OF THE PHONETIC ALPHABET. 95 
the eighth century before christianity, and prior to whom history 
affords no credible record of a phonetic alphabet. 
It appears, then, that the mercantile coast of Phcenicia was the 
country in which a phonetic alphabet was discovered, and that San- 
choniatho was the first writer in it, if not the inventor®” of it. That 
not exceeding one century after its discovery, the Samaritan priest of 
Eserhaddon wrote (about 670 8.c.) in the Samaritan, old Hebrew, 
or Pheenician character (for they were the same), by the inspiration 
of Jehovah, the sacred compilations of the Pentateuch, for the use of 
the Samaritan Cuthites, who, bordering on the Pheenicians, used the 
same language. That about 150 years posterior to that date, Esdras, 
by divine inspiration, transcribed or composed the whole body of the 
sacred compilations in the Chaldzan®® character, in which they now 
stand, for the accommodation of the Hebrew priests, who, after the 
Babylonish captivity, understood only the Chaldzan language. 
From the commercial necessities of the Phoenicians, the communi- 
cation to the nations of the Mediterranean was coeval with the inven- 
tion of the phonetic letter ; and, after the lapse of a few ages of man, 
the people of Greece would avail themselves of an art that gave a 
visible existence to the raptures of the poet, the knowledge of the his- 
torian, and the demonstrations of the mathematician. 
Such appears to be the probable date and origin of the phonetic 
alphabet, founded upon testimonies which may be, on a review of 
them, divided into two kinds—lIst, Positive; and 2nd, Negative. 
Of the former kind may be considered, 1st, The undisputed exist- 
has proved him to be) than any other profane historian whose writings have 
come down to us, either entire or in fragments.” 
67 Each discovery depending on abstract reasoning has been the work of 
an individual mind, and, although subject to improvement in the progress of 
human reasoning, has, in some degree, answered the intention of the in- 
ventor. 
68 Calmet, art. Esdras. We are bound by historical analogy to suppose 
that the language spoken by the Israelites, at the period of the exodus or 
leaving Egypt, where they had sojourned upwards of two hundred years, was 
that of the Egyptians. The above notes inform us, and historic analogy sus- 
tains them, that after their settlement in the promised land it was Pheeni- 
cian or Philistine, for the epithets apply to the same people ; and that under 
the Babylonish empire it was Chaldee. Profane history assures us that 
under the Macedonian dynasties it was Greek, and so remained till the de- 
struction of Jerusalem and the posterior extinction of the lower empire.— 
The language of modern Palestine is that of Mahomet ; and I am at a loss to 
discover a language which may be considered as belonging exclusively to the 
descendants of Abraham. 
