Excerpt from A Study in the Language of Scottish Prose Before 1600: A Dissertation With modern print to intermix the abbreviations of ancient manuscripts, appears unseemly and incongruous. To print in that manner, while it conveys no distinct idea of the character or mode of writing employed in the original, unavoidably creates additional and unnecessary difficulties to readers not con versant in the language of remote times, who will often be sufficiently puzzled without such artificial obscurity. The words therefore in this and the following volumes of the Records will be found printed at full length the contracted syllables in the Record being spelt like the same syllables when fully written out in the passages nearest to those in which they are found contracted. It may be remarked that the engrossers of the more early Parliamentary Records of Scotland, like their contemporaries in the other nations of Europe, are, when writing their vernacular language, far from being uniform in their orthography. The same word is often spelt differently in the same page, sometimes even in the same line they are extremely sparing in the use of points and by no means correct in placing the few they employ the letters 0 and t are in most words written so exactly alike that the acutest eye cannot distinguish the one from the other. And finally, like the transcribers of all ages and nations, they frequently commit blunders. The Editor, thinking it his duty to give a faithful copy of the Records of the Parliament of Scotland, will neither alter nor supply, nor suppress a single letter. Where the blunder is obvious, every reader can correct it for himself; where there is any degree of obscurity it seems better that the reader should in the correction exercise his own private judg ment, than submit to the conjectures of any Editor whatever. W. R. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.