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    want of knowledge of the Greek Fathers , in speaking of Euthymius Zigabenus , in whose works occurs the phrase kou to . rtfa . tv , ( Letters to Travis , p . 219 , ) he argues that this cannot be a quotation , because it varies so much from the reading of 1 John v . 7 , and adds , " I know no Greek writer who has read tria in the neuter in either of the verses . " This gives occasion to the Bishop to taunt him as being less read in the fathers than in the

    tragedians , because Origen , Gregory Nazienzen , and OBcumenius , all use the neuter in quoting the eighth verse . The question is utterly insignificant as regards the genuineness of the seventh verse , but it is not unimportant to the vindication of Mr . Porson , and Crito accordingly has examined it carefully . The first passage produced to contradict Mr . P . is Origen ' s commentary on John i . 27 ^ 28 , * Iadvvq 4 T& itvsvjJLa kou rb v $ a > p kclI rb at / x , a dv&ypaype rd r § l < x , elq tv yivSpwa . This , as Crito observes , is not a citation of the clause ; Of i *

    gen merely gives the substance of it in the form best suited to his purpose . Mr . P . must have known the passage , as it is quoted by Griesbach , ( who calls it a various reading , ) but did not think it a case in point . As to Gregory Nazienzen , * the reader will have some difficulty in believing that the very passage to which the Bishop refers , as proving Mr . P . ' s ignorance of the Fathers , runs thus , rpsiq elvai rovq ( Aaprvpovvraq rl TFVEvpa , rb ifoap , r 6 afyca , and that the author ' s reasoning rests entirely or * the fact that the apostle had used the masculine and not the neuter . Had Mr . P ., a young man and not

    -a theologian by profession , committed an error in regard to the Greek Fathers , it would have been neither extraordinary nor disgraceful ; but what shall we say of his episcopal censor who has selected this passage as a proof of the Professor ' s ignorance , which when examined proves nothing but His own astonishing carelessness and precipitation ? In the passage from ( Ecumenius the Bishop has actually suppressed in his quotation the words fod rov * foe 7 v , e ? rpeTq els rb tv el < rt , which snew that he read the eighth verse precisely as it stands in our copies . Crito justly observes on this , p . 350 , " Perhaps the reader will agree with me in thinking the preceding to be rather a remarkable instance of omission on the part of the learned prelate . "

    Mr . Porson had observed , in answer to those who argued that though the seventh verse is n 6 t found in the Greek MSS . it is essential to the connexion , and should therefore be inserted , * ' that vvriere there is no external evidence , internal evidence can never be pleaded for the necessity of so large and important an addition . " To this the Bishop replies , ( Tracts , p . xxxix ., ) •< A

    true reading may be confined to a small number of MSS . or even a single MS . Nay , there are conjectural readings of Bentley , Dawes , Toup , Tyrwhitt and Porson , which are indisputable from their internal fitness , although against the external evidence of all MSS . " The remarks of Crito in answer to this are s " o just , that \ ve present thiem with great pleasure to our readers .

    " The most Remarkable conjectural emendations of Classical authors are to be found among the poets ; who , while they are bound by the laws of metre , are also expected to preserve both purity of phrase and clearness of

    * Crito speaks of Gregory as an author " for whom Mr . Porson has more than once avowed his foridn <* s » . " Vie should infer anything but real admiration from the manner in which toe speaks of him . tetters , pp . 222 , 3 . " I conjectured that silica the second of these quotations bore the superscription of Gregory Nazienzen , the first too might issue from ; tfye same mint . " " Having been always extremely fond of Gregory , I cannot forbear traiiscrifeing as ririich of the" context as may enlight ' eti the reader , " rifcfr Crito fbr 6 nte fallen into the snafe' of Mr . Porsoifs iroriy ? Gregory appears agaitiy in p . 272 , as " my foVouritte Gregory . "

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    Revietb . —Vindication of ' Porson * 323

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 323, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/35/