tween the two nations, and the evident derivation of the former from the latter. It is also natural to suppose, that the modern languages were derived from the ancient, which were spoken in the same conutries: thus, the present languages of Europe may be readily traced back to the Latin, the Teutonic, the Sclavonian, the Celtic, &c. But when we observe words in one quarter of the globe, to be like those used in another quarter extremely remote, and that these corresponding terms have precisely the same signification, and were used in such senses, long before the inhabitants of the one country had any knowledge of, or intercourse with those of the other. When we observe all this, how can we but refer their origin to one ancient common language, flowing in various channels, from one and the same spring?

Language kept pace with the progress of invention, and the cultivation of the mind urged mankind to the increase and improvement of the sounds, by which its suggestions were mutually communicated to the ear. From denoting the perceptions of sense, they proceeded to represent by words the instruments and operations of art, the flights of fancy, the deductions of reason, and the results of obser vation and experience: hence may be traced the progress of poetry, history, and philosophy. Thus, speech, from being the child of necessity, became the parent of ornament, and words, originally the rude dress of ideas, have been improved, as society has advanced to higher degrees of refine ment, into their most splendid and most beautiful decorations.

ON LETTERS OR CHARACTERS TO EXPRESS SOUNDS.

To fix the fleeting sounds, as soon as they are breathed from the lips, and to represent them faithfully to the eye, by certain determinate characters; these are the wonderful

property

property of letters. Those to whom books have, from their childhood, been familiar, and who view literature only in its present improved state, are utterly unable to form a just estimate of the difficulties which must have attended the first application of symbols or signs to the expression of ideas. The pictures of the Mexicans, and the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, were, without doubt, very ingenious contrivances, and mark the various efforts made by human ingenuity, towards expressing, by objects of sight, what passes in the mind: but it comes not within the limits of painting, to represent the succession of thoughts; neither are its operations sufficiently rapid or direct: so that such a mode of representation is very ill adapted to the activity and variety of our ideas. The great excellence of letters as representatives of sounds, consists in their simplicity, and the facility and precision with which they can be combined, so as to express every separate thought: they possess a decided superiority over every other artificial vehicle of thought, by conmunicating, with the utmost ease, every conception of the mind. By their assistance in carrying on epistolary correspondence, the warm effusions of affection and friendship are conveyed to the most remote corners, and the constant intercourse of commerce, science, and learning, is maintained, in defiance of all the obstacles of distance. Learning is indebted to letters for its diffusion and continuance, and to them, genius and virtue owe the re"wards of lasting fame. Oral tradition is fleeting and uncertain it is a stream, which, as it insensibly flows into the ocean of oblivion, is mixed with the impure soil of error and falsehood: but letters furnish the unsullied memorials of truth, and impart to successive generations the perfect records of knowledge. They constitute the light, glory, and ornament of civilized man; and when the voice of the poet, the philosopher, and the scholar, and even the sacred words of the Author of our religion himself, are heard no

more,

more, letters record the bright examples of virtue, and teach the inestimable lessons of science, learning, and Revelation, to every age, and to every people.

Various have been the modes of writing adopted by various nations: some, like the Chinese, place their letters in perpendicular columns, and write from the top to the bottom of the page; others, at least all the nations of modern Europe, follow what appears to be a more natural motion of the hand, from left to right; on the contrary, it was the prevailing custom in the East, as among the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Arabians, and Hebrews, to pursue the opposite practice, and write from right to left. These various modes of arrangement, may give some plausibility to the opinion, that each people were the inventors of their own. scheme of letters, or their alphabet. A presumption so flattering to national vanity has accordingly prevailed, as the Egyptians attributed the origin of writing to Thoth, supposed to be the same with Mercury, the Greeks to Cadmus, and the Latins to Saturn. This opinion arose from the high reputation acquired by those who first introduced, or made improvements in the art of representing sounds by characters: for, notwithstanding the vast variety now ob servable in the alphabets of various nations, it is highly probable, that they were all originally formed or derived from the same source, and were carried at various periods of time, into different countries. Can any two sets of letters appear to the eye more dissimilar, than the Hebrew and the English? Yet the affinity of the latter with the former, may with a little ingenuity be evidently traced. Nay, the origin of letters has by some authors been carried much higher than to the Hebrew or Jewish nation, and referred to the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The learned and acute Warburton states, upon the authority of ancient writers, that throughout many of the early ages of the world there was a regular gradation of improvement, in the manner of conveying

VOL. I.

H

veying ideas by signs; that pictures were first used as the representatives of thoughts, and that in process of time, alphabetical characters were substituted, as an easier and more compendious mode of communication, than the vague use of arbitrary marks. Moses, the great lawgiver of the Jews, brought letters with the rest of his learning from Egypt, and he simplified their forms, in order to prevent the abuse to which they would have been liable, as symbolical characters, among a people so much inclined to superstition, as those under his direction. From the Jews this simplified or, as we now call it, this alphabetical mode of writing, passed to the Syrians and Phoenicians, or perhaps it was common to them all, at the same time, and from the same source. The Greek authors maintain, that Cadmus and his Phoenician companions, introduced the knowledge of letters into Greece. Herodotus, the most ancient of profane historians, whose works have come down to us, mentions the curious fact that he saw at Thebes in Boeotia, in the temple of Apollo, three tripods inscribed with Cadmean letters, which very much resembled the Ionic of his time. It is well known that the Romans derived their letters from the Greeks. Tacitus has remarked the similarity of the Roman characters to those of the most ancient Greek, or Pelasgic; and the same observation is made by Pliny, and confirmed by an ancient inscription on a tablet of brass dedicated to Minerva. By the Romans, their alphabet was communicated to the Goths, and other nations of modern Europe.-In this way, the descent of alphabetical characters or letters from the earliest times, may be traced down to the present systems in constant use; and by adopting this theory, we simplify objects of curious. and important inquiry, extricating ourselves from that perplexity, in which we should be involved, were we to reject an opinion so conformable to reason, and to the surest historical evidence. It is, besides, a pleasing circumstance, that

while we maintain a system supported by the most respectable profane authorities, we strengthen the arguments in favour of the high antiquity of the Hebrew language, and corroborate, with respect to its origin, the relations given in the Scriptures.

ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

The impressions made by the conquerors who have settled in any particular nation, are in few respects more closely to be traced, than in the change they have produced in the language of the former inhabitants. This observation may be applied, with peculiar propriety, to our own country: for after the Saxons had subdued the Britons, they introduced into the country their own language, which was a dialect of the Teutonic. From the fragments still extant of the Saxon laws, history, and poetry, we have many proofs to convince us that this language was capaple of expressing, with a great degree of copiousness and energy, the sentiments of a civilized people. In the common language of England, no considerable alteration took place, after this period, for the space of six hundred years, until the conquest by William of Normandy, who promoted another change which had been begun by Edward the Confessor, and caused the Norman French to be used, even in the courts of justice. This language thus, in a short time, became current among the higher classes, and the constant intercourse which subsisted between England and France, for many centuries, introduced a very considerable addition of terms, which were adopted with very slight deviation from their original,Such were the principal sources of the English tongue, which has from time to time been augmented by the influx of the Latin, and other terms and modes of expression, with which the pursuits of commerce,