( 1994 ) 
Siippore, my Lord, for inftance, a man fliould bring to 
any Antiquary a good MS. Copy of the Hebrew BMe, 
?entatench, or Pfalter, written in a fmall common Letter, 
without Points, without fine Knots, and Flourifties, with- 
out Pidures/ and great Letters, or any thing that (hould 
look like Pompous : Suppofe that thp Ink, Parchment, 
&c. lliould carry a Teeming face of Antiquity with them, 
and that a man fhould fay his MS. was looo, laoo, or 
15CO years old, when as really, it was written within a 
•^ery few years : Gould he Irom the Hand alone foon find 
out the Cheat > 
All the Hebrew MSS. that I have as yet feen, are writ- 
ten either* with Samaritan or Chaldee Letters. As to the 
Samaritan^ I own they bear a -good refemblance one to 
another, and that they differ very much from thofe Sama- 
titan Giiaraflers, which we find ftamped upon divers truly 
Antknt and Genuine Coins. But then there feems to be 
fuch a Refemblance (as to the Charader ) between thofe 
Coins ftruck in Ages far diftant from one another, that 'tis 
hard ( from the Gonfideration of the Metal^ its hahruk^ 
Weight:, from the Shapes of the Letters in the Infcription, 
^ e^c. ) to fey which Coin was made in the time of Davids 
oxSolomot^^ and which no older than the time ot the Ma^ 
ehahies'^ this being rather to be gathered from the Words 
and Meani/fg of their Infcriptions, than from the Figure of 
the Charafters which Gompofe them. The fame may be 
faid, in a great meafure, of the old Gree^, Pmio, Romany 
BrittiJ/j and other Coins* 
The Chaldee Charafter has indeed varied in traft of 
time, according to the different Fancies and Humours of 
men. The Even plain Letter, I think, is the moft Ancient. 
This they altered into a more neat way of making it, as 
your Grace finds in R» Stephens Hebrew Bibles. There is a 
third falhion, of waving the perpendicular ftrokes like 
E.ays, as your Grace remembers in- Ibme of the Hebrew 
Coins exhibited in the Prolegomena to the Polygloti Bibles. 
Then 
