with those from the oldest uncials of the New Testament (Nos. 11-14; 17; 18; 20; 24); we purpose to examine the several alphabets (Nos. 1-7) letter by letter, pointing out to the student those variations in shape which palaeographers have judged the safest criteria of their relative ages. _Alpha_, _delta_, _theta_, _xi_, _pi_, _omega_, are among the best tests for this purpose. _Alpha_ is not often found in its present familiar shape, except in inscriptions, where the cross line is sometimes broken into an angle with the vertex downwards ([Symbol]). Even on the Rosetta stone the left limb leans against the upper part of the right limb, but does not form an angle with its extremity, while the cross line, springing not far from the bottom of the left limb, _ascends_ to meet the right about half way down. Modifications of this form may be seen in the Herculanean rolls, only that the cross line more nearly approaches the horizontal, and sometimes is almost entirely so. The Cod. Frid.-August.(32) does not vary much from this form, but the three generating lines are often somewhat curved. In other books, while the right limb is quite straight, the left and cross line form a kind of loop or curve, as is very observable in the Nitrian fragment R, and often in Codd. Alex., Ephraemi, Bezae, the newly discovered Rossanensis, and in the Vatican more frequently still, in all which _alpha_ often approximates to the shape of our English _a_. _And this curve may be regarded as a proof of antiquity_; indeed Tischendorf (Proleg. Cod. Sin. p. xxx, 1863) considers it almost peculiar to the papyri and the Coptic character. Cod. N (which is more recent than those named above) makes the two lines on the left form a sharp angle, as do the Cotton fragment of Genesis (see p. 32, note 1) and Cod. Claromontanus, Plate xiv. No. 41, only that the lines which contain the angle in this last are very fine. In later times, as the letters grew tall and narrow, the modern type of A became more marked, as in the first letter of Arundel 547 (No. 16), of about the tenth century, though the form and thickness seen in the Cod. Claromontanus continued much in vogue to the last. Yet _alpha_ even in Cod. Claromontanus and Cotton Genesis occasionally passes from the angle into the loop, though not so often as in Cod. A and its companions. Cod. Borgianus (T), early in the fifth century, exaggerated this loop into a large ellipse, if Giorgi’s facsimile may be trusted. In Cod. Laudianus E of the Acts and Cureton’s palimpsest Homer too the loop is very decided, the Greek and Latin _a_ in Laud. (No. 25) being alike. Mark also its form in the papyrus scrawl No. 9 (from one of the orations of Hyperides edited by Mr. Babington), which _may_ be as old as the Rosetta stone. The angular shape adopted in Cod. Z (Nos. 6, 18) is unsightly enough,