THE SINAI CODEX - [To the Editor of THE SpEcTATou.1
SIR,—May I thank Mr. Fyfe for his courtesy ? He is toe- polite to say so, but he clearly thinks it was very dull of anyone not to understand what he meant by "intellectual snobbery." I fear I must put his forbearance to a further test, for I find his second letter even more puzzling than his first. Mr. Fyfe has no doubt read the Archbishop of Canterbury's interesting story of the purchase in The Times. of February 2nd. Who is claiming intellectual superiority ?- Sir Frederick Kenyon or the Archbishop ? And who exactly is behaving with servility to whom ? Is the Prime Minister being servile to the Archbishop, or the Chancellor of the- Exchequer to the Prime Minister ? Or all three to Sir Frederick ?
It is all very perplexing. To the plain man it would seem that all these eminent persons knew exactly what they were doing. So I am sure do most of the intelligent public who are putting up the E50,000. And Mr. Fyfe must not ride off on his high horse of" intellectual snobbery." He roundly asserted that the purchase (I quote his exact words) "serves no useful purpose whatever." When I ask his attention to three, scholarship, safety, and use, he has nothing to say as to safety and use, while in what he says of scholarship he seems to have been misled by certain persons whom he calls scholars, but who belie that honourable title by their ignorance ; for they should have known, even if Mr. Fyfe did not, that for textual criticism photographs, however good, cannot take the place of the original manu- script; to give one small example they do not show the nature and colour of the ink, which may well be the crucial point.
- Neither must he throw dust in the eyes of your readers from the sweepings of the backstairs. The silly stories of theft have been refuted a hundred times. Is it not a little unworthy to try to "queer the pitch" of fair discussion with this ancient and discredited gossip?—! am, Sir, &c.,
Mopes, Five Ashes, Sussex. LIONEL JAMES.
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