is on a slip of silver, and appears to have fitted into a
space on the upper surface which is supposed to have been the top, and
to have lain in between the two square compartments on the left hand:
this is marked in the drawing. I have expressed myself here in the
language of doubt, for the box is all in confusion.

"Now, on the inscriptions, I would say, that they indicate to me a date
much later than some gentlemen who have seen the box are willing to
ascribe to it. In the island of Devenish, in our lake (Lough Erne), is
an inscription, that was discovered in the ruins (still standing) of
a priory, that was built there A. D. 1449. The characters in this
inscription are much more remote from the Roman character in use among
us than those used in the inscriptions on the box. The letters on
the box bespeak a later period, when English cultivation had begun to
produce some effect in our island, and the Roman character was winning
its way into general use. I shall probably be able to let you see the
Devenish inscription, and ajuxta position of it and the others will
satisfy you, I think, on this point. In my opinion, then, the box, with
all its ornaments, must have been made at some time since the year 1449.
I cannot think it reasonable to suppose that an inscription, containing
many letters like the Roman characters, should be more ancient than
one not only having fewer letters resembling them, but also having the
letters that differ differing essentially."

Now for the MSS.

"I am deficient in antiquarian lore: this I have already confessed; but
perhaps I want also the creative fancy and devoted faith of the genuine
antiquary. I cannot, for example, persuade myself, that a MS. written
in a clear, uniform, small character of the Roman form, could have been
written in remote times, when there is reason to think that MSS. were
written in uncial characters only, without stops, and with few or no
divisions into words, sentences, or paragraphs. The palimpsest MS.
examined by Dr. Barrett is in uncial characters, and is referred by him
to the 6th or 7th century. _Cic. de Republica_, published by Angelo Mai,
is assigned to much the same period. Small letters, and the distinctions
above mentioned, were the invention of later times. I cannot therefore
persuade myself that this MS. is of so early an age as some would
ascribe to it, though I will not take it upon me to assign the precise
time in which, it was written. The charact