Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/93

POLtNESIAN LANGUAGES. • 75 without mentioning the Roman or Arabic charac- ters, the latter of which is of universal use among the nations which speak the Malay language ; the Tagala of the Phillippines, and the obsolete cha- racter of the Sundas of Java. These five cha- racters are in form as distinct, and in charac- ter as unlike, as can well be supposed in alpha- bets which represent languages so similar in sound and formation ; and I see no rational ground for concluding that they are from one origin. How- ever we may pretend to refine on the difficulties of inventing alphabets, there is one fact which we cannot keep out of sight, that all alphabets what- ever have been inventions of rude and barbarous ages ; of ages so remote, that in all parts of the world they are beyond the reach of historical re- cord. There seems no cause to exclude the bar- barians of the Indian islands from the list of those who invented alphabets. Alphabets, like other great inventions, were, no doubt, the discoveries of highly gifted geniuses, who anticipated their time and nation by many ages ; and it would be unfair to attempt to trace their invention by referring to the general state of mind in the barbarous nations which possess them. The great number of these alphabets, while no less than three of them exist on one island, has been looked upon as a singular and puzzling fact ; but it appears rather a proof of the im- perfect intercoiirse w^hich existed in early times be- tween the different tribes or nations of the samecoun-