1899.] 
Section II.—Block Prints. 
£ Y 
remain uncertain whether the script run from the left (a) to the right 
(b) in European fashion, or from the top (a) to the bottom (6) in 
Chinese fashion. In other words, a might be either the upper left-hand 
or the upper right-hand corner of the formula. Similarly the beginning 
of a formula might happen to be found to lie in the portion B, in which 
case the script would run from the right to the left, in Semitic fashion. 
The two alternative possibilities, here explained, are those actually 
observed by me in the case of the formulas of the Fourth and Seventh 
and the formula of the Fifth Set respectively. The former seem to 
run from the left to the right, the latter from the right to the left. 
The weak point in this argument is not so much the fact that occa¬ 
sionally the opposite portions (eg cd and fbch ) of the formula are found 
printed ; for this might be due to a careless misprint; and the detailed 
description of the various sets will show that misprints are by no 
means uncommon. A far more serious difficulty is the uncertainty as to 
whether the books were intended for reading at all. If they were not 
intended for reading, but for some kind of mechanical use, the circum¬ 
stance of what particular portion of the formula was printed in order 
to represent the whole of it is obviously of no moment. But on the 
other hand, the regularity in printing a certain definite portion points 
to method and design, such as one would not expect in the case of 
printing for mere mechanical use. In the latter case one would expect 
the portions AB, AD, BC, CD to occur promiscuously. It seems, no doubt, 
certain that the disorderly books, above mentioned, such as No. VI of the 
First Set, cannot have been intended for intelligent reading, but, on the 
other hand, it is by no means certain that some other books may not have 
been prepared with that object. Book No. II of the Seventh Set is a case 
in point. The marginal diagram shows the arrangement of its imprints. 
. The formula is indicated by 
abcdef; it is repeated 7 times on 
the two pages 4 and 5 ; the fourth 
impresion is divided between page 
f 4 and page 5, about one-half of 
the formula standing on either of 
5 those two pages. The reader is 
supposed to read down the left- 
6 hand columns which stand upright. 
Having read down column I on 
7 page 4, to the middle of the 4th 
impression, he continues with the 
other half of that impression in 
column II on page 5. He then 
i 
i 
_4 
2 
Page 
I 
4. 
ab c 
oqv 
def 
f d V 
abc 
oqv 
.'def 
S°v 
’abc 
oqv 
.def 
fop 
abc 
oqv 
1 
III 
- —^ 
'I' Pa 
ge 5. 
II 
def 
f°P 
abc 
oqv 
def 
f»v 
abc 
oqv 
def 
fop 
abc 
oqv 
def 
fop 
AI 
