(2) Books. Books and writing must have been familiar to Moses, `who was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians' (Acts vii :22), for at the time of his birth that people had arrived at a high pitch of civilization; and now that the mys terious hieroglyphics can be deciphered, it has been found that from the earliest era Egypt possessed a knowledge of writing, and that many of the in scriptions were written before the Exodus of the Hebrews.
(3) Letters. Letters are generally allowed to have been introduced into Europe from Phoenicia, and to have been brought from thence by Cadmus into Greece, about fifteen centuries before Christ, which time coincides with the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty ; but while none may deny such to have been the origin of European alphabetical charac ters, it does not prove the Phoenicians to have been the inventors of writing. That people occupied Phoenicia in very early times after the Deluge, and if the patriarch and his sons possessed the knowledge of letters, their posterity would doubt less preserve the remembrance and practice of such an invaluable bequest, which would be con veyed by their colonists into Greece and Africa. In the New World it was found that the Peru vians had no system of writing, while the Mexi cans had made great advances in hieroglyphical paintings. The Aztecs, who preceded the Mex icans, had attained much proficiency in the art, such as was adequate to the wants of a people in an imperfect state of civilization.
(4) Writing Materials. Various have been the materials and implements used for writing. As was before observed, paper is now in existence made from the papyrus which was fabricated 2,000 years B. C. Moses hewed out of the rock two tables of stone on which the Commandments were written (Exod. xxxiv :1). After that time the Jews used rolls of skins for their sacred writings. They also engraved writing upon gems or gold plates (Exod. xxxix :30).
Before the discovery of paper the Chinese upon thin boards with a sharp tool. Reeds and canes are still used as writing implements among the Tartars ; and the Persians and other Orientals write for temporary purposes on leaves, or smooth sand, or the bark of trees. The Arabs in ancient times wrote their poetry upon the shoulder blades of sheep.
The Greeks occasionally engraved their laws on tables of brass. Even before the days of Homer table books were used, made of wood, cut in thin slices, which were painted and polished, and the pen was an iron instrument called a style. In later times these surfaces were waxed over, that the writing might be obliterated for further use. Table books were not discontinued till the fourteenth century of the Christian era.
At length the superior preparations of pa per, parchment, and vellum became general, and superseded other materials in many, and all entirely civilized, nations.