AN EXACT TRANSCRIPT OF THE CODEX AUGIENSIS, A GRÆCO-LATIN MANUSCRIPT OF S. PAUL'S EPISTLES, COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. TO WHICH IS ADDED A FULL COLLATION OF FIFTY MANUSCRIPTS CONTAINING VARIOUS PORTIONS OF THE GREEK NEW WITH A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. FREDERICK HENRY SCRIVENER, M.A. LATE SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, PERPETUAL CURATE OF PENWERRIS, FALMOUTH. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND HENRY, LORD BISHOP OF EXETER. MY LORD, MANY years have now passed since, encouraged by the countenance of that truly learned and revered Prelate, Archbishop Howley, I undertook the bold design of collating all the Manuscripts of the Greek Testament deposited in England. I wish not to complain of the hindrances that have checked my progress in this labour of love: it is enough for me to know that the state of life God's Providence has assigned to me has been found by men wiser and better than myself not incompatible with usefulness, with self-respect, and genuine peace of mind; nor ought I to wonder if a work so extensive, to which I have been able to devote mere fragments of my time, should prove itself a fragment. Such as it is, I most respectfully commend it to the judgment of your Lordship, so long my Diocesan, and through you to candid and impartial scholars. Whatever be the defects of my Volume, I have striven hard to be accurate; aware that, in these sacred studies, all that is not accurate is much worse than useless. For the rest, I am in the hands of One who vouchsafes to accept the meanest service we can offer in the cause of His word and truth, according to what we have, not according to what we have not. Earnestly thanking your Lordship for the most kind interest you have been pleased to take in my Biblical researches, I have the honour to be, My Lord, Your dutiful and obliged servant, F. H. SCRIVENER. FALMOUTH, December 1858. b |