the unfair spirit in which Dr. Lightfoot's criticisms are made. I ask
every just-minded reader to consider what right any critic has to
insinuate, if not directly to say, that, because some of the references
in a note are also given by Cureton, I simply took them from him, and
thus "imported into my notes a mass of borrowed and unsorted
references," and further to insinuate that I "here and there transposed
the order" apparently to conceal the source? This is a kind of
criticism which I very gladly relinquish entirely to my high-minded and
reverend opponent. Now, as full quotations are given in Cureton's
appendix, I should have been perfectly entitled to take references from
it, had I pleased, and for the convenience of many readers I distinctly
indicate Cureton's work, in the note, as a source to be compared. The
fact is, however, that I did not take the references from Cureton, but
in every case derived them from the works themselves, and if the note
"seems to represent the gleanings of many years' reading," it certainly
does not misrepresent the fact, for I took the trouble to make myself
acquainted with the "by-paths of Ignatian literature." Now in analysing
the references in this note it must be borne in mind that they
illustrate the statement that "_doubts, more or less definite_,"
continued to be expressed regarding the Ignatian Epistles. I am much
obliged to Dr. Lightfoot for drawing my attention to Wotton. His name
is the first in the note, and it unfortunately was the last in a list
on another point in my note-book, immediately preceding this one, and
was by mistake included in it. I also frankly give up Weismann, whose
doubts I find I had exaggerated, and proceed to examine Dr. Lightfoot's
further statements. He says that Thiersch uses the Curetonian as
genuine, and that his only doubt is whether he ought not to accept the
Vossian. Thiersch, however, admits that he cannot quote either the
seven or the three Epistles as genuine. He says distinctly: "These
three Syriac Epistles lie under the suspicion that they are not an