' 
admirably delineated -by the tranfient fuc- 
cefles of the forces of Menou, the Deus 
Lunus, or Lunar God of the Babylonians, 
«ver thofe of Abercrombie, the Ham-on, 
or illuftricus fun, of the fame people; and 
the final triumph of the latter, and reco- 
very of his wonted glory, by the eventual 
victory of the Englifh troops, the {plen- 
dour of whofe fame immediately irradiated 
the whole country, and difpelled the dread 
darknefs with which it was overpowered. 
Learning might liberally be made to con- 
tribute towards the elucidation of this 
mythic tradition, and not a few would be 
convinced by the arguments advanced in 
its favour. 
Your readers muft excufe the digreffion 
into which I have been undefignedly fe- 
duced. Having expatiated at large upon 
the fyftem of which I have now given a 
brief ftatement, Mr. Allwood enters upon 
the fubjeé&t of the origin of the Greek 
characters, which were principally, if not 
wholly, imported into Attica from Egypt. 
‘He feleéts feven letters from the entire al- 
phabet, and aporehends, that, by a clofe 
attention to his explanatien of thefe, his 
readers may be able for themfelves to ex- 
plain al] the reit. The letters made choice 
of are A.B. Ff, A.M. P. and 2, Of thefe, 
he conceives the firft to have originated 
trom an inftrumeat confifting of two piles 
driven occafionally into the banks. of the 
Wile, *‘ fo as to be inclined_at an acute 
angle, and to be fattened to each other at” 
the apex,” in confequence of which, ‘ the 
furiace of the water would point out to an 
obferver, both the height of the ftream on 
any particular days, and the whole height 
te which it rofe in any one year. This 
infirument (continues he) is no other than 
the a of the Greeks ;”’ and he imagines 
it prefents an object of fuch importance 
to the country where it was ufed, that it 
feems to have been, ina peculiar manner, 
dedicated to the chief deity. Its name 
is derived from Al-phi, the oracular 
influence of this deity.”” Upon this 
interpretation, I fhall make no other com- 
ment, than that we may allow it to be in- 
. genious, butthat it dces not appear to be 
intitled to any other praife. The term 
‘ beta, defignated by 8, implies, in the He- 
‘brew, a houle or temple. 
written 2: Mr. Allwood fuppofes it to 
*< prefent to our view the feétion of one of 
the abodes cf mankind,-in the early ages 
of. artlels fimplicity ;” and conceives, that 
the B, the fynonymous charaéter of the 
Greeks or Cuthites, was formed from an 
improvement upon this building, fuygeft- 
ed by an inundation of the Nile ; in confe- 
quctice of which, it was neceflary to place 
Mr, Good on the Origin of the Greek Alphabet. 
It is thus- 
f Jan. ] 9 
the original.tent or abode upon piles, giv- 
ing us hereby a reprefentation of fuch a 
figure as ra « which may have been po- 
lithed down by ufe into B.° . With as lit- 
tle authority upon which to repofe, there 
appears to me le{s ingenuity in this inter- 
pretation, than in the foregoing, ‘* As to 
the form of the letter gamma ©, obferves 
Mr. Allwood, it perfectly well expreffes 
the flexure of the knees in the pofture of 
Sitting :*’ its meaning is cham-ai, ** the 
peace of Cham,’’or Ham; and the deities of 
Egypt are ‘* always reprefented in a fitting 
attitude, during the time that any offering: 
is made to them.”” To my compre- 
henfion, the letter F reprefents any other 
attitude juft as well as that of /ititag ; and 
I muftleave it to your readers to find out 
the refemblance for themfelves. The fourth 
letter or A. (delta) is deduced from a fup- 
pofition, that the Cuthites, who fubdued 
Egypt, drained that part of the Egyptian 
territory which is comprehended by this 
name, and accurately preferved the memo- 
ry of this achievement, by the introdug- 
tion of the prefent charaéter, which repre- 
fents the form of the country drained, into 
their alphabet. This is the moft ingenious 
conjecture we have yet met with; but it 
_ labours under two difficulties ; the firftis, 
that it appears more conionant to hiftory 
that this country was drained by the na- 
tives, than by their conquerors ; and next, 
the chara&ter was moft probably in exif- 
tence prior to this mighty achievement by 
either party ; the name of Delta A being, 
converlely, beftowed upon the region thus 
drained, in confequence of its refemblance 
to the pre-exiftent letter. The next cha- 
racter feleéted by Mr. Allwood is the M, 
denominated mu by the Greeks, the found 
of which refembles, fays he, the owzug of 
cattle, and its fhape that of a buli ora 
cow. The latter, nevertherlefs, in my 
apprehenfion, juft as much as the letter 
r, delineates the fitting-attitude of a deity. 
To explain this, however, we have a fi- 
gure prefented to us—a precaution which 
was highly neceffary: and in this figure, 
the front column is f{uppofed to reprefent 
the fore legs; the back, the hind legs; 
and the point of the central angle, the 
depth of the body of the animal: after — 
which, by adding a head and tail, which 
even the figure itfelf thews ‘plainly the 
letter does not defcribe, we obtain an em- 
blem of the Ofiris or Apis, the facred bull 
or cow of the Egyptians. And here, indeed, 
Mr. Allwood appears to be mott decidedly 
miftaken; for, in oppofition to ‘any con- 
jectures of his own, and independently of 
the total want of all refemblaace whatever, 
we 
