ANTTQUITY OP WRITING. 363 



of opinion, that they must be found included within the specie! 

 abovementioned. 



[Astle. 



SECTION III. 



Antiquity of Writing^ and the Claims of different Nations t 

 the Honour of its Invention. 



THE art of writing is of great antiquity, and the written annals of 

 ancient nations are so imperfect or fabuK-us, that it will be ex. 

 tremely difficult to decide to what nation or people the honour of 

 the invention belongs; for, as Sir Isaac Newton justly observes, 

 '* there is the utmost uncertainty in the chronology of ancient 

 kingdoms, arising from the vanity of each in claiming the greatest 

 antiquity, while those pretensions were favoured by their having 

 no exact accounts of time. " 



It has already been observed, that letters were the produce of a 

 certain degree of civilization among mankind ; and therefore it is 

 most probable, that we shall obtain the best information, by having 

 recourse to the history of those nations who appear to have been 

 first civilized. 



EGYPTIANS. 



As a great number of authors have decided in favour of the 

 Egyptians, who have an undoubted claim to an early civilization, 

 we shall begin our inquiries with that people; and, as th* y dis- 

 played every species of writing in the coure of their improve- 

 ments, we shall pursue the thread of their history, which will reflect 

 considerable li^ht on what has bpen already advanced. 



Dr. Warburton, bishop of Gloucester, atfirms, that the Egyp- 

 tians were the first people who discovered the knowledge of 

 the divine nature: and amongst tlie first who tan. tit (he im- 

 mortality of the soul*. In anoO.er ulace he giv-s to an account 

 of the state of their learnii,^ and .superstitions in lie time of Moses. 

 He contends, that Eg>pt s th par-i:i of all the teaming of 

 Greece, and WHS resorted to by tlie Grecian Kgi- ators, naturalists, 

 and philosophers. '1 he same prelate, with great erudition, and 



* Divine Legal, of Moats, TO), i. p. 165; vol. ii. p. 100 lu 105; vol. iii. p. 

 17 ; ibid. p. 25 to 39. W> are indebted to (his prelate for great part of what 

 u here said of the Egyptians. 



