196 



LETTERS FROM PROFESSOR CARLYLE 



the fervours of devotion. The scenery and the mode of life that I 

 witnessed in the Holy mountain were certainly the most singular 

 I ever had an opportunity of seeing before, but I trust Your Lordship 

 will not think the observation of them diverted my attention from 

 the more important objects of my visit, the investigation of the 

 libraries ; during my stay, which consisted of rather more than 

 three weeks, I think I may venture to say I did not omit examining 

 one MS., which I had an opportunity of looking at on Mount Athos. 

 I believe their number amounted to almost 13,000. And unless there 

 may be a few ecclesiastical authors deposited in some private hands, 

 I do not conceive that there are any existing on the mountain which 

 we did not inspect. From the specimens of monastic libraries which 

 I had before examined, I own I did not entertain much hopes of 

 finding any of the grand desiderata in profane literature. And to 

 confess the truth my Lord, I have not been disappointed. For 

 except one copy of the Iliad, and another of the Odyssey ; a few of 

 the edited plays of the different tragedians ; a copy of Pindar and 

 Hesiod ; the orations of Demosthenes and iEschines ; parts of 

 Aristotle ; copies of Philo and Josephus, we did not meet with any 

 thing during the whole of our researches, that could be called 

 classical. We found however a number of very valuable MSS. of 

 the New Testament, though certainly none so old, by some centuries, 

 as either the Alexandrian codex or the MS. of Beza ; indeed I think 

 I have myself procured some MSS. of the N.T., from monasteries 

 in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, as old as any I saw in the 

 libraries of Mount Athos. We met with only two copies of parts 

 of the LXXII. ; and not one MS. of any consequence, in either 

 Syriac or Hebrew. There were several very beautiful MSS. of the 

 different Greek fathers ; and a prodigious quantity of polemical 

 divinity. The rest of the shelves were filled with lives of the saints, 

 Synaxaria, Theotocaria, Liturgies, Menaia, &c, &c, all relating to 

 the peculiar doctrines or offices of the Greek church. 



I have, however, my Lord, made out a very detailed catalogue of 

 the whole of the contents of these celebrated repositories which I 



