OF THE PHONETIC ALPHABET. 69 
to another, even where the communication is undisturbed by motive 
or passion; and that credit is indefinitely diminished where a sus- 
picion arises that facts have been distorted by intention or interest. 
The credit due to narratives that have been orally transmitted 
through two or more generations, is charged equally with these ob- 
jections, and with the additional suspicion of being mingled with 
the refuse that collects upon the tide of time. The distrust attach- 
ing to traditional information is reasonable, therefore, when it 
might have received the collateral aid of letters ;* and, anterior to 
their invention, it will amount, in all extraordinary cases, to disbelief, 
or merge in vain or insoluble conjecture. 
In extending our inquiry, therefore, into the early history of 
mankind, and of the art which above all others embellishes a state 
of civilization, we must reject as spurious, nct only all admitted 
tradition, but much of that information which, though transmitted 
fo us through the medium of letters, savours of the puerilities? of 
fluenced by motive, he has commonly to deplore the incredibility of evidence. 
Legal evidence is, indeed, a comment alike on the insufficiency of human or- 
gans to observe and to communicate events correctly, and on the integrity of 
human testimony. 
«“ Jures licet et Samothracum 
Et nostrorum aras, contemnere fulmina pauper 
Creditur atque Deos, Diis ignoscentibus ipsis.”—J uv. ili, 145, 
A sentiment savouring stronger of the atheist than the good polytheist. 
2 Written documents are but traditions embodied in a less perishable 
form, and are preferable only in as much as they are less liable to alteration. 
The truth, however, of observation and of tradition often suffers in the trans- 
fer to written documents. Patriotism, vernacular creed, a spirit of contro- 
versy, conformity with a favourite theory, even the melody of an expression, 
is sufficient to move an author in sacrificing a portion of the truth, except in 
the demonstrative sciences, in which alone truth is attainable and unaltera- 
ble. ‘Though there never were a circle or triangle in nature,” says Hume, 
the truths demonstrated by Euclid would for ever retain their certainty and 
evidence,” whereas “the contrary of every matter of fact is still possible.”— 
Inquiry concerning the Human Understanding. 
* 'The earliest writers, whether in symbolic or phonetic letters, have lux- 
uriated in the puerilities of vision and conjecture. ‘The Cosmogony of San- 
choniatho introduces us to Mgorsyevns or the first man, 079 Adam, and con- 
firms our acquaintance with the gods, and their mystic genealogies.—(See 
Universal History, vol. 1). The Vedas and the Shistah, or bible of the Brah- 
mins, abound in marvels credible only by babes and sucklings. The autho- 
rities of Herodotus, Plutarch, and Pindar, exhibit the ludicrous and inhuman 
sacrifices connected with the early learning of the Egyptian hierarchy. The 
celebrated passage of the former author (book ii. cap. 46) challenges all foreign 
absurdity and indecency, and yuvaii reayos tuioyero is not transferable into the 
