17 
From the Egyptian were derived Pheenician and Hebrew, 
and from these Greek and Roman and the other characters of 
European languages, in more or less direct descent. 
Philologists generally are agreed that four or five great 
systems of writing have been independently invented, viz., 
Egyptian, Cuneiform (Babylon and Assyria), Chinese, Mexican, 
and perhaps the Hittite. 
A large number of diagrams were used in illustration of the 
_ several steps in the Evolution of language here indicated. 
