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into which Cadinus and his Phenicians had introduced the Svriac alphabet: and consequently, we cannot be suprised to find that the characters which they brought into Italy, were the same with those first used by the Greeks. The letter E had originally the powers both of K and G. On the column of Duilius, there was inscribed leciones and macistratos, for legiones and magistratus. G was added to the alphabet in the 6th century of the republic. Dionysius Halicarnessensis had seen at Rome, in the temple of Diana, a column, on which Servius Tullius had caused the laws to be engraved; and he has recorded, that it exhibited the most ancient characters of Greece. The empire of Rome disseminated its letters to the utmost extremity of the West, where, perpetuated by the art of printing, literature now seems to bid defiance to those events which have swept from the earth the ancient monuments of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian knowledge, and threatened to involve even those of Greece and Rome in one general ruin.-We must now pursue our inquiries into the East.

The Hebraic character seems to have been brought by the Jews from Babylon; and, after the captivity, gradually supplanted the Samaritan, in which the sacred books had previously been written. M. l'Abbé Barthelemy, in a dissertation on two medals of Antigonus, king of Judea, (one of the last of the Asmonean princes), both of which are in Samaritan characters, observes, that, to the proofs drawn from medals, of the Samaritan character being employed to a much later period than is usually supposed, may be added two passages, one drawn from the Misna, a work composed near the end of the 2d century, and another from the Talmud of Jerusalem, between 60 and 70 years later. These two passages,' says M. Barthelemy, declare in substance, that the texts of the Bible destined to be publicly read, should be without Chaldaic paraphrases, and in Assyrian letters. But that it is permitted for private use to employ a copy, in which the paraphrase is incorporated with the text, and written in Samaritan characters.' This passage, in which the Hebraic character is termed Assyrian letters, may suffice to show the opinion entertained by the Jews, at a period long subsequent. The Hebraic character may certainly have been that in use in the celebrated cities founded by Ninus and Semiramis, whose structures attested the progress which the arts had made at the time they flourished. But the matter must be considered as still doubtful; and the affirmative does not appear to be confirmed, by an inspection of the bricks recently brought to Europe from Babylon.

The conquests of the early Caliphs extinguished the ancient

letters and literature of Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Indus. In their room was introduced the recently invented Arabic character. After a few centuries, when the memory and the names of ancient philosophers, poets, and historians, were finally obliterated, Asia might again boast of poets endowed with warm imaginations, and with powers of vivid description, and might number her annalists, whose accuracy as to dates and political events, in times subsequent to the Mohamedan era, might have obtained for them the title of historians, were the chief object of history to ascertain dates, to register the births and deaths of kings, or to record, without describing, the wars which confirmed or overturned a reigning dynasty.

The origin of the Arabic character is thus stated by the learned Baron de Sacy.

The best Arabian historians agree, that the written character now used by that nation, was invented only in the beginning of the fourth century of the Hegyra, about the year 940 of our era, by the visir Ebn Mocla; and that it was less an invention, than a reform, rendered necessary by the disorder which the caprice and negligence of copyists had introduced into the character previously made use of. This anterior character was brought for the first time (about the year 558 of our era) to the countries of Mecca and Medina, where the art of writing was previously unknown. The first inhabitant of Mecca who learned it, was Harb, a cousin german of Mohamed's father, who was born, as is well known, in A. D. 571. This Harb acquired it from an inhabitant of Hira, who had himself learned it at Anbar, from two Arabs of the tribe of Taï, who had come to settle there.' Hira and Anbar are two cities on the Euphrates.

In the most antient Arabian monuments, this character was of a square form, similar to the Assyrian character called estranguelo. Now, as the tribe of Taï, established in the Syrian desert, always carried on a commercial intercourse with the coast, we are entitled to conclude, that it was in fact the Syrian alphabet, then used, which the two Arabs brought to the cities of Anbar and Hira. This conclusion is corroborated by the circumstance, that the present number of 28 Arabic characters, and their order in the alphabet, are not of so antient a date, and that before Mohamed the letters were classed according to the relative order of the 22 Syrian letters.'

Stretching eastward from the Indus, to the doubtful limits of the Chinese empire, where alphabetical writing gradually disappears, the inhabitants have retained and employ their antient characters. The number of different alphabets actually used within the space described is uncertain, probably not less than twenty. But all those known to Europeans discover a common origin. 1. There is a general agreement in the position of the letters in the alphabet. 2. Each letter is a syllable, consisting

either of a vowel, cr of a consonant and vowel, both denoted by a single character. These pecularities of the Indian alphabets are universel, however great the discrepancy in the form of the letters, as in those of Tibet, Ava, &c. and are amply sufficient to justify the inference, that they are all derived from one original alphabet. But was this the Deva Negri in which the Brahicans now write their antient books? The beauty and rounded forms of this character in its present state, scarcely allow us to ascribe it to a remote antiquity; and numberless inscriptions attest the former existence of characters now unknown. The original prototype is probably lost; but it may in the lapse of ages have undergone alterations and improvements, and the various alphabets of India may have been transplanted from it, at different periods, to the countries where they are now found.

To whatever period, the invention of letters in Hindustan may be assigned, two facts seem unquestionable. 1. That the period when they received their present arrangement, must have been one of high civilization, compared with. that in which the western phebets originated. 2. That it must have preceded the period at which the ether alphabets retaining the same arrangement were conveyed to the regions where they are now employed. In this arrangement nothing is arbitrary. The vowels are placed first, comprehending distinct characters for the long and short ones, and for the sounds we term dinththongs. The consonants fellow, arranged according to the or gans of speech by which they are clicited. Gutturais, dentals, labials, nasels, &c. form each a distinct class, distinguished by a Sanscrit name, analogous to those we have just mentioned. A classification so scientific must obviously have been the work of a period of refinement, and preceded their dissemination into other countries.

The celebated Comte de Volney, whose travels into Egypt and Syria first conveyed to Europe correct notions of the actual state of those countries, has dedicated the small work which has suggested the preceding observations, to his colleagues of the Astatic Society of Calcutta. In 1795, about the time of his emigration to America, he rublished a work on the simplification of Oriental languages. My system, says the Count, à titre d'innovation, ne pouvait manquer d'être attaque par les anciennes habitudes. Je vellai l'occasion de le detendre; cette occasion se presenta en 1503. Le gouvernement Francais venait de commander le son.ptueux ouvrage de la Description de l'Egypte: il voulut qu'une carte geographique y fat jointe, et que sur cette carte la double nomenciature Arabe et Française fut tracee, literalement correspondante, Les Arabistes de Paris trouverent la chose impraticable, vu la differ

ence des prononciations; mes idées nouvelles sur cette matière étoient connues; Je fus invité à en faire l'application.

The reflections which our author was thus led into on this subject, have impressed him with a high idea of the importance of an universal alphabet for promoting the civilization and improvement of Asia, by facilitating the acquisition of Eastern languages to Europeans, and, what he estimates much more highly, the acquisition of European knowledge to the Asiatic.

Un antique prejugé vante vainement la litterature Orientale; le bon goût et la raison attestent qu'aucun fonds d'instruction solide ni de science positive n'existe en ses productions: l'histoire n'y recite que des fables, la poësie que des hyperboles; la philosophie n'y professe que des sophismes, la médecine que des recettes, la metaphysique que des absurdités; l'histoire naturelle, la physique, la chymie, les hautes mathematiques y ont à peine des noms; l'esprit d'un Européen ne peut que se retrecir et se gâter à cette école ; c'est aux orientaux de venir à celle de l'occident; le jour où les hommes d'Europe traduiront facilement leurs idées dans les langues d'Asie, ils s'acquerreront partout en cette contrée, une superiorité decidée sur les indigenes en tout genre d'affaires.'

The reasoning by which our author supports the utility of the alphabet he has invented, is as follows.

Il faut l'avouer, le premier aspect des alfabets orientaux frappe le disciple Européen d'une sensation penible et décourageante; la figure des lettres est étrange pour lui; son amour propre se sent blessé de ne n'y rien comprendre; déja loin de l'enfance il va redevenir écolier; il s'alarme avec raison du travail d'introduire en sa memoire tant de signes bizarres, et de plier sa main à une habitude que l'age adulte supporte bien plus impatiemment que l'enfance: ce ne sont là que des preliminaires: l'explication commence; il a coutume d'écrire de gauche à droite, on lui ordonne d'écrire de droite à gauche; son écriture Européenne trace tout ce qui se prononce; l'écriture Asiatique en général n'en trace qu'une partie, La faible enfance se plie à ce joug, mais le disciple adulte y resiste. Il faut rendre comte de ses idées; après un premier étonnement passant à la reflection, il argumente et se dit.

'Si l'organisation humaine est la même en Asie, qu'en Europe, le langage dans ce pays là, doit être composé d'élémens semblables aux nôtres, par consequent de voyelles, de consonnes, et d'aspirations; dès lors les alfabets Asiatiques ne doivent être comme les nôtres, que la liste des signes qui representent ces élémens; mais ses signes peuvent avoir deux manières d'être : ils peuvent être simples, comme les élémens A, E, D, P, &c. ou composés, formant sous un seul trait, des syllabes, et même des mots entiers; dans l'un et l'autre cas c'est une pure operation d'algebre, par laquelle des signes divers sont appliqués à des types identiques. Pourquoi cette diversité de tableaux? Il faut opter entre deux partis; si ces lettres que je ne connais pas, re

presentent des sons que je connais, je n'ai pas besoin d'elles; je puis me servir de mon alfabet accoutumé; si au contraire ces lettres representent des sons inconnus à mon oreille, l'étude va me les faire apprecier, et même sans pouvoir les prononcer, je pense leur donner des signes, leur attribuer des lettres de convention déduites de celles que je connais. On me presente vingt alfabets divers, par conséquent vingt diverses figures d'une même voyelle, que j'apele A, d'un même consonne que j'apele B: pourquoi chargerais je ma memoire de ces vingt repetitions, une seule figure me suffit; avec une seule alfabet, je veux peindre toutes les prononciations de ces langues; comme avec un seul système d'écriture musicale, je puis peindre tous les tons, tous les chants des divers peuples de la terre. '

In the first book, our author treats of spoken sounds, and of the letters which represent them; and his observations on this subject seem to us always clear, and sometimes new. In the second, he passes in review all the pronunciations which occur in the languages of Europe; and he finds that they consist of 19 or 20 vowels, and 32 consonants. The Roman alphabet is incapable of representing that number; but known already, both in Europe and America, he takes it for the basis of his alphabet, which he renders universal, by assigning different powers to the redundant letters, and adding to others certain signs to represent those sounds in which the common alphabet is deficient. In the third part, he applies his system to the Arabie alphabet, as one of the most complicated of Asia. From this operation springs a new alphabet, which may be called European, equally applicable to the Arabick, the Turkish, the Persian, Syriac and Hebrew. It is now, says our author, only requisite to extend its application to the languages of India, and of the rest of Asia.

Mais par qui' (addressing himself to the Asiatic Society) s'executeront tant de travaux preparatoires, à la fois scientifiques et dispendieux? J'ose le garantir; par vous, Messieurs! oui, par vous dont l'association libre, eclairée, genereuse, placée en avant garde sur les bords du Gange, y a élevé les premiers signaux de la civilisation. Fidele au caractère national, vous ne repousserez point une industrie nouvelle, sans avoir bien examiné ce qu'elle à d'utile ou de defectueux.

We are most ready to acknowledge the benefits that would result from the adoption of an universal alphabet, in facilitating intercourse, promoting civilization, and diffusing knowledge. We readily admit also, that an alphabet, formed on the principles of M. Volney, would be much more perfect than any which exists at present. But this benevolent project, in its application to the natives of India, would encounter difficulties of which the Count is little aware, and which will probably either prevent the attempt, or paralyze its execution. Of these we do not think it