res; for he too has recorded that 'early,' 'the
first day of the week,' [JESUS] appeared to the Magdalene. In a word, two
distinct seasons are set before us by these words: first, the season of
the Resurrection,--which was 'in the end of the Sabbath;' secondly, the
season of our SAVIOUR'S Appearing,--which was 'early.' "(112)

No one, I presume, can read this passage and yet hesitate to admit that he
is here listening to Eusebius "ad Marinum" over again. But if any one
really retains a particle of doubt on the subject, he is requested to cast
his eye to the foot of the present page; and even an unlearned reader,
surveying the originals with attention, may easily convince himself that
_Victor is here nothing else but a copyist_.(113) That the work in which
Eusebius reconciles "seeming discrepancies in the Evangelical narratives,"
was actually lying open before Victor while he wrote, is ascertained
beyond dispute. He is observed in his next ensuing Comment to quote from
it, and to mention Eusebius as its author. At the end of the present note
he has a significant allusion to Eusebius:--"I know very well," he says,
"what has been suggested _by those who are at the pains to remove the
apparent inconsistencies in this place_."(114) But when writing on S. Mark
xvi. 9-20, he does more. After abridging, (as his manner is,) what
Eusebius explains with such tedious emphasis, (giving the substance of
five columns in about three times as many lines,) he adopts the exact
expressions of Eusebius,--follows him in his very mistakes,--and finally
transcribes his words. The reader is therefore requested to bear in mind
that what he has been listening to is _not the testimony of Victor at
all_: but _the testimony of Eusebius_. This is but one more echo therefore
of a passage of which we are all beginning by this time to be weary; so
exceedingly rash are the statements with which it is introduced, so
utterly preposterous the proposed method of remedying a difficulty which
proves after all to be purely imaginary.

What then _is_ the testimony of Victor? Does he offer any independent
statement on the question in dispute, from which his own private opinion
(though nowhere stated) may be lawfully inferred? Yes indeed. Victor,
though frequently a Transcriber only, is observed every now and then to
come forward in his own person, and deliver his individual sentiment.(115)
But nowhere throughout his work does he deliver such remarkable testimony