stretched beyond its natural limits. In this respect any speaker in the world might take a lesson from the Bishop of Tuy, who ranks indeed among Spain's greatest living orators. It is true enough that in his sermon the pulpit gave him an advantage over those who spoke from a low daïs. The hands usually rested on the front of the pulpit, and were slightly used except in delicate movements of the fingers. The voice was rarely raised; the effect was produced by modulation, by the employment of some three low notes all of the same volume, and, it may be added, by his eyes. There is little question that he would be held as great a preacher in England as in Spain.

The long excursions which were arranged for alternate days added greatly to good-fellowship and also to the knowledge of this wonderfully beautiful province. Asturias should be approached from the south, for there can be few more striking contrasts than between the northern and southern slopes of the Cantabrian range. After harvest is over the brown-red undulating plains of Leon might be those of India; the greenery is only a delicate fringe along the rare watercourses. But, the range once crossed, the descent is made into a country with all the glories of the more wooded parts of Scotland and Devonshire combined, a country of tumbling streams and luxuriant coombes. Blessed is the land with an abundant rainfall! How the Asturian conquistador, who tramped Peru with Pizarro, must have longed for a real wet day! Asturias is a paradise for botanist and fisherman; but the latter at least must not delay, for the coalmaster and ironmaster are abroad, and some of the best rivers are already running black or red between their banks of as yet untarnished green. The resemblance to Devonshire is emphasized by the apple orchards which surround the farms and run in and out of the wilder woods. Cider is in fact the national drink, far cheaper than either beer or wine, and, as in Devonshire, the expert prefers the rough to the sparkling, with which the more feminine or foreign elements of society are regaled. To Devon and Scotland as contributors to Asturian scenery may be added the southern Alpine slopes, for

chestnut woods form also one of the glories of Northern Spain. These, however, may only too possibly disappear, for the disease in the roots which is devastating Galicia may easily spread eastwards, unless indeed the drastic remedy of killing every tree affected is ruthlessly applied. It is from this Northern Spain that came in the days of our dominion in Aquitaine the chestnut wood that roofed our tithe-barns, and, perhaps in many more cases than is recognized, our churches. The best example of the use of chestnut in a church that the writer can remember is that of Golant, near Fowey, which was built not by a Spanish but a Portugal merchant. In Asturias itself, as elsewhere in Spain, the finer carving on church doors or choir stalls is of walnut wood, which when exposed to the outer air may at a little distance be easily mistaken for bronze-casting. Many are the memories which the foreign visitors will carry home with them as an abiding treasure. Some will dwell on the beautiful late cinque-cento monument of the founder by Pompeo Leoni at Salas; nor will they forget the luncheon served by damsels in the now rare Asturian dress. Others will recall the extemporized music lessons to which the boy artisans of Gijon were summoned from the carpentering and metallurgical shops of the technical school, and the strong sweet voice of the soloist. Others again will long for the steam tug which, as in a hurdle race, jumped the Atlantic rollers off the bar of Pradia San Esteban. None can possibly forget the view over mountain and valley from the classic Cave of Covadonga, nor yet the inspired poet, D. Fernando de Arteaga, who, mounted on a chair therein, recited the verses which yoked past glories to present aspirations. Above all-but this cannot be expressed in print-memory will turn to the warm-hearted comradeship of the Rector and professors who, in no formal sense, address us as 'dear colleagues.' ' dear colleagues.' The spirit of welcome, the unstinted hospitality, proved infectious. They spread to private citizens, to social and commercial clubs, to neighbouring townships. On the last Sunday a formal farewell visit was paid to the co-founders of the University, the Cathedral Chapter in its chapter-house, the Provincial VOL. LXVIII.-NO. CXXXV.

G

Governor in the seat of civil government, and the Municipality in its fine town hall. Here civic hospitality reached its extremest limits. Neither the Licensing Bill, nor even a Sunday-closing Act, has as yet cast a shadow over the 'five o'clock tea' of an Asturian ayuntamiento.

It is not without good reason that the deliverance of Christian Spain had its origin in this beautiful province, the nursery of upstanding men and women. It may also well be the cradle of the coming economic and intellectual revival, thanks to the activity of the University of Oviedo and the allied institutions in Asturias and neighbouring Biscay. The Catalan progressive programme is a federation. of which Catalonia is to be the mistress. The Mediterranean province may find a dangerous rival in the more robust population of the Atlantic shores. Bilbao is already treading on the heels of Barcelona.

E. ARMSTRONG.

ART. V. THE NUMERATION OF NEW TESTAMENT

MANUSCRIPTS.

1. Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt, hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte. Von Dr. (theol.) HERMANN FREIHERR Band I., 1, 2, 3 Abteilung. (Berlin:

VON SODEN.

A. Duncker. 1902-7.)

2. Die griechischen Handschriften des neuen Testaments. Von CASPAR RENÉ GREGORY. (Leipzig: Hinrichs. 1908.)

STUDENTS of the New Testament text have long been aware that a crisis was approaching in the system of providing numbers and symbols for the manuscripts which constitute its apparatus. The system hitherto in universal use finds its origin in Wetstein's Prolegomena, published in 1730. In this the uncial MSS. are indicated by capital letters, the minuscules by Arabic numerals; and a fresh numeration is given for each of the four main groups into which the books of the New Testament fall-the Gospels, the Acts and Catholic Epistles, the Pauline Epistles, and the Apocalypse.

This system has been carried on by successive editors to the end of the nineteenth century. Wetstein's enumeration went as far as O for the uncial MSS. of the Gospels, and 112 for the minuscules. Exactly a century later, Scholz reached Y in his list of uncials, and 469 in the minuscules. The Latin alphabet being exhausted, Tischendorf took the Greek alphabet into use for the extension of the uncial list necessitated by his own researches; and on his discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus, rather than give it one of the later Greek letters as its symbol, he assigned to it the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph (*), and placed it at the head of his whole list. Subsequent scholars, whose discoveries were embodied in the standard lists of Scrivener and Gregory, completed the Greek alphabet, and carried on the list into the Hebrew alphabet as far as the fourth letter, Daleth (7). In Gregory's Textkritik (1900), which may be taken as the last word of this system, the MSS. of the Gospels range from A to 7 in the uncials, from 1 to 1420 in the minuscules; and each of the other groups has a separate list, the totals of which are naturally smaller.

eight,

By this time, however, it was clear that the system, so far as concerns the uncials, was breaking down. The list had only been kept within even these bounds by assigning several of the smaller fragments to a single letter, with a distinguishing number or small letter. Thus I contained nine distinct MSS., O eleven, T twenty-five, W fourteen, and eight. With the constant accession of newly-discovered MSS., especially the small fragments disinterred almost yearly in Egypt, it was quite clear that the Hebrew alphabet would soon be exhausted and even the Hebrew alphabet was inconvenient for practical purposes, since many readers are not acquainted with the letters, and not all printing offices possess a fount of them.

In these circumstances the two new systems were introduced which it is the object of the present article to explain. The first came into being in connexion with the elaborate edition of the Greek New Testament, which has long been in preparation by Professor H. von Soden. The first part of the prolegomena to this edition was published in 1902, and

the text has not yet made its appearance. When it does, there will be many questions of textual history and criticism to be discussed, and it will be convenient to have cleared out of the way the subsidiary question of the nomenclature of the manuscripts. The present article will therefore deal only with that part of von Soden's work which treats of the catalogue of the MSS., while the consideration of his classification of them into families and his theories of their textual history will be reserved until his text has been published.

The fundamental principles of von Soden's list are, first, that uncials and minuscules should be included indiscriminately, and, secondly, that the symbol denoting each MS. should give some indication of its age and contents. All MSS. are consequently denoted by Arabic numerals, to which is prefixed the Greek letter & if the MS. in question contains the whole New Testament (dia@ýn), ɛ if it contains the Gospels (evayyeλov), and a if it contains the Acts, Epistles, or Apocalypse (ảπóσroλos). A separate list is formed for each of these three classes, and elaborate rules are drawn up whereby the numbers may indicate the century to which the MS. is supposed to belong. Manuscripts of the first nine centuries are numbered from 1 to 99 in the case of the Gospels, from 1 to 49 in the two other groups; if these numbers are not sufficient (as in fact they are not), the same numbers are to be used again with o prefixed. To the tenth century are assigned the numbers 1000-1099 for the Gospels, 50-99 for the other groups. After the year 1000, the figures 100-199 are assigned to the eleventh century, 200-299 to the twelfth, 300-399 to the thirteenth, and so on; and when these figures are exhausted, they are repeated with a I prefixed (1100-1199 for the eleventh century, 1200-1299 for the twelfth century, and so on). In the case of the twelfth and subsequent centuries, even these numbers are not sufficient; consequently the twelfth century continues with 2000, the thirteenth with 3000, the fourteenth with 4000, and the fifteenth with 5000. A further complication is introduced in order to shew whether a MS. of the & or a groups includes the Apocalypse or not.