Upon the most attentive examination, therefore, we seem to be warranted in concluding, that no sufficient grounds have yet been adduced for rejecting the opinion of the common origin of all the alphabets at present ex isting.
3d, It has been argued, that alphabetic writing is only to be found among nations that had a channel of inter course with the ancient Phoenicians, or Chaldmans, or Hebrews, or whatever eastern tribe it was among whom the characters of the alphabet were first in use. In the western continent of America, no traces of alphabetic writing have been disco•ered, although various ingenious attempts at communicating thought by visible symbols have been found among the Mexicans, Peruvians, and some other American nations. Nay, in the eastern dis tricts of Asia, inhabited by the Chinese, and scarcely known to the ancient world, alphabetic writing has never been introduced. Among this people, celebrated for their ingenuity, their discoveries in the arts, and their early civilization, writing has made no greater progress than the expression of thought by representative sym bols,.which render it an art of the greatest intricacy and difficulty. After the lapse of many ages, there is no appearance in China of any approach towards the simplicity of alphabetic writing ; but on the contrary, the characters of that country are every day becoming more complicated and voluminous. To take away the force of this argument, however, it has been observed, that the Chinese are of all nations the most averse to in novation; not only the art of writing, but almost every art of life, have been stationary among them, since they have become an object of observation to Europeans ; and that there is no wonder the art of writing in alphabetic characters was not invented by the American nations, nor has been found among remote uncivilized tribes ; as this is an art which never will be resorted to till men are somewhat advanced in intellectual improvement, and strongly impelled to give permanency to their thoughts and speculations.
4th, This naturally introduces our final argument for the divine revelation of alphabetic characters ; the rude ness of the period at which the alphabet originated, and the great difficulty of the invention. Can it be supposed,
it is said, that an invention so refined and ingenious as that of the alphabet, could have ever occurred to a bar barous and illiterate people, employed chiefly in provid ing for the necessities of life, and ignorant of every kind of refinement, and every department of science ? But to this it is answered, that long before the age of Moses, many of the eastern nations had made very considerable advances, not only in the arts, but in many branches of scientific knowledge. The Scripture testifies, that the arts of metallurgy, music, and some others, were well known to the antediluvians. In Egypt, the arts of paint ing, sculpture, and architecture, were far advanced in the ages immediately succeeding the flood ; and in that country, in Chaldxa, and in India, the sciences of cal culation, and the phenomena of the heavenly bodies, were studied with great care from the most remote pe riod of historic records. That age, therefore, can hardly be termed barbarous, uncivilized, or even illiterate, to which the invention of alphabetic characters is ascribed. At a period when astronomical observations were made with success, and the future appearances of the hea vens predicted with considerable accuracy, it is not un reasonable to suppose, that the communication of thought by characters, representing the elements of articulate speech, might have occurred by some happy coincidence of circumstances to one or more individuals, distinguish ed for ingenuity and acuteness. After all, however, it must be acknowledged, that taking into view the situa tion and circumstances of the Hebrew nation, at the time when the use of alphabetic characters most probably originated, and certainly was universally known among them, it will be found very difficult indeed, upon the supposition of this being a mere 1141 invention, to account for the fact of so astoni,hing an advance being made by them in an art so relined and difficult as that of representing words by means of alphabetic characters.