taking away mechanically the color that the vitriolic portion of the ink still preserved. It is but too probable that many manuscripts, the characters of which were entirely formed of the more ancient carbonic ink, have been entirely destroyed, the letters having been washed off completely, and by the same simple means as the writing of a school-boy on a slate; whilst the parchment still remains in our libraries, and is covered with more modern compositions which have sacrilegiously and too successfully usurped the place of more ancient and more valuable matter. The tirades of Cyril or of Jerome, or the tawdry eloquence of Chrysostom, are perhaps firmly established in quarters from whence [?] the Margites of Homer, or the comedies of Menander, were miserably dislodged. “A manuscript is called Palimpsest, from the adjective παλιμψαιστος or παλιμψηστος, signifying twice rubbed; NOT as the glossary of Du Cange (_membrana iterum abrasa—charta deletilis_) would seem to denote, because the parchment had twice undergone abrasure, or the writing been twice obliterated, but because it had been twice prepared for writing, which was principally effected by rubbing it with pumice, first in the course of manufacture, after the original skin had been cured, and again by the same process, after the original writing had been taken away by washing, or in any other manner. The strict and precise sense of Palimpsest is therefore ‘twice prepared for writing;’ the repetition of such preparation being the prevailing idea in the etymology, and _not erasure_, as some have erroneously supposed. It is said to be easy to remove from modern parchment, especially if what is written be of some standing, all traces of writing, by rubbing it with pumice, or similar substances; and if the surface be afterwards polished, no one, by merely looking on it, will ever suppose that it had ever been written upon; but, if it be washed by _an infusion of galls_, the letters will be so far restored, particularly if it be suffered to remain some time in the light, that it may be copied by a patient and practiced person, who is gifted with good eyes:—so deeply had the iron entered into the soul of the parchment! If the erased letters were written in a bold large hand, the task of deciphering them will of course be less troublesome, and the results more sure. And such are the characters of the more ancient manuscripts; for, the older the manuscript, the better and more legible is the writing, as approaching more nearly to the ages of civility and refinement. The method of writing in old times is also favorable, it is said, to the restoration of works apparently obliterated. The scribe did not use a flowing ink, nor a finely pointed pen, as modern writers are wont; nor was a small quantity applied so lightly and sparingly as to dry almost as fast as it touches the paper. The ancient ink was thick with gum, and was supplied copiously by a pen with a broad point,