1820,] Invention of Alphabetic Writing. 363 



racters, so as to recollect the sound by the sign, and the sign by 

 the sound, he would naturally group together those signs which 

 represented sounds bearing the shghtest degree of resemblance 

 to each other. In this process he would find his 48 characters 

 arrange themselves in five columns, perhaps in the order in 

 which I shall represent them. He might have chosen different 

 configurations, straight or curved, simple or comphcated, for his 

 characters ; but I shall select for mine such as will remind my 

 reader of the sounds which they are intended to represent. 



It is scarcely necessary to observe that in forming this arrange- 

 ment he would naturally place, as I have done, the characters 

 in the order in which the sounds occurred in the verses he was 

 endeavouring to analyze. For example, he would place Ar in 

 the first column of the table ; ma in the same column, vi in the 

 second column, mm in the third, que in the fourth, ca in the first 

 again, and no in the fifth ; and the prevailing sounds in the 

 respective columns would not be in the order of our vowels, but 

 thus : a. i. u. e. o. and with respect to the situation of the cha- 

 racters in each coluiim, they would be nearer the top or bottom 

 in proportion as the sounds they represented were near the 

 beginning or end of the verses submitted to this process. I 

 have only to add that a person accustomed to pronounce the 

 Latin language after the English fashion, may object to my 

 arranging together sounds so dissimilar as vi and ris, fu and 

 mus; but there are strong grounds to believe that they were not 

 so pronounced by Virgil. The Itahans, the French, the Span- 

 ish, the Portuguese ; in fact, all those nations whose languages 

 are derived to any extent from the Latin, for the most part agree 

 in pronouncing a as in all, i as in ill, o as in ore, and u as in 

 pure ; e sometimes as in revere, and sometimes as in revery ; 

 and tlieir evidence on this point has the force of four witnesses, 



