Some specimens of the thing referred to I have already given in another place. The reader is invited to acquaint himself with the strange process by which the '276 souls' who suffered shipwreck with St. Paul (Acts xxvii. 37), have since dwindled down to 'about 76[27].'--He is further requested to note how 'a certain man' who in the time of St. Paul bore the name of 'Justus' (Acts xviii. 7), has been since transformed into '_Titus_,' '_Titus Justus_,' and even '_Titius Justus_[28].'--But for a far sadder travestie of sacred words, the reader is referred to what has happened in St. Matt. xi. 23 and St. Luke x. 15,--where our Saviour is made to ask an unmeaning question--instead of being permitted to announce a solemn fact--concerning Capernaum[29].--The newly-discovered ancient name of the Island of Malta, _Melitene_[30], (for which geographers are indebted to the adventurous spirit of Westcott and Hort), may also be profitably considered in connexion with what is to be the subject of the present chapter. And now to break up fresh ground. Attention is therefore invited to a case of attraction in Acts xx. 24. It is but the change of a single letter ([Greek: logoU] for [Greek: logoN]), yet has that minute deflection from the truth led to a complete mangling of the most affecting perhaps of St. Paul's utterances. I refer to the famous words [Greek: all' oudenos logon poioumai, oude echo ten psuchen mou timian emauto, hos teleiosai ton dromon mou meta charas]: excellently, because idiomatically, rendered by our Translators of 1611,--'But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.' For [Greek: oudenos loGON], (the accusative after [Greek: poioumai]), some one having substituted [Greek: oudenos loGOU],--a reading which survives to this hour in B and C[31],--it became necessary to find something else for the verb to govern. [Greek: Ten psychen] was at hand, but [Greek: oude echo] stood in the way. [Greek: Oude echo] must therefore go[32]; and go it did,--as B, C, and [Symbol: Aleph] remain to attest. [Greek: Timian] should have gone also, if the sentence was to be made translatable; but [Greek: timian] was left behind[33]. The authors of ancient embroilments of the text were sad bunglers. In the meantime, Cod. [Symbol: Aleph] inadvertently retained St. Luke's word, [Greek: LOGON]; and because [Symbol: Aleph] here follows B in every other respect, it exhibits a text which is simply unintelligible[34].