278 Proceedings of the RoTjal Irish Academy. 



the sai7its who are urged to be of good cheer, even though they cannot 

 say, 'we have shed our blood &c.', for the words are [241, x], kan 

 esje meu-s-saje hn wparresia; for, it is subsequently added, 

 God has taken care that the martyrs are not to take precedency of 

 everybody in heaven. 



150. The last page of this Homily is deformed by errors in the 

 concluding lines. Ainsi le Dieu de V Univers .... 7ious a rendus 

 dignes d^etre reunis dmis ce saint lieu aujourd'hui pour la commemoration 

 du . . . . martyr A. Victor; qu'il Mnisse notre reunion. But tbat 

 does not express the text, whicb says, " as he hath made us worthy 

 io gsXh.BX here to-day, .... ^o he will Mess every reunion of us Sco,.''^ 



And finally, whatever fitness there migbt be in a religieux of tbe 

 time of Louis XIY. adding a prayer for the political welfare of le 

 Grand Monarque, there does not seem the slightest appropriateness 

 here in a valedictory peroration like this : — 



qvlil Mnisse notre reunion, qu'il garde notre roi ami de Dieu afin 

 qu'il accomplisse sa carriere sans trouble ni emeute, quHls nous henisse 

 tous, petits ou grands &c. 



I rather think that their "God-loving king" was not a political 

 one, for the prayer is : " that he may complete his narration without 

 any confusion or trouble"! nfjek tefdiekesis [= St^yr^crts] ebol 

 ajn laau nstortf hi tarakhe. 



[ ni. ] 



The subsequent portion of Coptic text given iu this Fasciculus 

 (pp. 243-265) is another Eloge on the same martyr, St. Victor. It is 

 not necessary to go in detail through this second article. 



But indeed it is throughout of a piece with the previous portion : 

 in the space of its 22 pages, I have noted upwards of 100 errors. 

 Many of these are of course trivial, and involve no grave misunder- 

 standing in situ, because the general sense secures the passage from 

 the calamities which would result from the legitimate process of 

 translation; but in order to work this oracle properly, a translator 

 must have come to terms with the sibyl, and secured a knowledge of 

 the drift of the clause lefore attempting its grammatical analysis! 

 But this is not always possible. 



I have not space to set forth everything : my aim in this paper is 

 to urge on Coptic students the necessity of learning the gramm.ar 

 before venturing into the dangerous post of editor. Errors will occur 



