honours which would still be paid to his memory by all the lovers of learning. It appears from the books which Moses has written, that amongst the Jews, and probably amongst the Egyptians, letters had been invented prior to his age. The universal tradition among the ancients is, that they were first imported into Greece by Cadmus, the son of Ogenor, a Phoenician, who, according to the common system of chronology, was cotemporary with Joshua, according to Sir Isaac Newton, with King David.
"Say, by what principle divine inspir'd,
Thou, for a world's instruction, greatly fir'd,
Rapt in what vision, say, by God possest,
Dawn'd the first image, in thy lab'ring breast?
The figure of ideas to display,
And colour forth the intellectual ray;
In speaklng silence, the dumb voice impart,
And sounds embody by creative art;
By sight alone, to edify the ear,
To picture thought, and bid the eyes to hear?"
In this state of uncertainty amidst conflicting opinions, the mode of conduct for us to pursue, at once the most consistent with reason, the most conformable to true science, and the most agreeable to sound religion, is to conclude, that though some sort of characters, as before observed, formed by the ingenuity of man, or founded upon the basis of the ancient hieroglyphic system, was universally used in the early ages of the world, that so divine an art — an art apparently so far surpassing human invention, as alphabetical writing, in the perfection in which it has been handed down to us from an Asiatic source, through the medium of the Greeks, and Romans, could have its origin in inspiration only, and was at first revealed to men amid the awful promulgations at Horeb—amid the thunder which shook the basis of Mount Sinai—written with the finger of God.
The letters were originally written from (he right hand towards the left, that is to say in a contrary order to what we now practice. This manner of writing prevailed among the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Arabians, and Hebrews; and from some very old inscriptions appear to have prevailed also amongst the Greeks. Afterwards the Greeks adopted a new writing, alternately, from the right to the left, and from the left to the right, after the manner in which oxen plough the ground. Of this, specimens still remain, particularly the inscription of the famous Sigean monument. At length the motion from the left hand to the right being found more natural and commodious, the practice of writing in this direction prevailed throughout all the countries of Europe.
Ancient languages may be classed in the following order, the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Chinese tongues have each laid claim to originality, but the latter may be considered rather as a figure or emblematical writing than a regular system of letters and words. Of the other two it is generally supposed, that, they, together with the Assyrian and Chaldaic are the same in effect, but differing in the form of their characters. The Hebrew may be considered as the first great source whence the other tongues of the earth have been derived. The immediate descendant of the Hebrew, the Chaldaic, the Arabic, the Syriac, the Egyptian, the Ethiopian, and the Syro-Galilean, and its collateral issue were the Phoenician, and the Palmyrian. From the Phoenicians the Greeks acknowledged to have received their letters, and from them the discovery was communicated to the Romans, and so to all European nations.
