ASTLE’S ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 
Moses, and consequently had not a su- 
rnatural origin. The passage is satis- 
factory: 
@ The first mention of writing recorded in 
scripture, will be found in Exodus xvii.v. 14. 
‘© And the Lord said unto Moses, write this, 
for a memorial, in a book; and rehearse it in 
. the ears of Joshua; for I utterly put out the 
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’ 
This command was given immediately after 
‘the defeat of the Amalckites near Horeb, and 
before the arrival of the Israelites at Mount 
Sinai. 
least hint to induce us to believe that writing 
was then. newly invented; on the contrary, 
“we may conclude, that Moses understood 
what was icant by writing in a Look, other- 
‘wise God would have instructed him, as he 
had dene Noah in building the ark, for he 
would not have been commanded to write in 
a look, if he had been ignorant of the art of 
writing: but Moses expressed no difficulty 
of comprehension, when he received this 
command. We also find that Moses wrote 
all the Words and all the judgments of the 
Lord, contained in the twenty-first and the 
two following chapters of the book of Exo- 
dus, before the two written tables of stone 
“were even so much as promised. The deli- 
very of the tables is not mentioned till the 
‘eighteenth verse of the thirty-first chapter, 
after God had made an end of communing 
with him upon the Mount, though the ten 
commandments were promulgated immedi- 
ately after his third descent. 
_  Ttis observable, that Moses no where 
mentions that the alphabet was a new dling 
in his time, much less that he was the inven- 
tor of it; on the contrary, he speaks of the art 
of writing as a thing well known, and in fa- 
miliar use; for, Exodus xxviii. v.21, he says, 
* And the stones shall be with the names of 
~ the children of Isracl, ‘'Wetve; according 
to their nannies, like the engravings of a signet, 
every one with his name, shall they be ac- 
‘cording to the tivelve tribes.” And again, 
_y. 36, * And thou shaJt make a plate of pure 
“gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings 
ofa signet, HoLiness 10 THE Lorp.’ Can 
language be more expressive? Would it not 
be absurd to deny that this sentence must 
have been in words and letters 2? But writing 
~ was known and practised by the people in 
_ general in the time of Moses, as appears from 
the following texts, Deut. chap. vi. v. 9. 
o@hap. xi. v. 20.; chap. xvii. v. 18.; chap. 
_ xxiv. v. 1.3; chap. xxvii y.3.8. By this last 
tt the people are commanded to write the 
on stones, and it is observable that some 
of the above texts relate to transactions pre- 
* vious to the delivery of the law at Mount Si- 
sn. 
«. .** If Moses had been the inventor of the al- 
: et, or received letters from God, which 
till then had been unknown to the Israelites, 
‘have been well worthy of his under. 
standing, and very suitable to his character, 
Ayn. Rev, Vor. IT. 
It is observable, that there is not the’ 
‘ words.’ 
625 
to have explained to them the nature and use 
of this invaluable art which God had com- 
municated to him: and may we not natu- 
rally suppose, that he would have said, when 
he directed the workmen to engrave names 
and sentences on stones and gold, ¢ And in 
these engravings you shall use the alphabetic 
characters which God hath communicated to 
me, or which I have now invented, and taught 
you the use of ?? But the truth is, he refers 
them to amodel in familiar use, ‘ like the en- 
gravings of a signet; for the ancient people 
of the east engraved names and sentences on 
their seals in the same manner as is now prac- 
tised by the great Lama of Tartary, the princes 
in India, the emperor of Constantinople, and 
his subordinate rulers.” 
He then analyses the difference be- 
tween picture characters and alphabetic 
characters ; and thus describes the pro- 
gress of substitution. 
At present we shall pursue that part 
of our enquiry which relates to the for- 
mation of an alphabet. . 
** Let us then premise, that arbitrary 
marks are of different kinds. First, those 
used by the Chinese, many of which were 
originally picture-characters. Secondly, those 
used by the zofarvii among the antients, and 
by the present short-hand writers; and third- 
ly, Manxs for Sounps; such as elementary 
characters or letters, and musical notes. 
«© The marks of the first and second kind 
are very numerous, as will appear hereafter ; 
those of the éhird are very few, as will pre- 
sently be demonstrated. 
<< It seems obvious, that whilst the pic- 
ture or hieroglyphic presented itself to the 
sight, the writer's. idea was confined to the 
figure or object itself; but when the picture 
was contracted into a mark, the suxnd an- 
nexed to the thing signified by such mark, 
would become familiar; and when the wri- 
ter reflected, how small a number of sounds 
he made use of in speech to express all his 
ideas, it would occur, that a much fewer 
number of marks than he had been accustom- 
ed to use, would be sufficient for the notation 
of all the sounds which he could: articulate. 
‘Vhese considerations would induce him to 
reflect on the nature and power of sounds ; 
and it would occur, that sounds being the 
matter of audible language, marks for them 
must be the elements of words. 
‘© Aristotle justly observes, ‘ that words 
are the marks of thoughts; and letters, of 
Words are sounds significant, and 
letters are marks for such sounds. 
«© The learned author of Hermes in 
forms us, ‘ That to about twenty plain 
elementary sounds, we owe that Hie of 
articulate voices, which’ have been suffici- 
ent to’explain thé séntiménts of so innumer- 
able a multitude, as all the present and past 
generations of men’ ‘ 
« Ax there are’ but a smult number of 
Ss 
