upon what occafions he hath introduced them, fince though to many they are needless, yet others poffibly may think them written to fome purpose. OBSER ERR A TA. PAGE 28, line 3d, fhould not have begun a new paragraph. Page 39, note, 1. 2, for Scei, read Skei. Page 57 and 59, note, for nih, read ns. Page 69, 1. 11, for second and third pages, read fifth page. Page 71, fecond reference, for page 2, 3, note, read page 5, note. Page 78, 1. 1, for п, read . Page 92, 1.9, for D, read D. Page 94, 1. 2, for D, read D. Page 95, reference at the bottom, for p. 3, read p. 5. Page 109, 1. 13, dele which. Page 114, 1. 2, for Scriptures, read Scripture. Page 121, 1.2, for pp, read on. The THREE PLATES are to be inferted between OBSERVATIONS UPON ALPHABETIC WRITING. T HAT Writing, in the earliest ages of the world, was a delineation of the outlines of those things men wanted to remember, rudely graven either upon fhells or ftones, or marked upon the leaves or bark of trees; and that this fim ple representation of forms was next fucceeded B ceeded by fymbolic figures, will generally be allowed: if afterwards we add to these fuch contracted reprefentations of them as the characters of the Chinese are faid to be, together with * fyllabical marks which ftill continue with their neighbours of Japan, we poffibly may comprehend the whole that human unaffisted wifdom contributed towards the completion of the art. But to wave the determination of this at prefent; if the knowledge of alphabetic writing was not originally communicated by Mofes to the Ifraelites at the delivery of the law from Sinai, by whom it was imparted to the nations around them, fuch is the confufion of hiftoric + evidence upon the sub Dr. Kempfer's Hiftory of Japan, Vol. II. ject, + Literas femper arbitror Affyrias fuiffe, faith Pliny, fed alii apud Ægyptios a Mercurio ut Gellius, alii apud Syros repertas volunt; utique in Græciam intuliffe e Phoenice Cadmum fedecim numero, quibus Trojano bello Palamedem adjeciffe quatuor hac figurâ,,, totidem poft eum Simonidem inelicum Z, H, Y, Q, quarum omnium vis in noftris recognofcitur. Ariftoteles 2 ject, that we are altogether at a lofs to fix even the date of this aftonishing, if not divine, discovery; a discovery which, after Providence thought proper to contract the term of human life within the narrow boundary of feventy years*, beB 2 came ftoteles decem & octo prifcas fuiffe A, B, T, A, E, Z, I, K, A, M, N, O, II, P, E, F, F, , et duas ab Epicharmo additas e, x, quam a Palamede mavult. Anticlides in Ægypto inveniffe quendam nomine Menona tradit, XV annis ante Phoroneum antiquiffimum Græciæ regem; idque monumentis adprobare conatur; e diverfo Epigenes apud Babylonios DCCXX annorum obfervationes fyderum, coctilibus latercu lis infcriptas docet, gravis auctor imprimis; qui minimum Berofus & Critodemus CCCCLXXX annorum; ex quo apparet æternus literarum ufus. Nat. Hift. 1. vii. c. 56. Berofus lived in the time of Alexander, and Epigenes in that of Auguftus. * It appears from the xcth Pfalm, (if this Pfalm be afcribed to its proper author) that the general term of human life was reduced to feventy years before the death of Mofes; though his own life, as well as that of Jofhua, were lengthened out beyond it; for Mofes lived to 120, and Jofhua to 110 years: and it is fubmitted to the reader, whether the period of |