220 
:plint's natural histoht. 
[Book VIL 
the diadem, the emblem of royalty, and the triumphal pro- 
cession. Ceres** introduced corn, the acorn having been pre- 
viously used by man for food ; it was she, also, who introduced 
into Attica the art of grinding corn*^ and of making bread, 
and other similar arts into Sicily ; and it was from these cir- 
cumstances that she came to be regarded as a divinity. She 
was the first also to establish laws;*^ though, according to 
some, it was Ehadamanthus. I have always been of opinion, 
that letters were of Assyrian origin, but other writers, Gellius,*^ 
for instance, suppose that they were invented in Egypt by 
Mercury : others, again, will have it that they were discovered 
by the Syrians ; and that Cadmus brought from Phoenicia six- 
teen letters into Greece. To these, Palamedes, it is said, at the 
time of the Trojan war, added these four, 0, H, O, and X. 
Simonides,'*^ the lyric poet, afterwards added a like number, 
Z, H, T, and ft ; the sounds denoted by aU of which are now 
received into our alphabet.*^ 
We have a long discussion by Poinsinet, vol. iii. pp. 234, 235, on the 
derivation of the name of Ceres, in which he endeavours to explain the 
various attributes that were ascribed to her. The character in which she 
was generally regarded by the writers of antiquity, was the one here given 
to her by Pliny ; in proof of which we may refer, among other authorities, 
to Virgil, Geor. B. i. 1. 147, and to Ovid, Metam. B. iii. 1. 341.— B. 
^5 The earliest method of reducing corn to the state proper for the food 
of man, was by pounding it in a mortar ; afterwards, when it was ground 
between stones, they were moved by the hand, as is still the practice in 
many parts of the East. It was not until a comparatively late period that 
water was employed as the moving power for mills. — B. 
^6 It has been supposed by some commentators, that the character of 
legislator was bestowed upon Ceres, in consequence of the name by which 
she was designated, in the ancient northern languages, being incorrectly 
transferred to the Greek. Others have thought that it might be referred 
to the connection which may be supposed to exist between an advance in 
the arts of life generally and an improvement of the laws.— B. 
*7 We do not find the circumstance here referred to in the "Noctes At- 
ticae" of Aulus Gellius. — B. 
*8 It would appear that there were two individuals of this name, who 
were confounded with each other ; Simonides, the celebrated poet, lived as 
late as the fifth century before Christ, so that it has been thought impro- 
bable that the Greek language could have existed without the four letters 
here mentioned, until so recent a period. — B. 
49 The account of the original introduction of the alphabet into Greece, 
here given, is the one generally adopted in his time. Most readers will 
be aware, that the actual invention of letters, the share which the Egyp- 
tians and the Phoenicians had in it, the identification of Cadmus, and siill 
more of Mercury, with any of the heroes or legislators of antiquity, of 
