ANTIQUITY OF WRITING. 381 



and Japhet, had their letters from the Pheuiciaus, who were 

 descended from Ham *. 



It is observable, that the C'-aldeans, the Syrians, the Phenicians, 

 and Kc.vptians, all bordered upon each other ; and as the Phenicians 

 \\-n- die greatest, as will as the most ancient commercial nation, 

 it is very probable, that they communicated letters to the Egyptians, 

 the ports of Tyre and ^idon, and those of the Egyptians, being not 

 far distant from each other. 



Mr. Jackson is evidently mistaken, when he says, that letteri 

 were invented two thousand six hundred and nineteen years before 

 the birth of Christ. The deluge, recorded by Moses, was two 

 thousand three hundred and forty. nine years before that event ; 

 and if letters were not invented till five hundred and fifty years 

 after, as he asserts, we must date their recovery only one thousand 

 sev^n hundred and ninety. nine years before the Christian zra, 

 which is four hundred and ten years after the reign of Menes, the 

 first king of Eiiypt. who (according to Geo. S) ncellus and others) 

 is said to have been the same person with the Misor of Sanconiatho, 

 the Mizraim of the Scriptures, and the Osiris of the Egyptians ; 

 but whether this be true or not, Egypt is frequently called in the 

 Scriptures, the land of Mizraim +. 



This Mizraim, the second son of Amyn or Ham, seated himself 

 near the entrance of Egypt at Zoan, in the year before Christ two 

 thousand one hundred and eighty-eight, and one hundred and sixty 

 years after the flood ; he afterwards built Thebes, and some say 

 Memphis. He is by Herodotus, by Diodorus, Eiatostheoes, and 

 Africanus, by Eusebiusand Syncellus, called Menes t. 



Before the time that Mizraim went into Egypt, Taaut his son had 

 invented letters in Pitenicia ; and if this invention took place ten 

 years before the migration of his father into Egypt, as Mr. Jackson 

 supposes, we can trace letters as far back, as the year two thousand 

 one hundred and seventy eight before Christ, and one hundred and 

 fifty after the deluge recorded by Moses ; and beyond this period, 

 the written annals of mankind, which have bven hitherto trans. 



* Misraim, the son of Ham, led colonies into K<%pi, and laid the foundation 

 of a kingdom, which lasted one thousand six hundred and sixty-three yeart) 

 whence Egypt is, in the Holy Scriptuic-, called the land of Ham. 



+ Universal History, vol. v. p. 3<U). 



J These authors say he went iuto Egypt twenty-one years sooner ; hut thi 

 account agrees best with the Scripluroo. See Siackhouse'i H;t. of ihe Bible 

 p. 903.- Uuiv. Hist. vol. xxi. p. 3. 



