2. Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. I, vii. 26. The first and
most important of these passages is indeed wanting in
twenty-eight manuscripts, but it is found in nineteen. If we
weigh the comparative value of those manuscripts, one of 900
years old, in the king of France's library, may be alleged
in its favour; but the passage is omitted in the correct
manuscript of Bologna, which the P. de Montfaucon ascribes
to the sixth or seventh century (Diarium Italic. p. 409).
The taste of most of the editors (except Isaeus, see
Lactant. edit. Dufresnoy, tom. i. p. 596) has felt the
genuine style of Lactantius