155 



However this may be, under the view I have been considering, 

 the Helirew words were originally composed of the alphabetic cha- 

 racters, not proceeding from right to left, as now written, but set 

 down one below the other. 



The mode of inscriptio)i then was as follows : the inscriber, com- 

 mencing at the upper corner of the left side of the tablet, or stone, 

 or whatever else was employed to bear the inscription, set down 

 the words, formed as already described, one below the other, till 

 he had arrived at the bottom of the tablet, &c, when he again 

 commenced at the top, setting down the characters to the right 

 of those already described. Hence the writing on the tablet, &c. 

 consisted of parallel rows of characters set down one beneath 

 the other ; each such succeeding row being to the right of the 

 preceding, according to the very order ot writing novv in use 

 among the Europeans. 



When this writing was conducted on a number of parchments, 

 &c. it is probable they were connected together, and laid before 

 the writer, in a manner similar to deeds, briefs of lawyers, &fc. Af- 

 ter tlie parchment, which lay at top, (as being that which first 

 presented itself to the writer,) was filled up with parallel perpendi- 

 cular rows of characters, in the manner already described, it ap- 

 pears then to have been thrown back, and the writing carried on, 

 either on its reverse, or on the obverse of the parchment lying im- 

 mediately beneath it ; following the same arrangement, both of the 

 characters and of the rows, as before. Let now the book, or ra- 

 ther collection of parchments, be so turned, that that which hither- 

 to formed the top, shall form the right side, the writing will con- 

 sist, not of perpendicular, but of parallel horizontal rows ; in 

 which the characters will proceed from right to left, as most com- 

 mon among the Orientals ; tlie horizontal rows, as is usual in writ- 



X 2 



