183 



achieved by a single individual. Any progress one man 

 might make before his ideas were completely developed 

 could not possibly tend to assist any other. It is then na- 

 tural to presume that we owe to the self-same mind, the 

 conception of the plan ; every stage of the process ; and its 

 perfect and final accomplishment, in so far at least as the 

 compass extended of the sounds which he had occasion to 

 represent : and from this original invention, it can scarcely 

 be doubted, were copied all the alphabets entitled to the 

 name, which ever existed. 



Astle, it is true, Avhose laborious and extensive researches 

 on the subject entitle his opinion to the utmost attention 

 and deference, asserts that several of the Asiatic alphabets, 

 which differ in the names, number, and power of the charac- 

 ters from the Phoenician, and those of which it was the 

 source, must have been altogether of a separate and unde- 

 rived origin ; and that it is most liberal as well as rational 

 to suppose that diflerent men at different times thought of 

 making marks for sounds, instead of marks for things.* 

 But strong as are the facts which he adduces> I am unable 

 to divest myself of the opinion that the author of any 

 alphabet, posterior to that originally invented, must have 

 been previously acquainted either with it or some other de- 

 rived from it ; and that where no traces of similitude are 



VOL. XII. B B 



* See the 4th chapter of Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing. 



