368 Mr. Carmichael on the [Not. 



obstacle to the general application of the remark. If there be 

 any plausibility in the process I have detailed, we can scarcely 

 suppose that a plurality of individuals could have arisen in dif- 

 ferent ages and nations, quahfied for the accomphshment of 

 such a task : all of them poets, all producing poems worthy, at 

 least in their own estimation, of descending to after ages, all 

 eager and enthusiastic to find a certain and permanent record 

 for their verses : all, thus prompted to the undertaking, in pos- 

 session at the same time of the means of carrying it into execu- 

 tion : a comprehension which could survey the intricate mazes 

 of a language, and suspect that the whole might be reduced to 

 a few simple sounds — a judgment that could decide on the pos- 

 sibility of designating those sounds, which inferior powers of 

 discrimination would deem as difficult to delineate as pictures 

 of odours, and tastes, and internal sensations : a sagacity and 

 genius fit to discover seeming impossibilities to be possible — 

 and an indefatigable and pertinacious perseverance, that most 

 efficient attribute of great minds, which demonstrates the possi- 

 bility of an enterprise by its actual performance. 



If this combination of circumstances, motives and qualifica- 

 tions must have concurred in the production of alphabetic writ- 

 ing, is it probable that such a conjunction should occur more than 

 once '.' I admit that it is possible, but to my understanding, it is 

 equally possible that a knowledge of the circulation of the blood, 

 and the laws of gravitation, might also be discovered in different 

 countries and times ; and that Harveys and Newtons are to be 

 esteemed but common productions of nature. 



If it be admitted that the elementary alphabet may have owed 

 its birth to poetry, it must also be confessed that the syllabic 

 alphabets of the Ethiopians and Tartars * must have had a simi- 

 lar origin. It might, therefore, be supposed that long after the 

 invention of a syllabic alphabet, it might have served as a step 

 to the invention of the other. Dut this conjecture, though a 

 natural one, seems not to be well founded. The powerful mind 

 thiit invented alphabetic writing could have derived but little 

 assistance from so weak an auxiliary. It would have been but 

 an impediment to his progress ; and by furnishing him with the 

 means, however operose and unwieldy, of transmitting his verses 

 to posterity, would have deprived him of the strongest incentive 

 to the attempt. 



This, however, must remain a doubtful question ; but it i« 

 easy to perceive that in refining on the discovery of the original 

 inventor other ingenious persons may have contributed addi- 

 tional letters if other sounds should be detected which he had 

 omitted to note ; or adopting the principle and rejecting the 

 characters, applied a new set of those arbitrary signs to repre- 

 sent some other language with which they harmonized better ; 



* SeeGoguet's Origin of Laws, Arts, and Sciences, vol, i. p. 178; and Rees's 

 Encyclopedia, article Alphabet. 



