: or whether he wrote,--[Greek: legon ton huion tou anthropou hoti dei paradothenai], as [Symbol: Aleph]BCL,--and those four documents only--would have us believe? [The point which first strikes a scholar is that there is in this reading a familiar classicism which is alien to the style of the Gospels, and which may be a symptom of an attempt on the part of some early critic who was seeking to bring them into agreement with ancient Greek models.] But surely also it is even obvious that the correspondence of those four Codexes in such a particular as this must needs be the result of their having derived the reading from one and the same original. On the contrary, the agreement of all the rest in a trifling matter of detail like the present can be accounted for in only one way, viz., by presuming that they also have all been derived through various lines of descent from a single document: but _that_ document the autograph of the Evangelist. [For the great number and variety of them necessitates their having been derived through various lines of descent. Indeed, they must have the notes of number, variety, as well as continuity, and weight also.] Sec. 3. On countless occasions doubtless, it is very difficult--perhaps impossible--to determine, apart from external evidence, which collocation of two or more words is the true one, whether e.g. [Greek: echei zoen] for instance or [Greek: zoen echei][341],--[Greek: egerthe eutheos] or [Greek: eutheos egerthe][342],--[Greek: cholous, typhlous]--or [Greek: typhlous, cholous][343],--shall be preferred. The burden of proof rests evidently with innovators on Traditional use. Obvious at the same time is it to foresee that if a man sits down before the Gospel with the deliberate intention of improving the style of the Evangelists by transposing their words on an average of seven (B), eight ([Symbol: Aleph]), or twelve (D) times in every page, he is safe to convict himself of folly in repeated instances, long before he has reached the end of his task. Thus, when the scribe of [Symbol: Aleph], in place of [Greek: exousian edoken auto kai krisin poiein][344], presents us with [Greek: kai krisin edoken auto exousian poiein], we hesitate not to say that he has written nonsense[345]. And when BD instead of [Greek: eisi tines ton ode hestekoton] exhibit [Greek: eise ton ode ton hestekoton], we cannot but conclude that the credit of those two MSS. must be so far lowered in the eyes of every one who with true appreciation of the niceties of Greek scholarship observes what has been done.