ALP 



raons, after a fiiil examination of 



tin- subject, they would not have been 

 filled willi such cii.Tradictlons between 

 the man m r ot' writing and rending', as we 

 liown above, nor with those imper- 

 fections thai C\'.,!.IH|\ appear in In- a!- 

 phabei ii.-iiKiu. Mr. Lodowick, 



bowever, and liishop V. ilkin*, have cn- 

 d> avourcd lo obviate all these, in th. ir 

 universal alphabets or characters. See 

 ( 'H H\I TI 11. 



It is no wonder that the number of let- 

 ters in Ilio-^t |an;nia; ; vs should be SO small, 



and that of v. ords so threat, since it ap- 

 pears, that, allowing onl\ '-M letters to :m 

 alphabet, the different words or combina- 

 tions that may be made out of them, ta- 

 king them first one by one, then two by 

 two, &c. &.c. would amount to the follow- 

 ing number: 1391, 724288, 887252, 

 999425, 128493, 4022000. See COMBI- 

 NATKIN. It must be admitted, neverthe- 

 less, that the condition, that every sv lia- 

 ble must contain, at least, one vowel, 

 would modify this number in the way of 

 denomination; but on the other hand, the 

 combinations in pollysy liable words would 

 operate the contrary \vay. 



Many learned authors have composed 

 inquiries into the origin of alphabetic 

 writing-, and not a few have referred the 

 invention to the immediate inspiration of 

 God. Nevertheless, it appears to be a 

 very simple and direct improvement of 

 the hieroglyphic art. Sensible objects 

 are depicted in outlines by children, and 

 most rude nations ; and, as in the con- 

 struction of languages, so in this writing 

 by figures, substantives will come to be 

 used adjective ly, to denote relations or 

 qualities. As words becoqie more com. 

 plex and less perfect by the use of ab- 

 stractions, so likewise must the hiero- 

 glypie picturesbecome combined and im- 

 perfect, and at length must have denoted 

 things very d, tie rent from any object ca- 

 pable of being delineated ; and, among 

 other confluences, there is one very 

 striking; namely, thut the pictun 

 d< -gi -iterating intoasign or character, will 

 dated by memory with the oral 

 character, or name, or correspondent 

 word. An immediate step after this must 

 be, that < Larac'crs associated with mono- 

 syllabic words will be frequently put to- 

 gether to form pollyiyllabic words, in 

 which the picture is left out of the consi- 

 deration, and the sound alone forms the 

 subject of the record, as if the charac- 

 ters for man and eye were united lo form 

 th. word many, or multitudinous. ) And 

 lastly, habit must in fact have given a 



VOL. I. 



preference, in the composition of these 



polysyllabic \\o,<K, t,, Mich simple .v,un'i. 

 and tlV-ir characters as wcr<- found to be 

 most extensively useful. That ;s to say, 

 an unintentional process of analysis must 

 have thus given rjse to t!.e alphabet. 



The sounds of language are modified 

 by articulation, which depends on certain 

 and in general obvious, changes in 

 the figure of the organs; and by accent 

 or mere intensity; ami by intonation or 

 music. The first of these, as used in 

 discourse, is much more capable of having 

 its variations marked by characters than 

 the others ; and from this circumstance, 

 it is found that the alphabet can deliver 

 with correctness the words of such lan- 

 guages as communicate chiefly by articu- 

 lation ; but in languages where the same 

 articulated monosyllable denotes a great 

 variety of things, according to the 

 or intonation, there will be comparatively 

 few instances of depicted sound, and the 

 system of writing will continue to be 

 hieroglyphic, or rat her symbolic, in all its 

 improvements. This system is, for the 

 reason here mentioned, in use in China, 

 and does not seem inferior to the alpha- 

 bet, but in some respects more advan- 

 geous. 



ALPHABF.T is also used for a cypher, 

 or table of the usual letters of the alpha- 

 bet, with the corresponding secret cha- 

 racters, and otherblank symbols, intend- 

 ed to render the writing more difficult to 

 be decyphered. See the article DECY- 



I'UEUIM. 



ALPHABKT, among merchants, a kind 

 of index, with the twenty -four letters in 

 their natural order, in which are set down 

 the names of those who have opened ac- 

 counts, reft; rringto the folios ofthe ledger. 



AI.l'HOXSlNE tables, astronomical ta- 

 bles, calculated by order of Alphonsus, 

 King of Castile, in the construction of 

 which that prince is supposed to have 

 contributed his own labour. 



Al.IMNA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Motiantlria Mono ;A'nia class of plants, 

 the corolla whereof is monopctalous, un- 

 equal, and as it were double ; tin 

 rior one is trifid, the upper segment i.? 

 hollow, the two side ones Hat, and it ha;-, 

 a tube ; the interior is slioi". 

 trifid, and the lower scgnu n; of the three 

 hangs out beyond the lateral parts of the 

 exit rior corolla, the other tw:> are emar- 

 ginated, and the base is vcntricose ; the 

 fruit is a rlcsln capsule, of an o\ated 

 figure, composed of three valtes, and 

 containing three cells ; the seeds are nu- 

 merous, of an ovated figure, with a pro. 



R 



