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gularity utterly irreconcilable to the common hypothefis at least, I am acquainted with no plausible answer to this objection.

Should any one reply, "that alphabetical characters may have been in existence many ages prior to the date of thefe fpecimens in the Scriptures, but that the more ancient memorials, in which they were exhibited, have perifhed by the defolations of ignorance and the viciffitudes of time:" I must demur at an argument that advances no premises of fufficient validity to authenticate this conclufion. For, 1. It is mere affirma tion, without the leaft fhadow of historical testimony to give it countenance. 2. To wave the authority of the Jewish fcriptures upon this point (which, however, I muft beg leave to obferve, is corroborated by abundant evidence from philofophy and experience, as well as hiftory), that fimplicity of manners, predominant in the early ages, fo obfervable in the accounts delivered down by facred and profane hiftorians; the confeffed mediocrity of their intellectual acquirements, and the confined intercourse of nations with each other, which would render such an expedient lefs neceffary, and therefore lefs likely to be discovered: all thefe confiderations seem to argue with no little cogency, that fo complex, fo curious, fo wonderful, fo confummate a devife as that of alphabetical writing, could hardly be first detected by a race of men, whofe wants were few, whofe advantages were circumfcribed, and whose ideas were commenfurate to their fituation. This pofition, therefore, conjectural as it is, and unfubftantial, feems unwor thy of farther animadverfion.

"

II. Ifalphabetical writing were a human invention, the natural re

fult of ingenuity and experience, might we not expect that different nations would have fallen upon the fame expedient, independently of each other, during the compafs of fo many ages: when the faculties of the mind are equally capable at all times, and in every corner of the univerfe, and when the habits of life and modes of thought inevit ably bear fo great a resemblance to each other in fimilar ftages of fociety? This, I fay, were but a reasonable expectation: which, however, correfponds not to the event, For alphabetical writing, as now practifed by every people in the univerfe, may be referred to ane common original, If this propofi tion can be proved, the argument from fucceffive derivation, without a fingle inftance of independent dif. covery, must be allowed to amount to the very highest degree of probability in my favour: and the common fuppofition will appear perfectly gratuitous, with the incumbrance alfo of this great paradox: "You tell us, I might fay, of an invention, which is the regular confequence of refinement in fociety, nothing more than a gra dual advancement from what is plain to what is complex ; by a fimilar procefs, purfued by the mind in all its exertions for improve, ment: and yet we can perceive no reafon to conclude, that any community but one, and that in mo wife diftinguifhed by any vaft fuperiority of inventive genius, or the improvements introduced by them into common life, ever compassed this discovery; though the human powers have been uniformly the fame, and the conduct of fociety has been greatly fimilar in different nations at different periods of time."

"Let us confider then, how the evidence stands in this cafe: only

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premifing, that, where a continuity of tranfmiffion appears to have taken place, arifing from the intercourfe of nations with each other; and where the words are the fame, the grammatical conftruction, and other minute peculiarities of compofition much alike, in two languages, thefe languages are of the fame texture: and that alphabetical compofition, attended by these circumstances of refemblance, must flow from one fource: efpecially, if the difference in the alphabetical marks of thefe two languages fhould be no objection, but may be accounted for upon reasonable principles.

"It will be readily allowed then, I prefume, that no modern European nation, exclufive of the Turkith empire, indebted to the Greeks and Arabians, feparately invented alphabetical writing: we all derived, without any doubt, this art from the Romans. The Romans never laid claim to the difcovery: they afcribed all their literary advantages to the Greeks. This accomplished people acknowledge, with one voice, to have received the art from the Phoenicians; who, as well as their colonifts the Carthaginians, are known by the learned to have spoken the Hebrew language, or a dialect fcarcely vary ing from the original. The Coptic, or Egyptian, wears the exacteft refemblance in the majority of its characters to the Greek they, therefore, must be referred in all reafon to the fame origin. The Chaldee, Syriac, and later Samaritan, are dialects of the Hebrew, without any confiderable deviation, or many additional words. The Ethiopic differs more from the Hebrew, but ftill less than the Arabic. Thefe languages, however, notwithstanding fuch deviations, have iffued from the fame ftock; as the

fimilarity of their formation, and
the numberlefs words, common to
them all, demonftrably evince: and
the Perfic has a close affinity to the
Arabic. Alterations would natu-
rally be introduced, proportionate
to the civilization of the feveral
poffeffors, and their feparation from
the other nations: and this will ac-
count for the fuperior copiousness
of fome above the reft.
So then,
not to determine which was the
more ancient language, the He-
brew, Syriac, or Arabic, a question
of no importance on this occafion;
all the languages in ufe amongst
men, that have been conveyed in
alphabetical characters, have been
the languages of people, connected
ultimately or immediately, with
thofe who have handed down the
earlieft fpecimens of writing to po-
fterity. And when the languages
of the eastern nations are fo fimilar

when fo curious an art would be, in all probability, the firft improvement communicated by one people to another-is it not morally certain, that alphabetical writing originally centered in one people? For length of time has deprived us of exprefs hiftorical teftimony in this cafe.

"Indeed, this propofition feems to be fufficiently afcertained by another argument; that is from the fameness of the artificial denominations of the letters in the Oriental, Greek, and Latin languages; accompanied too by a fimilar arrangement: Alpha, Beta, and fo on.

"But in oppofition to this evidence, fome will argue against all poffible admiffion of our conclufion, by alledging the entire diffimilarity of characters employed by the ancients to difcriminate their letters. "Why should not one nation, it will be urged, adopt from the other the mode of expreffing the art, as

well

time, which is, that (as it commonly happens in other paitimes) the bets at thefe fhooting matches began to be confiderable.

"I fhall conclude this effay by mentioning, that the long-bow continues to be used as a manly exercife by the inhabitants of Geneva,

and in many parts of Flanders; nor is it totally neglected in Great Britain, particularly Lancashire, and London, where a fociety (of which our worthy member fir Afhton Lever is the prefident) frequently ufe this manly recreation."

OBSERVATIONS on the LANGUAGE of the PEOPLE commonly called GYPSIES. By Mr. MARSDEN.

"IT

[From the fame Publication. ]

T has long been furmifed that the vagrant tribes of people called in this country Gypfies, and on parts of the continent of Europe, Cingari, Zingari, and Chingali, were of caftern origin. The former name has been fuppofed a corruption of Egyptian, and fome learned perfons have judged it not improbable that their language might be traced to the Coptic.

"In the course of researches which I have had occafion to purfue on the fubject of language, I obferved that Ludolfus, in his Hiftory of Ethiopia, makes mention, incidentally, of the Cingari vel Errones Nubiani, and gives a fpecimen of words which he had collected from these people in his travels, with a view of determining their origin. He difcuffes the opinions of various writers concerning them, but forms no precife one of his own, concluding his obfervations with thefe words: "Eadem vocabula, cùm maximam partem reperiam apud Vulcanium, à centum ferè annis tradita, non fictitia exiftimo, ut Megiferus putat, nec corrupta ex aliis linguis, neque Egyptiaca five Coptica."

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I was furprised to find many of the words contained in the fpe

cimen familiar to my eye, and pointed out to fir Jofeph Banks (in the latter end of the year 1783) their evident correfpondence with the terins in the Hindoftanic, or as it is vulgarly termed in India, the Moors language. This fimilitude appeared to me fo extraordinary, that I was inclined to suspect an error in the publication, which might have arisen from a confusion of obfcure vocabularies in the authof's poffeffion. The circumstance, however, determined me to pay farther attention to the fubiect, and to examine, in the first place, whether the language fpoken by the Gypfey tribes in England, and by thofe in the remoter parts of the continent of Europe, were one and the fame ; and then to ascertain whether this actually bore the affinity, which fo forcibly ftruck me in Ludolfus, ta any of the languages on the continent of India.

"Through the obliging affift ance of fir Jofeph Banks, who has fpared no pains to promote this inveftigation, I procured an opportu nity of obtaining a lift of words from our Gypfies, which I can depend upon as genuine, and tolerably accurate in refpect to the pro nunciation, from, their being corro

borated

KNOWLEDGE of the ANCIENTS refpecting GLASS. [179]

ters to have been eternal. This fhews the antiquity of the practice to extend beyond the era of authentic history.

2. The caballistical doctors of the Jews maintain, that alphabetical writing was one of the ten things which God created on the evening

of the fabbath.

3. Moft of the profane authors of antiquity afcribe the first use of alphabetical characters to the Egyptians; who, according to fome, received the expedient from Mer

cury; and according to others, from the god Teuth.

66 4. Is there any reason to fupman mind, that oral language, pofe, from the history of the huwhich has been long perfect, beyond any memorials of our fpecies in heathen writers, and is conval with man, according to the testimofon, I fay, to fuppofe, that even ny of fcripture: is there any realanguage itself is the effect of human ingenuity and experience ?"

REMARKS on the KNOWLEDGE of the ANCIENTS respecting
GLASS. By DR. FALCONER.

[From the fame Publication. ]

“T HE most ancient of the

Greek writers, that takes notice of glafs, I believe, is thought to be Ariftophanes, who, in his comedy of the Clouds, introduces Socrates, as inftructed by Strepfiades, how to pay his debts, by placing a transparent fubitance between the fun and the writings, that ferved as a fecurity for the fums borrowed, and thus confuming them. But it is not abfolutely certain, that artificial glafs was h re meant, as the word Ya fignifies cryftal, and, as fome fay, tranfparent amber like wife. If glafs, however, be here meant, it hews that it must have been brought to confiderable perfection, both in point of clearnefs, and the art of grinding it into a convex form, fo to tranfmit and collect the fun's rays as to produce this effect. Ariflotle has two problems relative to glafs: the first endeavouring to explain its tranfparency, and the other, its want of malleability. But the learned think them both to be fpurious. Alex

ander Aphrodisæus, another ancient
Greek writer, fpeaks particularly
of glafs, and of its tranfparency.

in feveral places. He appears to
Galen makes mention of glass
have been well acquainted with it,
and the method of making it. He
tells us, that it was made from fand
melted in furnaces, which was re-
quired to be pure, fince, if any me-
tallic fubftance was mixed there-
with, the glafs was fpoiled. Those
concerned in the manufacture knew,
by looking at it, if it would ferve
their purpofe. In other places, he
advifes medicines of a corrofive na-
ture to be kept in glafs veffels, as
fuch are not liable to be affected,
or to impart any bad qualities.

ping veffels, in the time of Galen,
"Glafs was alfo ufed for cup-
much in the fame way as at pre-
fent.

man, in the time of the emperor
"Dion Caffius relates, that a
Tiberius, brought a glass cup into
the prefence of the latter, which he
threw with great force upon the
ground

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day by the obfcure, defpifed, and wretched people in England, whofe language has been confidered as a fabricated gibberish, and confounded with a cant in ufe amongst thieves and

beggars, and whofe perfons have been (till within the period of a year) an object of the perfecution, instead of the protection of our laws."

EXTRACT from Mr. STRUTT's ESSAY on the ORIGIN and PROGRESS of the ART of ENGRAVING.

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[From his Biographical Dictionary of Engravers. ]

AVING proved, in the preceding part of this Effay, the great antiquity of engraving, it remains now to confider the art in a far more extenfive point of view, and to examine, when it was profeffedly executed for the purpofe of producing fpecimens on paper; which happy invention in creafed its reputation, and rendered it more generally ufeful. The confequence it now acquired with the public, occafioned its feparation from the shop of the goldsmith, and worker in metals, with whom it feems to have remained for many ages, as a branch of their profef fion; and the engraver by himself was properly confidered as an artist of the first rank.

"The Germans and the Italians both lay claim to the invention of the art of taking impreffions from engraved plates on paper. The former place their dependence upon the antiquity of the works which they produce; as the engravings of the old mafters of that country: the latter upon the pofitive affertion of Georgio Vafari, who attributes it to Mallo Finiguerra, a Florentine artift; and declares, that it was accidentally discovered by him about the year 1460.

Profeffor Chrift mentions feve ral old engravings, evidently the production of fome German artift;

one of them dated as early as 1465; the rest 1466 and 1467; which ac count, refpeating the two latter dates, is confirmed by M. Heinneken, an excellent and able writer upon this fubject, whofe publications are frequently referred to in the course of this work. These, it feems, were the earliest German prints they could produce with dates; whereas the first dated en gravings in Italy, are faid to be the geographical charts for an edition of Ptolemy, published at Rome, A. D. 1478. The plates for the large edition of the Poems of Dante, invented by Boticelli, and engraved by him, or Baldini, did not appear till 1481. Hence we find the difference of twelve years between the date of the Italian engravings and thofe produced in Germany.

"It is indeed remarkable, that no print has hitherto been produced by the Italians, which can with the leaft degree of certainty be attributed to Finiguerra. Neither has there been found in the foreign collections any engravings of a prior date to thofe mentioned above; but others rudely executed, and without date, are mentioned however as proofs of the exercise of the art as well in Italy as in Germany, be fore the publication of those prints which were dated. But it would be highly improper to place an impli

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