[ '59 ] 



followed is to fix upon fome well-known charaders, and then to 

 determine the variable by fome of their powers, as fhall agree in 

 fenTe with the others. Care muft likewife be had to the imper- 

 fedtion of feveral of the letters ; for as thefe coins were evidently 

 flruck by the hand, fome of the impreflions have not taken, and 

 Were afterwards mended, which make them feem at firft fight 

 different charaders from what they were intended. From thefe 

 confiderations, I could wifh, on a future day, fome of the Royal 

 Irifh Academicians would turn their thoughts towards an expla- 

 nation of thofe ancient remains, either by the method I have 

 taken or any other ; as by that means the dark periods of pafl 

 ages may be fully illuflrated, which the endeavours of a fingle 

 perfon would be unable to effed. 



To conduce as much as poffible in my power to fo defirable an 

 end, I fend herewith a table of the feveral alphabets which I 

 made ufe of in the above explanation. 



EXPLICATION of the ALPHABETS in the TABLE. 



No. I. Irifh Ogham Croabh charaders*, found on coins, ftone- PLATE II. 

 crofTes and other monuments from the ninth to the feventeenth 

 century. I fufped that this alphabet originally contained only 

 four lines ; as on fome of the coins, and the oldeft infcriptions 

 I have feen, four anfwer much better than five. 



* Thefe characters feem to have been derived from No. 4. 



No. 2. 



