AND THE INVENTION OP ALPHABETS. 355 



If this art had been a new discovery in his time, he would pro. 

 bably have commemorated it, as well as the other inventions of 

 music, &c. ; nor is there any rrason to suppose, that God was the 

 immediate revealer of the art ; for Moses could never have omit- 

 ted to have recorded the history of so important a circumstance, 

 as the memory of it would have been one of the strongest barriers 

 against idolatry. 



It is incumbent on us to mention, that several respectable pro- 

 phane authors, attribute the discovery of letters to the gods, or to 

 some divine man Plato delivers his sentiments v^ry plainly * upon 

 this subject. EireiJij fcuvlu; Kfsipoy xarsvoyirsy stre rt$ e9$ sire tun 

 eo; Av$/ju>7r^-. The same author, in his Phaedrus, makes the 

 god Theuth or Mercury, the inventor of letters. Diodorus Siculus 

 tells us, that Mercury invented the first characters of writing, and 

 taught men the rudiments of astronomy t ; and Cicero, in his Tusc. 

 Quest, lib. i. delivers his opinion upon this subject in the following 

 words: * Quid ilia vis, quae tandem est, qnae investigat occulta? 

 aut qui sonos vocis, qui indniti videhantur, panels literarum notis 

 terminavit? Philosophia vero omnium mater artium, quid est 

 aliud, nisi, ut Plato ait, donum, ut ego inventum Deorum ?" The 

 same author, in his Natura Deorum, lib. Hi. says, that Hermes or 

 the fifth Mercury, whom the Eg) ptians called Thoth, first commu- 

 nicated letters to that people. The Gentoos affirm, that letters 

 were communicated to their ancestors by the Supreme Being, whom 

 they call Brahmah J. 



Although, from these authorities, we may infer that the art 

 of writing is of great antiquity, yet they discover to us that the 

 ancients had very imperfect ideas of its true origin ; for Plato 

 says, "that some, when they could not unravel a difficulty, 

 brought down a god, as in a machine, to cut the knot :" and the 



Claraval, Monsieur du Pin, in his Universal Historical Library, p. 81, support! 

 these authorities ; and adds, that there is an infinite number of ancient and mo- 

 dern stones thus engraven, which were used forsiguets. That signets wero used 

 by the Hebrews, before they went into E-jypt, we learn from Gen. chap, 

 xxxviii. v. I Si, where it appears, that Jndah gave Tharaar his signet, &c. : 

 and it is reasonable to suppose, that this signet was similar to those used by the 

 Israelites, and the other neighbouring nations. 



SeeTol ii. |>. 18; edit. Scrran. 



f Lib. i. sect 1. 



J See Mr. Halhed's preface to the Gen too Lawi- 



& Set the Cratylis edit. Fic. p.29|. 



2 A 2 



