to wait until some one happened to be travelling to Syria; and then,
it is suggested, he _might_ take them along with him. If we adopt
the reading to be found in the Latin version, and which, from
internal evidence, we may judge to be a true rendering of the original,
we are, according to the interpretation which must be given to it
by the advocates of the Ignatian Epistles, involved in hopeless
bewilderment. If by Syria we understand the eastern province, what
possibly can be the meaning of the words addressed by Polycarp to
the Philippians, "If any one is going to Syria, he might _carry
thither my letters to you_"? [26:1] Any one passing from Smyrna to
Philippi turns his face to the north-west, but a traveller from
Smyrna to Syria proceeds south-east, or in the exactly opposite
direction. How could Polycarp hope to keep up a correspondence
with his brethren of Philippi, if he sent his letters to the
distant East by any one who might be going there?

It is pretty evident that the Latin version has preserved the true
original of this postscript, and that the current reading, adopted
by Dr. Lightfoot and others, must be traced to the misapprehensions
of transcribers. Puzzled by the statement that letters from Polycarp
to the Philippians were to be sent to Syria, they have tried to correct
the text by changing [Greek: par haemon] into [Greek: par humon]--
implying that the letters were to be transmitted, not from Polycarp
to the Philippians, but from the Philippians to Antioch. A very
simple explanation may, however, remove this whole difficulty.
If by Syria we understand, not the great eastern province so called,
but a little island of similar name in the Aegaean Sea, the real
bearing of the request is at once apparent. Psyria [27:1]--in the
course of time contracted into Psyra--lies a few miles west of
Chios, [27:2] and is almost directly on the way between Smyrna