1820.] Invention of Alphabetic Writwg. 367 



himself into a conjecture that the simple sounds were much 

 fewer in number than the compound ; but until the completion 

 of the experiment, the most sanguine uimgination could never 

 have approached within many degrees of the truth. 



Thus mioht a single individual have brought to perfection this 

 wonderful discovery. Indeed we are almost compelled to admit 

 from its nature, that it could only have been achieved by a single 

 individual Any progress one man might make before his ideas 

 were completely developed could not possibly tend to assist any 

 other It is then natural to presume that we owe to the self- 

 same* mind, the conception of the plan ; every stage of the 

 process ; and its perfect and final accomplishment in so far at 

 least as the compass extended of the sounds which he had occa- 

 sion to represent: and from this original invention it can 

 scarcely be doubted, were copied all the alphabets entitled to 

 the name which ever existed. . 



Astle it is true, whose laborious and extensive researches on 

 the subject entitle his opinion to the utmost attention and de^r- 

 ence asserts that several of the Asiatic alphabets, which differ 

 in the names, number, and power of the characters from the 

 Phoenician, and those of which it was the source, must have 

 been altogether of a separate and underived origin ; and that it 

 is most liberal as well as rational to suppose that different meri 

 at different times thought of making marks for sounds, mstead 

 of marks for things.* But strong as are the facts wbch he 

 adduces, I am unable to divest myself of the opinion that the 

 author of any alphabet, posterior to that originally invented, 

 must have been previously acquainted eitherwith it or some other 

 derived from it ; and that where no traces of similitude are ob- 

 servable that he adopted at least the principle on which those 

 prior alphabets were formed ; rejecting their characters either 

 on account of some difficulty in applying them to a language 

 requiring very different powers to designate its sounds ; or per- 

 haps from the vanity of encountering greater difficulties, and a 

 wish to be considered an original inventor. \et any mans 

 ambition ought to be sufficiently gratified by the mere act of 

 bestowing so inappreciable a gift upon his nation What would 

 not the Chinese owe to the individual who could persuade their 

 government to encourage the use of our characters m place ot 

 that cumbersome and unmanageable machinery, which, it not 

 the sole, has been the principal obstacle to their progress in the 

 fine arts, literature, and science, the cultivation of the mind, and 

 the intellectual embellishment of society. 



It maybe said that what has been done once may be done 

 ao-ain. But so many circumstances must have concurred in the 

 afscovery of alphabetic writing, even in the simplified view we 

 have been considering, that it seems to present at least one 



• See the fourlh chapter of Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing. 



