If you doubt my ability in such matters, which both enemies and friends are forced to acknowledge, your friend, Dr. Tischendorf, even, says as follows:
—'Simonides received an excellent education, and, when a young man, spent a considerable time in the Greek monasteries at Mount Athos, occupying himself almost exclusively in the study of ancient MSS., by means of which, especially, he greatly enriched his knowledge of the Greek and Egyptian antiquities. At the same time he employed himself very much in drawing and lithography, in which he became very skilful: and this skill was turned to account afterwards, when he copied the ancient MSS. Moreover, by vigorous study and many voyages in Asia and Africa, Simonides arrived at the climax of superiority in philology, particularly in the knowledge of the wonderful art of ancient MSS.'
These statements M. Tischendorf proclaimed at Leipsic on the 3rd of February, 1856, through the German newspapers, from which it was published then at Berlin in a pamphlet entitled Judgment of Simonides, of which I still possess a copy.
