XLVII. But how does it happen—(we must needs repeat the enquiry, which however we make with unfeigned astonishment,)—How does it come to pass that a man of practised intellect, addressing persons as cultivated and perhaps as acute as himself, can handle a confessedly obscure problem like the present after this strangely incoherent, this foolish and wholly inconclusive fashion? One would have supposed that Dr. Hort's mathematical training would have made him an exact reasoner. But he writes as if he had no idea at all of the nature of demonstration, and of the process necessary in order to carry conviction home to a Reader's mind. Surely, (one tells oneself,) a minimum of “pass” Logic would have effectually protected so accomplished a gentleman from making such a damaging exhibition of himself! For surely he must be aware that, as yet, he has produced not one particle of evidence that his opinion concerning b and א is well founded. And yet, how can he possibly overlook the circumstance that, unless he is able to demonstrate that those two codices, and especially the former of them, has “preserved not only a very ancient Text, but a very pure line of ancient Text” also (p. 251), his entire work, (inasmuch as it reposes on that one assumption,) on being critically handled, crumbles to its base; or rather melts into thin air before the [pg 306] first puff of wind? He cannot, surely, require telling that those who look for Demonstration will refuse to put up with Rhetoric:—that, with no thoughtful person will Assertion pass for Argument:—nor mere Reiteration, however long persevered in, ever be mistaken for accumulated Proof.
“When I am taking a ride with Rouser,”—(quietly remarked Professor Saville to Bodley Coxe,)—“I observe that, if I ever demur to any of his views, Rouser's practice always is, to repeat the same thing over again in the same words,—only in a louder tone of voice” ... The delicate rhetorical device thus indicated proves to be not peculiar to Professors of the University of Oxford; but to be familiarly recognized as an instrument of conviction by the learned men who dwell on the banks of the Cam. To be serious however.—Dr. Hort has evidently failed to see that nothing short of a careful induction of particular instances,—a system of laborious footnotes, or an “Appendix” bristling with impregnable facts,—could sustain the portentous weight of his fundamental position, viz. that Codex b is so exceptionally pure a document as to deserve to be taken as a chief guide in determining the Truth of Scripture.
It is related of the illustrious architect, Sir Gilbert Scott,—when he had to rebuild the massive central tower of a southern Cathedral, and to rear up thereon a lofty spire of stone,—that he made preparations for the work which astonished the Dean and Chapter of the day. He caused the entire area to be excavated to what seemed a most unnecessary depth, and proceeded to lay a bed of concrete of fabulous solidity. The “wise master-builder” was determined that his work should last for ever. Not so Drs. Westcott and Hort. They are either troubled with no similar anxieties, or else too clear-sighted to cherish any similar hope. They are evidently of opinion that a cloud or a quagmire will serve [pg 307] their turn every bit as well as granite or Portland-stone. Dr. Hort (as we have seen already, namely in p. 252,) considers that his individual “strong preference” of one set of Readings above another, is sufficient to determine whether the Manuscript which contains those Readings is pure or the contrary. “Formidable arrays of [hostile] Documentary evidence,” he disregards and sets at defiance, when once his own “fullest consideration of Internal Evidence” has “pronounced certain Readings to be right” [p. 61].
The only indication we anywhere meet with of the actual ground of Dr. Hort's certainty, and reason of his preference, is contained in his claim that,—
“Every binary group [of MSS.] containing b is found to offer a large proportion of Readings, which, on the closest scrutiny, have the ring of genuineness: while it is difficult to find any Readings so attested which look suspicious after full consideration.”—(p. 227. Also vol. i. 557—where the dictum is repeated.)
XLVIII. And thus we have, at last, an honest confession of the ultimate principle which has determined the Text of the present edition of the N. T. “The ring of genuineness”! This it must be which was referred to when “instinctive processes of Criticism” were vaunted; and the candid avowal made that “the experience which is their foundation needs perpetual correction and recorrection.”[729]
“We are obliged” (say these accomplished writers) “to come to the individual mind at last.”[730]
And thus, behold, “at last” we have reached the goal!... Individual idiosyncrasy,—not external Evidence:—Readings “strongly preferred,”—not Readings strongly attested:—“personal discernment” (self! still self!) conscientiously exercising [pg 308] itself upon Codex b;—this is a true account of the Critical method pursued by these accomplished Scholars. They deliberately claim “personal discernment” as “the surest ground for confidence.”[731] Accordingly, they judge of Readings by their looks and by their sound. When, in their opinion, words “look suspicious,” words are to be rejected. If a word has “the ring of genuineness,”—(i.e. if it seems to them to have it,)—they claim that the word shall pass unchallenged.
XLIX. But it must be obvious that such a method is wholly inadmissible. It practically dispenses with Critical aids altogether; substituting individual caprice for external guidance. It can lead to no tangible result: for Readings which “look suspicious” to one expert, may easily not “look” so to another. A man's “inner consciousness” cannot possibly furnish trustworthy guidance in this subject matter. Justly does Bp. Ellicott ridicule “the easy method of ... using a favourite Manuscript,” combined with “some supposed power of divining the Original Text;”[732]—unconscious apparently that he is thereby aiming a cruel blow at certain of his friends.
As for the proposed test of Truth,—(the enquiry, namely, whether or no a reading has “the ring of genuineness”)—it is founded on a transparent mistake. The coarse operation alluded to may be described as a “rough and ready” expedient practised by receivers of money in the way of self-defence, and only for their own protection, lest base metal should be palmed off upon them unawares. But Dr. Hort is proposing an analogous test for the exclusive satisfaction of him who utters the suspected article. We therefore disallow the proposal entirely: not, of course, because we suppose that so excellent and honourable a man as Dr. Hort [pg 309] would attempt to pass off as genuine what he suspects to be fabricated; but because we are fully convinced—(for reasons “plenty as blackberries”)—that through some natural defect, or constitutional inaptitude, he is not a competent judge. The man who finds “no marks of either Critical or Spiritual insight” (p. 135) in the only Greek Text which was known to scholars till a.d. 1831,—(although he confesses that “the text of Chrysostom and other Syrian Fathers of the IVth century is substantially identical with it”[733]); and vaunts in preference “the bold vigour” and “refined scholarship” which is exclusively met with in certain depraved uncials of the same or later date:—the man who thinks it not unlikely that the incident of the piercing of our Saviour's side (ἄλλος δὲ λαβῶν λόγχην κ.τ.λ.) was actually found in the genuine Text of S. Matt. xxvii. 49, as well as in S. John xix. 34:[734]—the man who is of opinion that the incident of the Woman taken in Adultery (filling 12 verses), “presents serious differences from the diction of S. John's Gospel,”—treats it as “an insertion in a comparatively late Western text”[735] and declines to retain it even within brackets, on the ground that it “would fatally interrupt” the course of the narrative if suffered to stand:—the man who can deliberately separate off from the end of S. Mark's Gospel, and print separately, S. Mark's last 12 verses, (on the plea that they “manifestly cannot claim any apostolic authority; but are doubtless founded on some tradition of the Apostolic age;”[736])—yet who straightway proceeds to annex, as an alternative Conclusion (ἄλλως), “the wretched supplement derived from codex l:”[737]—the man (lastly) who, in defiance of “solid reason and pure taste,” finds music in the “utterly marred” “rhythmical arrangement” of the Angels' Hymn on the night of the [pg 310] Nativity:[738]—such an one is not entitled to a hearing when he talks about “the ring of genuineness.” He has already effectually put himself out of Court. He has convicted himself of a natural infirmity of judgment,—has given proof that he labours under a peculiar Critical inaptitude for this department of enquiry,—which renders his decrees nugatory, and his opinions worthless.