82 On the Origin of 
But, granting that there is no evidence of 
the existence of any specimen of alphabeti- 
cal writing prior to the Pentateuch, and this 
is all that can by any possibility be conceded, 
still the proposition which follows is by no 
means self evident. ‘That the Hebrew alpha- 
bet is superior to all those which have since 
been adopted in other nations, and not only 
so, but completely and absolutely perfect, is 
an assertion which I imagine few will be in- 
clined to admit, and which I own appears to 
me not only not so clear and indubitable as by 
some it seems to have been supposed, but 
absolutely false and unfounded. 
What do we mean by the word perfection ? 
When applied to the acceptation of means to 
ends, it may not improperly be defined the 
capacity of attaining these ends to their full 
extent, and in the completest manner possible. 
Now, what is the object of alphabetical cha- 
racters? To convey ideas by means of visible 
signs corresponding to the audible signs of 
spoken language. And the method by which 
it proposes to effect this, is to denote by vi- 
sible marks the elementary articulate sounds, 
which by their various and successive combi- 
nations, compose the words we employ in ex- 
pressing our ideas.. A perfect alphabetthere- 
fore, must be capable of denoting by distinc 
