on the history of the Canon, if time had spared these precious documents
of Christian antiquity. Even the extant writings of the second century,
however important they may be from other points of view, give a very
inadequate idea of the relation of their respective authors to the
Canonical writings. In the case of Justin Martyr for instance, it is not
from his Apologies or from his Dialogue with Trypho that we should
expect to obtain the fullest and most direct information on this point.
In works like these, addressed to Heathens and Jews, who attributed no
authority to the writings of Apostles and Evangelists, and for whom the
names of the writers would have no meaning, we are not surprised that he
refers to those writings for the most part anonymously and with reserve.
On the other hand, if his treatise against Marcion (to take a single
instance) had been preserved, we should probably have been placed in a
position to estimate with tolerable accuracy his relation to the
Canonical writings. But in the absence of all this valuable literature,
the notices in Eusebius assume the utmost importance, and it is of
primary moment to the correctness of our result that we should rightly
interpret his language. Above all, it is incumbent on us not to assume
that his silence means exactly what we wish it to mean. Eusebius made it
his business to record notices throwing light on the history of the
Canon. The first care of the critic therefore should be to inquire with
what aims and under what limitations he executed this portion of his
work.

Now, our author is eloquent on the silence of Eusebius. His fundamental
assumption is that where Eusebius does not mention a reference to or
quotation from any Canonical book in any writer of whom he may be
speaking, there the writer in question was himself silent. This indeed
is only the application of a general principle which seems to have taken
possession of our author's mind. The argument from silence is