nary
sense. I found our author declaring, as others had declared before him,
that under certain circumstances Eusebius would be sure to act in a
particular way. I turned to Eusebius himself, and I found that, whenever
we are able to test his action under the supposed circumstances, he acts
in precisely the opposite way. I discovered that he not only sometimes,
but systematically, ignores mere quotations from the four Gospels and
the Acts and the thirteen Epistles of St Paul, however numerous and
however precise. I cannot indeed recollect a single instance where he
adduces a quotation for the mere purpose of authenticating any one of
these books.

But our author asks [180:2],

Is it either possible or permissible to suppose that, had Papias
known anything of the other two Gospels [the third and fourth], he
would not have inquired about them from the presbyters and recorded
their information? And is it either possible or permissible to
suppose that if Papias had recorded any similar information
regarding the composition of the third and fourth Gospels, Eusebius
would have omitted to quote it?

To the first question I answer that it is both possible and permissible
to make this supposition. I go beyond this, and say that it is not only
possible and permissible, but quite as probable as the opposite
alternative. In the absence of all definite knowledge respecting the
motive of Papias, I do not see that we are justified in giving any
preference to either hypothesis over the other. There is no reason for
supposing that Papias made these statements respecting St Mark and St
Matthew in his preface rather than in the body of his work, or that they
were connected and continuous, or that he had any intention of giving an
exhaustive account of all the documents with which he was acquainted. On
the contrary, these notices bear every mark of being incidental. If we
take the passage relating to St Mark for instance, the natural inference
is that Papias in the course of his expositions stumbled on a passage
where this Evangelist omitted something which was recorded by another
authority, or gave some incident in an order different from that which
he found elsewhere, and that in consequence he inserted the notice of
the presbyter respecting the composition of this Gospel, to explain the
divergence. He might, or might not, have had opportunities of inquiring
from the presbyters respecting the Gospel o