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any thing more concerning it ; it requires the exertion of far 

 greater abilities than I can pretend to : however, I beg leave 

 to add here what Mr. O'Connor, an antiquarian of credit, and 

 a member of your academy, has been pleafed to communicate to 

 me, in a letter he was good enough to honour me with on that 

 head. 



*' That the Milefian Family," fays he, " imported letters 

 " into Ireland, and that their anceftors learned them from the 

 " Phoenicians, I am certain ; and Mr. Burton judged well in 

 " averring, that our earlieft fcribes wrote from the right hand to 

 " the left ; but they changed to the more commodious manner 

 " of writing from the left to the right, and laid afide the uncouth 

 " crooked characters of the Phoenicians, when the beautiful Greek 

 " and Roman charaders were made known here in the fourth 

 " and fifth centuries." 



Indeed the very alphabet of the Irifli, from the number of 

 letters it confifts of (being only feventeen) would be fufRcient to 

 prove that it did not derive its origin from the Romans, or any 

 other of our neighbouring nations ; and although all their letters 

 have been fince well known to us, yet fuch is the texture of the 

 Iriih language, that we have found no occafion to make ufe 

 of them, our antient alphabet ftill continuing to ferve every 

 purpofe, fo that we have adopted nothing of theirs but the 

 arrangement : confequently, (as Mr. O'Connor fays in another 

 part of his letter to me,) " Our firfl: miflionaries of the gofpel 

 " were faved the flavifh tafk of alphabet-teachers, for they met 

 " with a lettered people, whofe philofophy and manners prepared 



" them 



