OF THE PHONETIC ALPHABET. 93 
5th, Of Carthaginian literature*? we have little more than the tra- 
dition ; the most distinguished colony of Tyre had wellnigh lost, in 
her struggle with palmy Rome, the possession of a name amongst 
posterity. 
6th, Much idle controversy has arisen out of the question as to 
the dates and authenticity of the Pentateuch (or five books ascribed 
to Moses) and the posterior books of Holy Writ. That the whole 
of them could not have been written by an individual contemporary 
with the long series of ages of which they form the history, is an 
axiom disdaining illustration. Be their dates what they may, either 
they proceed from the inspiration of Jehovah, or are not his word: 
and the man of devout conformity will as readily bow down before the 
divine effusions of Esdras, or of the priest of Eserhaddon, as of 
Adam, or of Noah, of Shem, of Abraham, or of Moses. Their 
only authenticity is their divine process ; and if the heavenly afflatus 
were extinct after the death of Moses, all posterior scriptures must be 
merely human ; but if it were extended over the age of the prophets, 
then is their authenticity as incontrovertible communicated by Esdras, 
or the priest of Eserhaddon, as by the earlier prophets of Eloim.— 
The opinion of Le Clere®° is not at variance with the divine inspira- 
ration of the sacred books, and is in conformity with the probable 
chronology and authentic history of mankind. 
Of Samaritan literature, then, there remains only®! the Penta- 
6° As much light is thrown upon our subject by ancient coins, so does the 
genealogy of alphabets—(see Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing )— 
supply much curious induction. He allows the Phoenician alphabet to be 
the first. From the Phenician are derived—I\st, Ancient Hebrew or Samari- 
tan: (i.e. Phoenician or Philistine, see notes ** and **).—2nd, Chaldaic: a 
mere dialect of the Phoenician, in which the Hebrew Bible is written (see 
note °°)—3rd, Bastulian, or Spanish Phoenician: propagated at Cadiz 
(Gades), a colony of Phoenicians in Spain.—4th, Punic, or Carthaginian and 
Sicilian: propagated at Utica and Carthage, Phoenician colonies, and in 
Sicily, where the Phoenicians had numerous colonies. dxovy 3: xai Poivixes 
wie waouy wiv ray Zixerlav The Phoenicians dwelt round all Sicily.— Thucy- 
dides, vi. 2.—5th, Pelasgian, i. e. speciatim of Greece and Magna Grecia: 
Hetruscan, Kugubian or Umbrian, Occan or Volcian, Samnic or Samnite, 
Ionic Greek, written from the left to the right. 
°° Calmet, art. Samaritans. 
®. 'The cabalistical jargon of the Jews has been committed to paper in mo- 
dern times. Their learned rabbin, Moses Maimonides of Cordova, 1132 a.p. 
states that “among the Hebrews were many mysteries formerly, but that 
they have all perished.” “ Nosti enim Talmud ipsum inter nos receptum, 
olim non fuisse incertum librum deigestum, propter rationem istam, quz 
tum passim obtinebat in gente nostra :—VERBA QU DIXI TIBI ORE, 
