express command of God in the Decalogue, was fufficiently ftriking to the Ifraelites, to fay, because names are arbitrary, that therefore there is no congruity between founds and things: ὁ θέμενα πρῶτος τὰ ὀνόματα, ΟἿΑ ἡγειτο ἐνὰι τὰ πράγματα, ΤΟΙΑΥΤΑ ετίθετο και τὰ ονόματα, was the opinion of Plato, who is faid to have made the first attempt amongst the Greeks to trace back words to their original caufes, and who hath supported the opinion, that they were imitations of some qualities and affections of things, by an entertaining analyfis in the Dialogue named Cratylus. The fact, indeed, might be evinced by numberless examples in every language, where words are radically imitative either of founds or motions. But ftill the inhabitants of the world must have long continued in a wretched ftate of almost brutal converse, notwithstanding this imitative connection of vocal founds, had not God himself been graciously pleafed to affift the first pair in the eftablishment of Language; and we may therefore reasonably conclude that he did fo. Whether it will be thought to ftrengthen the opinion, must be left to the reader; but we may remark, that the author of the Arabic Verfion hath rendered the word ms, to try, in the fecond chapter of Genefis, by a word which fignifies to point out or inftruct, as it is tranfJated in Bp. Walton's Polyglott, ut oftenderet ei quid vocaret * Dionyf, on the Comp. of Words, fect. `xvi, Ifraelites, at the time it was given, to perpetuate the era of letters amongst them; and with regard to future ages, and other nations, the narration of the fact, as it ftands recorded in all its circumstances, renders what hath been advanced exceedingly probable. If this answer be not thought fufficient, let the objection have its full force. We now proceed to enquire how literal writing, which must soon have gotten the better of fymbolical, made its way into Europe. The first people who availed themselves of this difcovery were the Syrians that lived in the neighbourhood of the Ifraelites, who were often confounded with them, as indeed all the inhabitants vocaret ea. Men are ftrangely cautious of allowing the Divine Being to have given a vocal language to mankind, though he hath undoubtedly imparted to us another, which is common to all the nations of the world, and intelligible even to infants. * Gale's Court of the Gentiles, b. i. ch. 3 and 4. habitants of the Eastern coaft of the Mediterranean have been with each other. From the Syrians it was communicated to the Phoenicians, who changed the Hebrew characters into what, we may prefume, were afterwards called the Samaritan; but whether they did this for the purposes of vanity altogether, or for what other end, is not clear: Be it as it may, their having introduced letters to the Greeks hath given them the general credit of the invention, notwithstanding a prevailing opinion, that writing was originally practifed in Ægypt; for the Phoenicians are faid to have been the first who instituted characters for the elements of fpeech, which gave a perpetuity to founds, and which differed from the * Σύροι μὲν εὑρέταὶ τῶν γραμμάτων εισι, παρὰ δὲ τέτων Φοίνικες μάθοντες τοις Έλλησι παραδεδώκασιν· ἔτοι δ' εισιν οι μετὰ Κάδ με πλεύσαντες ἐἰς τὴν Ευρώπην. κτλ. Diod. b. v. fe&t. 74. and a similar account is given us by Herodotus in Terpsichore. : the Ægyptian picture-writing, not only in refpect of their objects, but in the rudeness of the figures. Thus much is to be understood from Lucan *, whose expreffion is remarkable : Phoenices primi, famæ fi creditur, aufi "Et fi famæ libet credere," faith Curtius †, after having related the fiege of Tyre, "hæc gens literas prima aut docuit, "aut didicit." Aristotle (according to Pliny‡) hath afferted, that eighteen letters were brought by Cadmus from Phenicia into Greece; whilst Plutarch and fome others tell us, that he introduced no more than fixteen ; yet * Pharf. 1. iii. + L. iv. c. 4. ‡ Nat. Hist. 1. vii. c. 56. § Sympos. b. ix. prob. 2, 3 yet who this Cadmus was, at what time he lived, or whether any particular perfon is to be understood by this name, which implies an Afiatic, or man from the Eaft, remains a doubt amongst the learned. Moft of the Greek and Roman authors agree in this, That Greece was not the region that gave birth to alphabetic writing; whilft others affert the Greeks to have invented the very letters which these attributed to Cadmus ; affigning them to Cecrops, or to Linus *, or to Palamedes, as their prejudices operated in favour of Argos, or Thebes, or Athens. Quidam Cecropem Atheni"enfium, vel Linum Thebanum," faith Tacitus, et temporibus Trojanis Pala→ "medem Argivum memorant, fexdecim "literarum formas; mox alios, ac præcipuum Simonidem, cæteras reperiffet.". The general opinion upon this apparent contradiction is, that it arose from the Diodorus Siculus, b. iii. fect. 66. + Tacitus 1. xi. c. 14. |