(4) At the commencement of every fresh paragraph, the initial letter in Cod. א _slightly projects into the margin_,—beyond the left hand edge of the column; as usual in all later MSS. This characteristic is only not undiscoverable in Cod. B. Instances of it there are in the earlier Codex; but they are of exceedingly rare occurrence. (5) Further; Cod. א abounds in such contractions as ΑΝΟΣ, ΟΥΝΟΣ (with all their cases), for ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ, ΟΥΡΑΝΟΣ, &c. Not only ΠΝΑ, ΠΗΡ, ΠΕΡ, ΠΡΑ, ΜΡΑ (for ΠΝΕΥΜΑ, ΠΑΤΗΡ-ΤΕΡ-ΤΕΡΑ, ΜΗΤΕΡΑ), but also ΣΤΡΘΗ, ΙΗΛ, ΙΗΛΗΜ, for ΣΤΑΥΡΩΘΗ, ΙΣΡΑΗΛ, ΙΕΡΟΥΣΑΛΗΜ. But Cod. B, though familiar with ΙΣ, and a few other of the most ordinary abbreviations, knows nothing of these compendia: which certainly _cannot_ have existed in the earliest copies of all. Once more, it seems reasonable to suppose that their constant occurrence in Cod א indicates for that Codex a date subsequent to Cod. B. (6) The very discrepancy observable between these two Codices in their method of dealing with “the last twelve verses of S. Mark’s Gospel,” (already adverted to at p. 88,) is a further indication, and as it seems to the present writer a very striking one, that Cod. B is the older of the two. Cod. א is evidently _familiar_ with the phenomenon which _astonishes_ Cod. B by its novelty and strangeness. (7) But the most striking feature of difference, after all, is only to be recognised by one who surveys the Codices themselves with attention. It is _that_ general air of primitiveness in Cod. B which makes itself at once _felt_. The even symmetry of the unbroken columns;—the work of the _prima manus_ everywhere vanishing through sheer antiquity;—the small, even, _square_ writing, which partly recalls the style of the Herculanean rolls; partly, the papyrus fragments of the _Oration against Demosthenes_ (published by Harris in 1848):—all these notes of superior antiquity infallibly set Cod. B before Cod. א; though it may be impossible to determine whether by 50, by 75, or by 100 years. II. It has been conjectured by one whose words are always entitled to most respectful attention, that Codex Sinaiticus may have been “one of the fifty Codices of Holy Scripture which Eusebius prepared A.D. 331, by Constantine’s direction, for the use of the new Capital.” (Scrivener’s _Collation of the Cod. Sin._, Introd. p. xxxvii-viii.)