^ . the- f Scribe ftipu'd be. Nay, and 
l^V^X what does farther add to .the Diffi- 
gr«2t€r plenty of th€m. For even I, by culty, IS, that 'tis knOWn that the 
:i&f:''::r^^:mr.^^^^^^^^ mapesof the M.;«P«/e Letters found 
I wasfure of, have afterwards fceen cna- in ijreel{ MSS, have been retain d tor 
bicdcof*y» th^t this Book hoks as jf it had above 6oo vears together, with little 
many, Netherlands, England, he- Variation 5 and alfo, • that fotiie MSS. 
land, 5cc. md, k msy b^, ahm [ucha- written wlth Minufcnles and with 
^'"^^- Accents, are older thap fome others 
which want them. And alfo, that the prefent Greek Co- 
fifieiox Librarij have three or four different Hands com- 
rjQonly ufed by them, one being their ovfn£ommon Ha»d, 
the others an Imitation of old MSS, which are more beauli- 
f al, but troublefome in writing, than their ordinary Run- 
ning Hands :,It being cuftomary, as I have been told, when 
a man wants a Copy of fuch a Book to be written, for the 
to ask in wliat Hand it muft be written (for one 
Hand, itmay be,is more Coftly than another 5 ) and accord- 
ing as they agree, the Book is written. And thus I have 
feen fome very new Things written in the fame Hand with 
Books which are certainly 400 years old. 
What Methods Learned Men have taken, in order to 
inform themfelves of the different Ages of MSSy I Jcnow 
not, but my own has been this. I have been careful to 
get all the Dates I could, wherein 'twas faid that fuch an 
individual MS was written, at fuch a tiwe, ox hy fuch a 
particular perfon 5 every Book with a Date, being as a Stan* 
dard whereby to know the Age of thofe ^ Books of the 
fam or a lik^ Hand, and of thofe that are not very much 
alder or mwer. Where Dates have been wanting in fome 
BooKf, perhaps they have had fome Succeffion of Empe* 
rors, KingSy Popes^ Bijhops, or other Officers 5 and fetting 
down the continuance of their Predeceflbrs for fo many 
jears^ mnths^ and days^ if there be only the naked Nam^ 
of him whb is the lafi in order, ( all other Circumftances 
concurring, ) I then judge the Book to have been written 
during 
