78 On the Origin of 
sign the precise period to which it is to be re- 
ferred. This difficulty, together with the 
beautiful simplicity of the art itself, appa- 
rently so inconsistent with the state of barba- 
rism in which the world in early ages is gene- 
rally conceived to have been plunged, seem to 
be the principal circumstances which have 
induced many learned and ingenious men to 
adopt the opinion that we are not indebted for 
it to any efforts of human ingenuity, but that 
it was the gift of immediate and express re- 
velation. This opinion is sanctioned by the 
authority of various respectable writers, who 
have supported it by arguments which many 
have thought not’ unplausible. ‘ Among these 
writers, it may be sufficient to mention Dr. 
Hartley, who has stated some considerations 
which seem to him to favour this opinion, in 
the’ first volume of his Observations on Man,* 
and the celebrated Gilbert Wakefield, whose 
ingenious paper on the subject this society has 
inserted in the second volume of its Me- 
moirs.¢ For this: among other reasons, I 
shall adopt Mr. W.’s Essay forthe most part 
as my guide to the principal arguments which 
have been adduced 1 in favour of this doctrine. 
* Observations on Man, Vol. 1 Prop. 83. 
+ Manchester Memoirs Vol. 2. p.294. 
