LKAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 159 



library of Pantocratoras on Mount Athos : " By the dim light which 

 streamed through the opening of an iron door in the wall of the 

 ruined tower, I saw above a hundred ancient manuscripts lying 

 among the rubbish which had fallen from the upper floor, which was 

 rviinous, and had in great part given way. Some of these manu- 

 scripts," the writer says, " seemed quite entire — fine large folios ; but 

 the monks said they were unapproachable, for that floor also on 

 which they lay was unsafe, the beams below being rotten from the 

 wet and rain which came in through the roof. Here was a trap 

 ready set and baited for a bibliographical antiquary. I jDeeped at 

 the old manuscripts, looked particularly at one or two that were 

 lying in the middle of the floor, and could hardly resist the tempta- 

 tion. I advanced cautiously along the boards, keeping close to the 

 wall, whilst every now and then a dull cracking noise warned me of 

 my danger, but I tried each board by stamping upon it with my foot 

 before 1 ventured my weight upon it. At last, when I dared go no 

 farther, I made them bring me a long stick, with which I fished two 

 or three fine manuscripts, and poked them along towards the door. 

 When I had safely landed them, I examined them more at my ease, 

 but found that the rain had washed the outer leaves quite clean ; the 

 pages were stuck tight together into a solid mass, and when I 

 attempted to open them they broke short ofi" in square bits like a 

 biscuit. One fine volume, a large folio in double columns, of most 

 venerable antiquity, particularly gi'ieved me. I do not know how 

 many more manuscripts there might be under the piles of rubbish. 

 Perhaps some of them might still be legible, but without assistance 

 and time I could not clean out the ruins that had fallen from above, 

 and I was unable to save even a scrap from this general tomb of a 

 whole race of books." In other quarters Mr. Curzon was much more 

 successful. 



Although, as an authority, the manuscript which I have described 

 adds nothing to the critical apparatus of the New Testament, 1 have 

 ventured to have stamped upon the morocco case in which I have 

 placed it, the words Codex Torontonensis, because, as I suppose, 

 there is no other example of an early manuscript copy of the Four 

 Gospels in the original Greek, in Toronto. 



(3.) Lastly, for the sake of including a genuine specimen of a por- 

 tion of the Scriptures in Hebrew, as well as in Latin and Greek, I 

 add and describe now a roll of the Book of Esther, beautifully and 



