374 



bodies composed of common matter to be different, when the 

 constituents are similarly circumstanced. 



The paper (first part) thus concluded : " Aware that the 

 identity of the agent, in all the phenomena called electric, is 

 firmly established in the minds of the scientific, and that ex- 

 periments of apparently so convincing a nature have been 

 brought to bear upon the subject, that doubts seem to be no 

 longer entertained, I scarcely know how to declare, in terms 

 that shall protect me from the imputation of presumption, that 

 I have never been able to view the matter in the same light. 

 I have long hesitated to repeat, in advanced life, an opinion 

 which, in my early days, I ventured to promulgate within the 

 walls of this house, namely, that the agents in electricity and 

 galvanism are different, and that the laws of one do not ex- 

 plain the phenomena of the other. Believing, however, that 

 useful results have often sprung from humble causes; that 

 moral cowardice is as little to be esteemed as moral rash- 

 ness ; that the influence of public opinion ought to have its 

 limits in promoting and restraining human actions ; I deter- 

 mined to bring my reasons for dissenting from the views of 

 the philosophical world before a tribunal so competent to 

 judge of their pretensions." 



The Rev. J. H. Todd, D. D., gave an account of a frag- 

 ment of an ancient purple manuscript of the Gospels, in Latin, 

 which he supposes to have been written in the fourth, or early 

 in the fifth century, and which he had purchased some years 

 ago in Dublin. 



The fragment is but a single leaf, containing a portion of 

 the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It is written in double 

 columns. Each column begins with a large capital letter, 

 although in the middle of a sentence, or even (as in the case of 

 the third and fourth columns) in the middle of a word. Capital 

 letters are also used at the beginning of sections, which, how- 

 ever, do not always coincide with the ancient Ammonian sec- 

 tions, or Ke(f>a\aia, employed in the Eusebian canons; nor are 



