[ 134 ] 



carried to its whole extent, will lead us to abfurd conclu- 

 fions. 



On the whole I fee nothing abfurd or impoffible in the cafe 



of ancient forms occurring in manufcripts lefs ancient than them- 



felves ; and the only cafe from which we *can fafely conclude, 



feems to be from that of forms confeffedly modern occurring in 



manufcripts whofe dates are fuppofed antecedent to the intro- 



duition of thofe forms ; and this brings me to confider the fe- 



cond objedion. Which is, that the forms of A. A. A. M. T. ob- 



ferved in this manufcript occur alfo in Turonen/ts, a manufcript 



referred upon conjedure to the feventh century, and in fomc 



other fpecimens of the feventh or eighth century, Palaeog. p. 214, 



224. But thefe forms can be proved both from the infcriptions 



and manufcripts to precede the feventh century. For with ref- 



pe£l to this form of M, we have the exprefs affertion of Alont- 



yiwfow (Pal«og. p. 130, 171, 142, 180) and we may obferve it 



to occur on the Pahnyrenian infcriptions, and thofe which Pocock 



copied from the ftatue of Memtioji^ and w'hich are dated in the 



reign of AdtiaTi. On thefe laft we may obferve alfo the fame 



forms of A and A which occur here ; and we have in the Marmora 



Oxon. Lond. 1732, p. 594, an infcription where the A is made as 



here. In the appendix of tTie preface to Gudius's infcriptions, 



we may find fome inftances of a fimilar form of A. Similar 



forms of thefe letters occur alfo in infcriptions of uncertain date, 



in a book entitled Siciliie et objacentium Infularum infcriptionum 



Colledio. Panormi 1769. See Proleg. p. 39, 42 & 43- The form 



of T which occurs here may be obferved in infcriptions of every 



age. 



