At any moment we may learn that some one or
other of the lost books of antiquity has been discovered in a bundle of Egyptian papyri. On Tuesday, the Times announced that a col- lection of papyri has just been bought by the Geneva Museum, which contains fragments of the Iliad and the Odyssey, presenting great variations from the received text; and a passage from the Orestes a thousand years older than any manuscript hitherto known. There are also poetical, historical, and scientific compositions in the collection, as yet unattri- buted. One of the most exciting things about these finds of papyri is the possibility of early or contemporary Christian records being discovered. Egypt and Syria were near and in constant communication, and therefore an epistle from a real Karshish giving first-hand evidence as to the life of Christ is by no means an. impossibility. The great men of the first forty years of the first century (like Mr. Browning's " Cleon "), were exceedingly curious about new religions.
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