a: 
“were merely dried in the fun, the other of 
thofe which, like ours, were baked in a 
furnace. This circumftance wonderfully 
correfponds with the account given by 
Herodotus in his frft book, in which he 
relates, that Babyion being in a fituation 
ceprived of tones, timber, and other ma- 
terials for building, natere had abundantly 
provided for this defeét by an inexhautti- 
ble ftore of clay, of the belt quality, fit for 
preparing excellent bricks, which, either 
dried in the fun or burnt on the fire, ac- 
quired a ftrength fufficient to refit the 
injury even of many centuries. Thefe 
bricks ave in thicknefs three inches: their 
fength and breadth is between twelve and 
thirteen inches,’ and it was with fuch 
bricks that not only Babylon, but, if we 
may believe Jofephus, the famous Tower of 
Babel was conftruéted. ‘This laft hiforian 
further pretends, that after the deluge 
two columns were erected by the children 
of Noah; the one, like our Babylonian 
bricks, and the other of ftone, in order 
to be able to refift both elements, the 
water and the fire, in cafe of a fecond ca- 
taftrophe. 
A principal queftion occurs here for 
folution, viz. whether the above infcrip- 
tions are to be read horizontally, and be- 
ginning from the left hand, like the cha- 
racters of the Sanfcrit, and other lan- 
guages of India and Europe ; or whether 
they are to be read from the right hand 
to the left, like the Hebrew, the Arabic, 
and other Oriental dialeé&ts ; whether they 
muft be read perpendicularly, either from 
the top to the bottem, like the Chinefe, 
the-Mongul, and the Japanefe charafers ; 
or from the bottom to the top, ‘as-is re-- 
lated of the antient Mexicans, by the Je- 
fuit Acofta, and of fome nations in Afia 
at the prefentday. Niebuhr and Tychfen 
Jean to the former opinion, viz. that they 
are to be read horizontally, and from the 
left to the right ; whilit Rafpe thinks they 
ought to be read perpendicularly, and’ 
Wah! pretends, that they run, at leaft 
fometimes, from the right to the left. 
Another gueftion, likewife, fuggefts 
yifelf, whether thefe natl-headed charac- 
ters are of the alphabetic kind, like ours 
in Europe; whether they are of the fyllabic 
kind, like the Habeffinian, the Devana- 
-gatl, and other Oriental alphabets ; or 
Vaitly, whether they are hieroglyphical, 
like thofe on the Egyptian Pyramids, or, 
at leait, exprefling complete ideas by ar- 
bitrary figns, like» the characters ufual 
Axe Bae Peet 
Infeription on the Babylonian Bricks. 
. 
eS 
[Aug. 1 
amongft the Chinefe, and amongft a num- 
ber ot nations, different in language, in 
- the fouth-eaft regions of Afia. ,Hyde, a 
hundred years ago, took them to be mere 
{crawlings or utelefs ornaments, totally 
deftitute of any fenfible fignification ; and 
indeed M. Witte, Profeflor at Roftock, 
in a pamphlet lately publithed, endeavours 
to prove the fame; while others again will 
have it, that they contain great myltéries, 
and are even denotative of the fecret doc- 
trines of the Magi. Niebuhr, who has 
brought to Europe the moft accurate 
drawings of thefe characters hitherto pro- 
curable, contends for their being alpha 
betical, and,to confirm his opinion, ad- 
duces no Jefs than three different alpha- 
bets for the fame kind of writing, -One 
of thefe M. Tychfen, at Rofteck, has 
made ufe of, with a view to decyphera 
part of thefe infcriptions. To this notion, 
however, he feems to have gained no 
profelytes, and the explanation which he 
has given in his effay lately publifhed in 
Germany, appears fo forced and unnatu- 
ral, that it has already in a manner loft 
all credit with the German literati. . 
It may be further obferved here, that 
Colonel, now General, Vallancy, in -his 
Irifh Grammar, publifhed in 1773, affirm- 
ed, that the Perfepolitan characters bear 
a ftrong refemblance to that. {pecies ‘of 
writing which the Irifh call Ogam. But 
the charaéters are fo complex, according 
to Sir W. Jones, in his Differtation cn 
the Perfians, and the variations fo nu- 
merous, as to preclude an opinion that 
they could be fymbols of articulate founds. 
For even the Magari fyftem, he obferves, 
which has more diftinct letters than any 
one known alphabet, confifts only of 
forty-nine fingle characters, two of which 
are mere {ubftitutions, and four of little ufe 
in San{crit or in any other language; while 
the more complicated Perfepolitan figures, 
‘as exhibited by Nicbuhr, muft be as nu- 
merous, at leatt, as the Chinele keys, 
which are the figns of ideas only, and 
none of which refemble the old Perfian 
letters,at Iftahar. Thus far Sir W, 
Jones. vw 
-Amongf thefe and ether opinions I 
hope foon ta lay before the public, my 
own, in a.larger work, and, by that means 
if poffible, throw fome further light on a 
fubject which has not been hithérto fufi- 
ciently elucidated, 
London, 
Tune 4; 1801. 
j. Hacer, 
INSCRIP 
