94 ~ On the Origin of 
analogy in its fundamental principle, it must 
necessarily tend to drive them farther and far- 
ther from it. 
So far then I am disposed to acquiesce in 
the reasoning of Mr. Wakefield, and other 
defenders of the divine origin of letters. But 
when they proceed to maintain that upon the 
reality of this supposed transition, the cause 
of those who believe in the human origin of 
these characters entirely, depends, they are 
surely running on too fast. Because one par- 
ticular mode of expressing our ideas seems to 
have no tendency to terminate in this art, 
does it follow that no other circumstances can 
ever have led the mind of man to sucha result? 
Because the hieroglyphical characters do not 
seem likely to facilitate the progress of the 
mind towards this discovery, are we reduced 
to the necessity of seeking for a divine, su- 
pernatural, miraculous interposition to. ac- 
count for it? Surely not. A thousand previ- 
ous circumstances may be conceived, which 
pedient; but it does not therefore follow that the previous 
adoption of this expedient would suggest an alphabet. Be- 
sides, this hypothesis assumes that the most difficult step 
in this transition had already been made, before the expedi- 
ent in question was resorted to; namely, the transference 
of characters hitherto employed te denote ideas merely, 
without reference to sounds, to express sounds wit he 
without reference to ideas. 
