we to state, with impartiality, the arguments, both for and against the divine revela tion of alphabetic writing, and the evidence upon which each side has been supported. It can scarcely be said that the reasoning is conclusive on either part; the question must still, and will probably for ever, remain undetermined.
having thus discussed the three proposed branche., of the history of alphabetic writing, we shall next pro ceed to make some remarks on the more important known alphabets, ancient and modern, their different re lations, and their dependence on one another.
The most ancient of all the alphabets with which we are acquainted, is certainly the old Hebrew or Samari tan. It consists of 22 letters, all of which are by many reckoned consonants, though others, upon pretty solid grounds, regard five of diem as vowels, and only 17 as consonants. Though this alphabet is tolerably complete in regard to the language for which it is used, yet it is by no means perfect ; it is both defective and redundant : it is certainly defective in regard to the vowel charac ters; for even admitting five of the constituent letters to have been vowels, yet there are many words where none of these occur; and where therefore the want of vowels must be supplied either by the conjecture of the reader, or by the complex and operose machinery of vowel points ; it is redundant, both by allotting more than one letter to the same power and sound, as D and w to denote S, .7 and p to express K, and by reckoning double letters among the elements of speech, as p for Ts. In this alphabet the names of the letters are all significant ; signifying an ox ; Beth, a house; Gimel, a camel, and so on. In what manner, and on what principles, the order of the letters adopted in the Hebrew alphabet was established, it is difficult to con jecture ; the order is certainly inartificial and confused ; perhaps it arose from some accidental circumstance of the letters happening to follow one another in that order in the earliest writings to which they were applied.
The form of the old Hebrew characters appears to have undergone several variations. It is generally be lieved, that the Chaldaic, or square Hebrew, was adopt ed by the Jews during the Babvlonish captivity, and ever afterwards retained among them, while the old form was preserved among the Samaritans.
From the ancient Hebrew alphabet, one of the ear liest derivations was the Phernician.* The two languages
were kindred dialects, and the forms of the letters have a considerable resemblance. By comparing the 1st and 2d columns of Plate X. and the 6th column of Plate XI., the similarity will be manifest. The Phoenician alphabet indeed, as we have it now, is not so full as the Hebrew, containing only seventeen letters, but proba bly it has reached us in an imperfect state. There is a Phoenician alphabet found in an inscription preserved at Oxford, (see Plate X. at the foot) differing a little from the other ; the difference, however, is slight, and only serves to spew to what accidental variations the same alphabet may be occasionally subjected.
Closely connected with the Phoenician alphabet, we And the liast!,!,en,• and Pun,:c,f all of them only different }node:, 01 the Phoenician, which require, there lore, no particular observations.
From the Helm w alphabet, it is e\idnat, originat•d the .S'yriac, the ?lrabic, and the Pcraiw; ; they differ in. fit edon some degree, in the number and position of the ;utters, hut their general resemblance sufficiently proves their of igm.
All ol these alphabets were written from right to left, a mode of writing still preserved ill all of them to the pr, sent day.
From the same source, the Hebrew, or its immediate slerivativc, the Plicenician alphabet, slime the old Prlas Aw, destined itsell to become the fertile parent of most of the European alphabets. As the Pelesgi were un douLtedly of Phcenician origin, they brought with them into Greece a knowledge of the Plicenicran alpnabetic rharacte rs. At first we are told their letters were only :sixteen in number, brought into Greece by Cadmus; to these Palamedes added, about the time of the Trojan war, the three aspirates, 0 cld X, and the double letter F; and Simonides afterwards increased the alphabet to 24, by adding the long vowels H and Q., and the double letters 4. and Z.§ At first the ancient Greek, like its parent alphabet, was written from right to left; after wards the lines were made to run alternately from right to left, and from left to right; a mode of writing, deno minated pxseo.2%c)sov, as resembling the progress of an ox in ploughing a field. At last, about 450 or 460 years, as it is thought, before our xra, the Ionic mode of form ing the letters From left to right was introduced ; and, from the experience of its superior convenience,• began gradually to prevail.