But the presence or absence of a name or initials is not a conclusive argument. It depends on the character of the manuscript. That 'Sleep next Society' is initialled 'J. R.' in so carefully prepared a collection of Donne's poems as _TCD_ is valuable evidence, and the initials in a collection so well vouched for as _HN_, Drummond's copy of a collection of poems in the possession of Donne, can only be set aside by a scepticism which makes all historical questions insoluble. But no reliance can be placed upon the unsupported statement of any other of the manuscripts in which some or all of these poems occur, any more than on that of the 1635 and later editions. The best of them (_H40_, _RP31_) are often silent, and the others are too often mistaken to be implicitly trusted. If we are to get the truth from them it must be by cross-examination. For the second proof on which my ascription of the poems to Roe is based is the singular regularity with which they adhere to one another. If a manuscript has one it generally has the rest in close proximity. Thus _B_, after giving thirty-six poems by Donne, of which only one is wrongly ascribed, continues with a number that are clearly by other authors as well as Donne, and of ten sequent poems five are 'Sleep next Society,' 'The State and mens affairs,' 'True love finds witt,' 'If great men wrong mee,' 'Dear Thom: Tell her if she.' A fragment of 'Men say that love and reason disagree' comes rather later. _H40_ and _RP31_ give in immediate sequence 'The State and mens affairs,' 'If great men wrong me,' 'True Love finds witt,' 'Shall I goe force an elegie,' 'Come Fates; I fear you not.' _L74_, a collection not only of poems by Donne but of the work of other wits of the day, transcribes in immediate sequence 'Deare Love continue,' 'The State and mens affairs,' 'If great men wrong mee,' 'Shall I goe force an elegie,' 'Tell her if shee,' 'True love finds witt,' 'Come Fates, I fear you not.' Lastly _A10_, a quite miscellaneous collection, gives in immediate or very close sequence '[Dear Thom:] Tell her if she,' 'True love finds witt,' 'Dear Love continue nice and chaste,' 'Shall I goe force an elegie,' 'Men write that love and reason disagree.' 'Come Fates; I fear you not' follows after a considerable interval. It cannot be by an entire accident that these poems thus recur in manuscripts which have so far as we can see no common origin.[7] And as one is ascribed to Roe on indisputable (and) three on very strong evidence, it is a fair inference, if borne out by a general resemblance of thought, and style, and verse, that they are all by Roe.