StiO ORIGIN OF LETTEHS, 



will amount to 620,448,401, 733,239,439, 3),000. Thus it is 

 evident, (hat twenty. four letters will admit of an infinity of combi- 

 nations and nnan-c rents, sulficient to reprneot not onl> all the 

 conceptions of trie mind, but all words in ill languages whatever. 



It is easy to conceive the astonishment of the human mind, at 

 the first discovery of the doctrine and powers of combinations, 

 which immediately led to the composition of written language, by 

 the assistance of a small number of marks or letters ; though the 

 transferring of id^as by these means from the ear to the eye, was a 

 very extraordinary etlbrt of the human mind ; yet if we suppose 

 that the analysis of the sounds of language was already made, it was 

 no more than finding out marks for what was known before : 

 and we have already shewn, that symbols were in general use 

 among mankind, before they knew the use of letters ; and there- 

 fore the invention of the latter, was nothing more than the trans- 

 ferring the former method of representation, to the elements of 

 sound. If the notation of music had been invented before letters, 

 vliich mLht have happened, the discovery would have been just 

 as great as that of letters. 



As there are more sounds in some languages than in others, it 

 follows of course that the number of elementary characters or let. 

 ters, must vary in the alphabets of different languages. The He. 

 brew, Samaritan, and Syriac alphabets, have twenty-two letters ; the 

 Arabic twentv -ei_rht ; the Persic, the Egyptian or Coptic, th : rty- 

 t*o ; the present Russian forty-one ; the Shanscrit fifty ; the Cash- 

 niirinn and Malabaric are still more numerous. 



Mr. Sheridan observes, that our alphabet is ill calculated for the 

 notation of the English tongue, as there are many sounds for which 

 we have no letters or marks; and there ought to be nine more cha- 

 racters or letters to make a complete alphabet, in wliich every 

 simple sound ought to have a maik peculiir to itself. The reason 

 of the deficiency is, that our ancestors adopted the Roman alpha, 

 bet for the notation of our language, thou n h it ^as b) no means 

 suitt d to it. 



Every alphabet is to be considered as the elements of words, 

 v'.'j-ver it may be received b> compact; for our roadi r- must 

 not forget, that all words, as well as s> niboJs, letters, or elements 

 of words, are significant onl) by habit or agreement. 



As vocal or audible langunge is resolvable into sentences, words, 



