In the present chapter I purpose to collect under a few general heads the chief inferences I would draw from the materials made use of in the compilation of this work.

I. And the first remark I would offer is this:—how fallacious an idea the mere date of a manuscript will often convey respecting its critical and intrinsic value. And herein I may be expected to state what I mean by a valuable manuscript. I include under that appellation not only those documents which approach the closest to the original text, so far as it can at present be ascertained (in which sense the value of each copy must of course vary with the taste or judgment of individuals); but yet more such as contain unusual, or numerous divergencies from the common editions; such as exhibit readings either striking and probable in themselves, or pregnant with hints for the solution of that hitherto dark problem, the true theory of families or recensions. Regarded in this point of view no one could well hesitate to prefer our Evangelisterium y to x; yet the latter is a noble uncial of the 8th or 9th century at the latest; the other bears what appears to be its own date, a. d. 1319.