GEOGRAPHY, ANTIQUITIES, ETC. 405 



and of a form or fashion which those learned in Greek MSS. con- 

 sider to be of the time of the Ptolemies. With these interesting 

 fragments of orations of an orator so celebrated as Hyperides, of 

 whose works nothing is extant but a few quotations in other Greek 

 writers, he embarked for England. Upon his arrival here he sub- 

 mitted the precious relics to the inspection of the Council and mem- 

 bers of the Royal Society of Literature, who were unanimous in their 

 judgment as to the importance and genuineness of the MS. ; and Mr. 

 Harris immediately set to work, and with his own hand made a litho- 

 graphic fac-simle of each piece. Of this performance a few copies 

 were printed and distributed among the savans of Europe, and 

 Mr. Harris returned to Alexandria, whence he has made more than 

 one journey to Thebes in the hope of discovering some other portion 

 of the volume, of which he already had a part. In the same year 

 (1847) another English gentleman, Mr. Joseph Arden, of London, 

 bought at Thebes a papyrus, which he likewise brought to England. 

 Induced by the success of Mr. Harris, Mr. Arden submitted his roll 

 to the skilful and experienced hands of Mr. Hogarth ; and upon the 

 completion of the operation of unrolling, the MS. was discovered to 

 be the terminating portion of the very same volume of which Mr. 

 Harris had bought a fragment of the former part in the very same 



CT 1 C3 J. v 



year, and probably of the very same Arabs. No doubt now existed 

 that the volume, when entire, consisted of a collection of, or a selec- 

 tion from, the orations of the celebrated Athenian orator, Hyperides. 

 The portion of the volume which has fallen into the possession of 

 Mr. Arden contains " fifteen continuous columns of the ' Oration for 

 Lycophron,' to which work three of Mr. Harris's fragments apper- 

 tained ; and likewise the ' Oration for Euxenippus, which is quite 

 complete and in beautiful preservation." Whether, as Mr. Babing- 

 ton observes in his preface to the work, " any more scraps of the 

 ' Oration for Lycophron ' or of the ' Oration against Demosthenes ' 

 remain to be discovered, either in Thebes or elsewhere, may be 

 doubtful, but is certainly worth the inquiry of learned travellers." 

 The condition, however, of the fragments obtained by Mr. Harris but 

 too significantly indicate the hopelessness of success. The scroll had 

 evidently been more frequently rolled and unrolled in that particu- 

 lar part, namely, the speech of Hyperides in a matter of such peculiar 

 interest as that involving the honor of the most celebrated orator 



^j 



of antiquity ; it had been more read and had been more thumbed 

 by ancient fingers than any other speech in the whole volume ; and 

 hence the terrible gap between Mr. Harris's and Mr. Arden's por- 

 tions. Those who are acquainted with the brittle, friable nature of 

 a roll of papyrus in the dry climate of Thebes, after being buried 

 two thousand years or more and then coming first into the hands of a 

 ruthless Arab, who, perhaps, had rudely snatched it out of the sarcop- 

 hagus of the mummied scribe, will well understand how dilapidations 

 occur. It frequently happens that a single roll, or possibly an entire 

 box, of such fragile treasures is found in the tomb of some ancient 

 philologist or man of learning, and that the possession is immedi- 

 ately disputed by the company of Arabs who may have embarked on 

 the venture. To settle the dispute, when there is not a scroll for 

 each member of the company, an equitable division is made by divid- 



