76 ON THE DATE AND ORIGIN 
which conjecture may attribute the invention of the Phonetic Al- 
phabet. 
A reference to the chart of the ancients will assist us in forming 
an estimate of the several claimants to our attention amongst those 
commercial states which early distinguished themselves on the bor- 
ders of the Mediterranean ; and a geographical examination of that 
great gulph which separates the three quarters of the old world, and 
of the navigable rivers and seas which either flow into it or ap- 
proximate its coasts, will facilitate a correct estimate of the relative 
sources of commercial prosperity of which each of those claimants 
was possessed. A careful inquirer will enrich his subject with a 
due consideration of the political and religious, as well as mercantile 
character of these states, as well as of the countries, however dis- 
tant, that might pour their stores, through these channels, amongst 
the inhabitants of its shores. 
The palm of having invented the Phonetic Letter is contested by 
four of these states : Carthage and Greece have asserted their claims 
against Pheenicia and Egypt.'® It will be well to follow the proba- 
ble order of chronology, and to concede to the antiquity of Egypt 
the privilege of a prior examination. 
Egypt is connected at her northern extremity with the southern 
coast of the Mediterranean, by the river Nile, which, flowing 
through a valley of 150 leagues in length and of various breadth, 
afforded throughout an easy navigation to the small craft of anti- 
quity. The annual overflowing of this river is known to all, and 
its shores were alternately a sea of inundation, a quagmire, a luxu- 
riant valley, and a dusty desert; and the culture of them seems, 
from the earliest periods, to have occupied the principal attention of 
their inhabitants. This valley is divided, on the west, from the 
interior of Africa, by burning deserts ; and from the western arm of 
the Red Sea by a desolate region of three days’ journey, which, 
however, has from time immemorial been passed by caravans of 
Arabs, which, by an overland passage, have kept open the only 
channel of intercourse between Egypt and the Indian Ocean. On 
the south the precipitous mountains of Abyssinia precluded all com- 
mercial communication. 
Unconnected, therefore, on the south and west with civilized na- 
1° The claims of Chaldzea are so slightly founded as scarcely to merit at- 
tention; nor are the inhabitants of Europe at present in possession of orien- 
tal information that will disturb the inductions afforded by a careful contem- 
plation of the works of occidental antiquity. 
