490 REMARKS ON THE ORIGIN 
this part of my paper, make one remark on the 
truly interesting fact, that we have in this instance 
the invention or creation of a perfect alphabet, 
namely one whose characters are of a purely ele- 
mentary nature, that is to say, having no refer- 
ence whatsoever to the likeness to any natural 
object, which circumstance draws a very import- 
ant line of distinction between it and that of 
the Egyptian, which is of a hieroglyphical or 
symbolical nature, and has, therefore, a graphic 
basis or origin, namely the attempt to express or 
convey the idea of an object by a representation 
of it more or less faithful; in the case of the 
Babylonian arrow-headed characters, however, we 
have no such resemblance ; it is, therefore, purely 
alphabetic. This might strike the key of a very 
interesting investigation, and perhaps be shown 
to have been one of the results of “‘ the confusion 
of tongues,’ which it is more than probable 
Babylon was the scene of. 
I shall now proceed to make a few observations 
on what appears to me to have been the most pro- 
bable cause which has led to the adoption of the 
arrow-headed character as the basis of the Baby- 
lonian alphabet, which may prove the more inte- 
resting to my readers, as the observations I have 
