ning "your
faithful servant who kisses your hands."

Letters commonly occurring together were elided and abbreviated, as was
done to a limited extent as late as the 18th century, at which period we
see such abbreviations as yt=that. It may be interesting to note that y
in this combination and the similar combination "ye," used as the
article, is not the semi-vowel y but is the survival, or revival, of an
Anglo-Saxon letter of very similar form called "thorn" and equivalent in
value to th. In the "yt" then, we have the y or thorn substituted for th
and the vowel elided, but the sign should be pronounced "that." The sign
"ye" as in the familiar phrase of the posters "ye olde folkes'
concerte," should always be pronounced "the" and never like the pronoun
ye.

Another result of the expensiveness of writing material was the practice
of erasing whole works in order that the vellum might be used over
again. This erasing was done with a knife or pumice stone and when
resurfaced by rubbing the vellum could be readily used a second time. A
manuscript thus treated is called a palimpsest. The pious monks of the
middle ages, naturally believing that the lives of the saints and other
religious works were of more importance than the works of Pagan orators,
philosophers, and historians, or even than old copies of the Bible which
had been superseded by newer and better decorated ones, made extensive
use of old manuscripts in this way. Fortunately, however, it is possible
by careful treatment to restore the original writing at least
sufficiently to make it possible to decipher it. In this way a
considerable number of extremely valuable texts which would otherwise
have been entirely lost have been recovered from palimpsests.

The reference just made to decoration reminds us that the makers of
manuscripts, particularly during the middle ages, took enormous pride in
their work and were as anxious to produce sumptuous books as the most
ambitious publisher of to-day and were often far more successful. The
scribe who was to make a fine manuscript chose his vellum with great
care. He laid out his work with compass and ruler with the utmost
precision. He was careful that his ink and his pigments should be of the
most brilliant color and the finest quality. He looked well to the care
of his pen and inscribed each letter with the patient care of the most
skillful engrosser of to-day.

The development of the sentence and paragraph had brought t