WRITING. 



fpeak different languages from one another, and from the in- 

 habitantsof China, life the fame written charafters with them, 

 a:id thus inteUigibly correfpond with each other in writing, 

 though ignorant of the language fpoken in their feveral 

 countries. Our European arithmetical figures are fignificant 

 marks, precifely of the fame nature with the Chinefe cha- 

 rafters. Thus far nothing has appeared which refembles 

 our letters, or which can be called writing, in the fenfe now 

 given to that term. What we have hitherto feen were all 

 direft figns for things, and made no ufe of the medium of 

 found or words ; either figns by reprefentation, as the 

 Mexican pifturcs ; or figns by analogy, as the Egyptian 

 hieroglyphics ; or figns by inftitution, as the Peruvian knots, 

 the Chinefe charafters, and the Arabian cyphers. At length, 

 in different nations, men became fenfible of the imperfec- 

 tion, the ambiguity, and the tedioufnefs of each of thefe 

 methods of communication with one another, and began to 

 confider the advantage refulting from employing figns, 

 which fhould (land not direftly for things, but for the words 

 which they ufed in fpeech for naming thefe things ; and 

 they alfo confidered, that though the number of words in 

 every language be very great, yet the number of articulate 

 founds, ufed in compofing thefe words, is comparatively 

 fmall. Hence they were led to invent figns, not for each 

 word by itfelf, but for each of thofe fimple founds that are 

 employed in forming words ; and they obferved, that by 

 joining together a few of thofe figns, it would be prafticable 

 to exprefs, in writing, the whole combination of founds 

 which our words require. 



The firft ftep in this new progrefs was the invention of 

 an alphabet of fyllables, which probably preceded the inven- 

 tion of an alphabet of letters, among fome of the ancient 

 nations ; and which is faid to be retained, to this day, in 

 Ethiopia, and fome countries of India. By fixing upon a 

 particular mark or charafter for every fyllable in the lan- 

 guage, the number of charafters, neceffary to be ufed in 

 writing, was reduced within a much fmaller compafs than 

 the number of words in the language. StiU, however, the 

 number of characters was great ; and mud have continued 

 to render both reading and writing very laborious arts. At 

 laft fome happy genius arofe ; and tracing the founds made 

 by the human voice to their mod fimple elements, reduced 

 them to a very few vowels and confonants ; and, by affixing 

 to each of thefe the figns which we now call letters, taught 

 men how, by their combination?, to put into writing all the 

 different words, or combinations of lound, which they em- 

 ployed in fpeech. By being reduced to this fimplicity, the 

 art of writing was brought to its higheft ftate of perfeftion, 

 and in this ftate, we now enjoy it in all the countries of 

 Europe. 



To whom we are indebted for this admirable and ufeful 

 difcovery does not appear. There feems reafon to con- 

 clude, from the books which Mofes has written, that, 

 among the Jews, and probably among the Egyptians, 

 letters had been invented prior to his age. The univerfal 

 tradition among the ancients is, that they were firft im- 

 ported into Greece by Cadmus the Phoenician, who, 

 according to the common fyttem of chronology, was con- 

 temporary with Jofhua ; but according to fir Ifaac New- 

 ton's fyftem, contemporary with king David. As the 

 Phcenicians are not known to have been the inventors of 

 any art or fcience, though, by means of their extenfive 

 commerce, they propagated the difcoveries made by other 

 nations, the moft probable and natural account of the 

 origin of alphabetical charafters is, that they took rife in 

 Egypt, the firft civilized kingdom of which we have any 

 authentic accounts, and the great fource cf art and polity 



among the ancients. In that country, the faTourite (ludy 

 of hieroglyphical charafters had direfted much attention to 

 the art of writing. Their hieroglyphics are known to 

 have been intermixed with abbreviated fymbols, and arbi- 

 trary marks ; whence, at laft, they caught the idea of 

 contriving marks, not for things merely, but for founds. 

 Accordingly, Plato (in Phsedro) exprefsly attributes the 

 invention of letters to Theuth or Thoth, the Egyptian, 

 who is fuppofed to have been the Hermes, or Mercury, of 

 the Greeks. Cadmus himfelf, though he paffed from 

 Phoenicia to Greece, as feveral of the ancients have af- 

 firmed, was originally of Thebes in Egypt. Moft pro- 

 bably Mofes carried with him the Egyptian letters into 

 tiie land of Canaan ; and there, being adopted by the 

 Phoenicians who inhabited that part of the country, they 

 were tranfmitted into Greece. 



It is curious to obferve, that the letters which we life 

 at this day, can be traced back to the alphabet of Cad- 

 mus. The Roman alphabet, which obtains with us and 

 moft of the European nations, is plainly formed on the 

 Greek, with a few variations. And all learned men ob- 

 ferve, that the Greek charafters, efpecially according to 

 the manner in which they are formed in the oldeft in- 

 fcriptions, have a remarkable conformity with the He- 

 brew or Samaritan charafters, which, it is agreed, are 

 the fame with the Phoenician, or the alphabet of Cad- 

 mus. If the Greek charafters are inverted from left to 

 right, according to the Phoenician and Hebrew manner 

 of writing, they will appear to be nearly the fame. Befide 

 the conformity of figure, the names or denominations of 

 the letters, alpha, beta, gamma, &c. and the order in 

 which they are arranged, in all the feveral alphabets, 

 Phoenician, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman, agree fo much, 

 as to amount to a demonftration that they were all ori- 

 ginally derived from the fame fource. The letters were, 

 at firft, written from the right-hand to the left ; and this 

 manner of writing obtained among the Affyrians, Phoe- 

 nicians, Arabians, and Hebrews : and from fome very old 

 inscriptions, it appears to have obtained alfo among the 

 Greeks. Afterwards the Greeks adopted the method of 

 writing their lines alternately from the right to the left, 

 and from the left to the right, called boujlrophedon. At 

 length, however, the motion from the left-hand to the 

 right being found more natural and commodious, the 

 praftice of writing, in this direftion, prevailed throughout 

 all the countries of Europe. See more on this fubjeft 

 under Alphabet, Char.^cters, and Letters. 



Writing was long a kind of engraving. Pillars, and 

 tables of ftone, were firft employed, and afterwards, plates 

 of the fofter metals, fuch as lead : but as writing became 

 more common, lighter and more portable fubftances were 

 employed. The leaves, and the bark of certain trees, 

 were ufed in fome countries ; and in others, tablets of 

 wood, covered with a thin coat of foft wax, on which the 

 impreffion was made with a ftylus of iron. See Book, 

 Bark, and Style. 



In later times, the hides of animals, properly prepared 

 and pohfhed into parchment, were the moft common 

 materials : our prefent method of writing on paper is 

 an invention of no greater antiquity than the fourteenth 

 century. 



The advantages of writing above Speech (which fee) 

 are, that writing is both a more extenfive and a more per- 

 manent method of communication : neverthelefs, fpoken 

 language has a great fuperiority over written language, in 

 point of energy or force. See Warburton, ub'i Jupra. 

 Blair's Leftures on Rhetoric, &c. vol. i. left. 7. 



An 



