passage forcibly reminds me of the amenities addressed to myself
by Dr. Lightfoot, who seems unconsciously to have caught the trick
of his precursor's scolding. Volkmar had paraphrased Origen's words
in a way of which his critic disapproved, and Tischendorf comments
as follows: "But here again we have to do with nothing else than a
completely abortive fabrication, a certificate of our said critic's
poverty. For the assertion derived from the close of the work of Origen
rests upon gross ignorance or upon intentional deception. The words
of Origen to his patron Ambrosius, who had prompted him to the composition
of the whole apology, run as follows" [and here I must give the German]:
"'Wenn dass Celsus versprochen hat' [_has promised_] 'jedenfalls in
seinem gegen das Christenthum gerichteten und von Origenes widerlegten
Buche) noch eine andere Schrift nach dieser zu verfassen, worin u.s.w.'
'Wenn er nun diese zweite Schrift trotz seines Versprechens nicht
geschrieben hat' [_has not written_], 'so genügt es uns mit diesen
acht Büchern auf seine Schrift geantwortet zu haben. Wenn er aber auch
jene unternommen und vollendet hat' [_has undertaken and completed_],
'so treib das Buch auf und schicke es, damit wir auch darauf antworten,'"
&c. [11:1] Now this translation of Tischendorf is not made carelessly,
but deliberately, for the express purpose of showing the actual words
of Origen, and correcting the version of Volkmar; and he insists upon
these tenses not only by referring to the Greek of these special phrases,
but by again contrasting with them the paraphrase of Volkmar. [11:2]
Whatever disregard of tenses and "free handling" of Origen there
may be here, therefore, are due to Tischendorf, who may be considered
as good a scholar as Dr. Lightfoot, and not a less zealous apologist.

Instead of depending on the "strength of the passage so translated,"
however, as Canon Lightfoot represents, my argument is independent of
this or any other version of Origen's words; and, in fact, the point