him to have been well acquainted with the fafliion of writing, i. e. 

 to have been a literate perfon ; and the reader will perhaps be more 

 difpofed to acquiefce in his fantafticai difpofition of the lines in the 

 infcription, as I have fuppofed the order of them ; if he can, in this 

 inftance, as well as in that of the mixture of literal and numeral cha- 

 rafters, bring himfelf to think with Doftor Wallis, " That this doth 

 rather favour the fimplicity of that age, not very nice in fuch things 

 efpeciaily amongft the mechanics), than any defign of impollure." See 

 Lowthorp's Abridgment of Phil, Tranf. Vol. ifl, p. io8. " 



Unlefs, therefore, I am miftaken in this explication of the monument, 

 it aiFords evidence of the highefl kind, to prove : firft, that in the 

 eleventh century, and before any Englifli colony had fettled in Ireland, 

 there were there many perfons, not only of the clergy, (who, in thofe 

 days, were not flione-cutters), but alfo of the lower order of mechanics, 

 to whom letters were familiar ; for it is hardly to be fuppofed that an 

 epitaph would be written in a language very generally unknown. And 

 fecondly, that the revival of letters and the arts commenced at leafl 

 as early in this country, as in auy other of Weflern Europe, Spain 

 excepted : feeing that the Arabic numeral characters were received here from 

 the Moors in Spain, fooner than perhaps any where elfe ; for Doftor 

 Wallis, who endeavours to prove, in oppofition to the opinion of Voflius,* 

 and the literati on the continent, that thefe charafters came into ufc 

 in England, before the thirteenth century ; is obliged to refer to the 

 raanufcript writings of fome individuals, in fupport of this ; and could 

 hear of no infcription, containing fuch charafters, except one in a private 

 houfe, with the date 1133. A monument is indeed mentioned in the 

 above-cited place in the Phil. Tranf. to have the charafters 1090, en- 

 graven on it : but it is ambiguous, not only as being fimply a date 

 without an infcription, and having the form of the characters different 

 from thofe then ufed ; but alfo as being perhaps intended like the for- 

 mer, for the information and fatisfaftion of the fingle family to which 



it 



* See VolTius de Scientire, Math. c. 8. -pag. 34: Ed. Amft. 



