The same writer states (pp. 336, 339) that while Karlstadt classed some
of the Apocrypha as "hagiographa extra canonem," he called these
supplements to Daniel, with the Prayer of Manasses, and others as "plane
apocryphos." He also represents Luther as prettily styling these pieces
corn-flowers plucked up, because not in the Hebrew, yet placed in a
separate garden or bed, because much that is good is found in them. They
are thus detached in his version, as in ours, from Daniel, and placed
among the apocryphal books. Calvin, however, in his Lectures on Daniel
entirely ignores these additions. His English translator barely mentions
them in his preface (Edinb. 1852, p. xlix.).
Far more contemptuous than Luther's estimate of these productions is
that of Professor (now Bishop) Ryle in the _Cambridge Companion to the
Bible_ (1894), where he writes: "The character of these stories is
trifling and childish."
But in reply to this and similar depreciatory opinions, it may be
pointed out that one does not look in these extra-Danielic stories for
such a knowledge of the human heart as is displayed in the Psalms, nor
for such knowledge of the Godhead as is revealed in St.
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