185 



all, thus prompted to the undertaking, in possesion at the 

 same time of the means of carrying it into execution : — a 

 comprehension which could survey the intricate mazes of a 

 language^ and suspect that the whole might be reduced to 

 a few simple sounds — a judgment that could decide on the 

 possibility of designating those sounds, which inferior powers 

 of. discrimination would deem as difficult to delineate as 

 pictures of odours, and tastes, and internal sensations: — a 

 sagacity and genius fit to discover seeming impossibilities to 

 be possible — and an indefatigable and pertinacious persever- 

 ance, that most efficient attribute of great minds, which 

 demonstrates the possibility of an enterprise by its actual 

 performance. 



If this combination of circumstances, motives and qualifi- 

 cations must have concurred in the production of alphabetic 

 writing, is it probable that such a conjunction should occur 

 more than once ? I admit that it is possible — but to my 

 understanding, it is equally possible that a knowledge of the 

 ^circulation of the blood, and the laws of gravitation, might 

 also be discovered in different countries and times ; and 

 that Harveys and Newtons are to be esteemed but common 

 productions of nature. 



If it be admitted that the elementary alphabet may have 

 owed its birth to poetry, it must also be confessed that the 

 syllabic alphabets of the Ethiopians and Tartars* must have 



B B.2 



* See Goguet's origin of Laws, Arts" and Sciences— Vol. ist. pi 178. And Rees's 

 Encyclopedia. Articfe Alphabet. 



