This implies either the employment of two scribes or else an almost
incredible skill in the single scribe employed, and in either case
it doubles the probability of detection. If, moreover, the supposed
fabricator is also himself the scribe, it is evident that he is not only
a very ingenious artist, but also a very accomplished scholar, and one
can only regret that he has engaged in an industry which has placed him
at the mercy of an Arab who would steal his mother-in-law for a few
piastres, and is likely, therefore, to enrich no one but Mr. Shapira. We
should expect to find, however, that his extraordinary ingenuity has at
some point or another overreached itself. Familiar as he must be with
the labors of modern Biblical critics--for otherwise he would hardly
have ventured to impose upon them--it would be strange if he were not
betrayed into some more or less suspicious coincidences with them. In
any case, the problem presented by the fragments is one of profound
interest, and the whole world of letters will resound with the
controversy they are certain to excite.--_London Times_.
* * * * *
[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF OLD KNOCKING DEVICES FOR DOORS.
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