304 ®N LEGIBLE LANGUAGE. 



guage. The latter existing, the former might be expected to follow natt?- 

 rally in some shape or other, from that imitative and inventive genius 

 which belongs to the nature of man, and especially in a civilized state. 

 And, as we endeavour to penetrate the obscurity of past ages, we meet 

 with a few occasional beacons which point out to us something of the 

 means by which this wonderful art appears to have been first devised, and 

 something of the countries where it appears to have been first practised;. 



But an exception is made by many learned and excellent men in favour 

 of one species ol writing : namely, that of alphabetic characters, which 

 is conceived to be so far superior to every other method, as to have de- 

 manded and justified a special interposition of the Deity at some period of 

 the creation ; and, by turning to the Pentateuch, a few texts, we are told, 

 are to be met with, which seem to intimate that the knowledge of letters 

 was first communicated to Moses by God himself, and that the Decalogue 

 was the earhest specimen of alphabetic writing. 



Such was the opinion of many of the fathers of the Christian churchy 

 and such continues to be the opinion of many able scholars of modern; 

 times : as, among the former, St. Cyril, Clement of Alexandria, Euse- 

 bius, Isidore ; and, among the latter, Mr. Bryant, Mr. Costard, Mr. 

 Windar.* And it is hence necessary to remark in addition to what has 

 already been observed, that, so far from arrogating any such invention or 

 communication to himself, Moses uniformly refers to writing, and even to 

 alphabetic writing, as an art as cominon and as well known in his own 

 day as at present. He expressly appeals to the existence of written 

 records, such as tablets or volumes, and to the more durable art of engra- 

 ving, as applied to alphabetic characters. Thus, in the passage in which 

 writing is first mentioned in the Scriptures, " And the Lord said unto 

 Moses, write this for a memorial in a book or table.^^\ And shortly after- 

 wards, " And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it like 

 the engravings of a signet. Holiness to the Lord."| The pubhc seals, 

 or signets of oriental princes are well known to be of the same description 

 even in the present day, and, to be ornamented with sentences, instead of 

 with figures or mere ciphers. In the State Paper office, at Whitehall, 

 there are still to be seen a number of letters from eastern monarchs to the 

 kings of England, with seals of this very kind, the inscriptions of several 

 of which are copied by Mr. Astle into his valuable work upon the present 

 subject. § 



In that sublime and unrivalled poem, the book of Job, which carries 

 intrinsic, and in the present individual's judgment, incontrovertible evi- 

 dence of its being the work of Moses, we meet with a similar proof of the 

 existence and general cultivation of both these arts, at the period before 

 us ; for, it is thus the afflicted patriarch exclaims under a dignified con- 

 sciousness of his innocence : 



O ! that my words were even now written down : 

 O ! that they were engraven on a table : 

 With a pen of iron upon lead : — 

 That they were sculptured in a rock for ever ! j| 



Nor do the Hebrews alone appear to have been possessed of writtea 

 characters at this era. Admitting Moses to be the author of this very an- 



* Compare Astle's Oriarin of Writing, &c. p. 11. 4to. 



I t EXOJ. Xvii. 14. 6' »- . J j^j^jjj gg 



S Origin and Progress of Writing, p. 14. 4to. 1803. || Job, xix. 23, 



