himself, it is quite obvious that if the investigation is to be brought to any satisfactory result, this ought to have been the first step in the inquiry. It is undoubtedly true, that the modern Coptic alphabet contains the twenty-four letters of the Greek; but it also contains eight letters which have no place in that alphabet, and which may, by possibility, be much older. If letters were invented by the Assyrians, or eastern Arameans, the system of Chaldee letters in which Hebrew books are now written, appears by common consent to belong to them. If by the Syrians, or Western Arameans, we find two perfectly distinct systems of alphabetical characters, in the Estrangolo or old Syriac, now I believe entirely disused, and the modern Syriac, in which books still continue to be printed; if any vestige of an alphabet strictly Phoenician, or Canaanitish, still remains in existence, it is only in the Samaritan, which may be found in every grammar of the language, in the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, and in what may be called a variorum alphabet, published by Dutens in his Ancient Medals. The alphabets actually used by the Persians and Arabians are acknowledged on all hands to possess no claim to antiquity, and are therefore not worth naming; but it is not a little remarkable that the Chaldee or Hebrew alphabet, the Estrangolo, or old Syriac, the modern Syriac, (which however is as old as the Peshito version of the Syriac New Testament of the first century of the Christian era, and how much older it would be difficult to say,) and the Samaritan, or Phoenician Proper, all consist of twentytwo letters; and it is equally remarkable that they may be said to be the same letters, for though they are infinitely diversified in form, they are precisely the same as to power, thereby attesting not merely a common origin of alphabets, but a primary identity of language. How did Cadmus contrive to lose six of these twenty-two letters in his short passage across the Ægean, and to arrive in Greece with only sixteen? Cadmus, as we have seen, is merely a creation of mythology, or rather a personification of the sun, of the east, or of Asia; and the real fact is, that as the Greeks have no veracious history before Herodotus, so they have no genuine antiquities;

all their pretended archaiology being comparatively modern inventions, created in the full blaze of their civilisation, by the fictions of poetry and the exaggerations of national vanity. I believe, notwithstanding, that there was a Cadmus, although not from Phoenicia. A Cadmus of Miletus is recorded, who is said to have written a history of Attica in sixteen books. Were these sixteen books distinguished, like those of Homer in their present state, by so many letters of the Greek alphabet? I believe they were, and that this is the sole historical foundation of Cadmus and his sixteen. letters; but this by no means proves that there were no more letters to be used if they had been required, but only that there were no more books to be numbered.

4. The works of Pliny have suffered so much by the ravages of time, that there is hardly a passage in them on which we can place implicit confidence. This is more especially the case with regard to the numbers. When he says, therefore, that the Babylonian astronomical observations were 720 years old, the most obvious meaning of the words is 720 years before his own time; but he is much more likely to have had in his mind the 721 years B. C., fixed on by Ptolemy at a subsequent period as the date of the earliest recorded eclipse of the moon. Berosus is said to have lived and written in the age of Alexander. Lempriere fixes on the year B. C. 268; and if to this we add the 480 mentioned by Pliny, we shall have within a year the astronomical era of Nabonassar (B. C. 747), which, we know, was used by Ptolemy. Père Amyot in his celebrated letter from Pekin says, and the coincidence with European chronology is not a little curious, the Chinese astronomical observations commence B. C. 722, while the era of Nabonassar, which was the basis of those of the Greeks, commenced B. c. 747, on the 26th of February.

5. Other coincidences between China and Europe will be found to exist, or I am much mistaken, in subjects more interesting than chronological dates or astronomical observations; and I think it may be proved almost to demonstration that that country and ancient Egypt have two

hieroglyphics in common, proving conclusively an intimate intercourse between the people, if not primary identity of race, and that the Coptic alphabet has derived one letter, the Hebrew three, the Phoenician or Samaritan two, the Estran golo or Old Syriac, and the common Syriac, one letter each, from Chinese hieroglyphics. Père Amyot, in his Letter from Pekin, already mentioned, informs us that there are five different kinds of writing in China, of each of which he presents us with specimens. The most ancient is the Kououen, which has been obsolete for centuries, probably for more than two thousand years, and of which very scanty vestiges remain in existence. He gives a specimen of it, Plate 5., which may also be found in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. lix. tab. 24., and at page 84., art. "China," in the Sup. to the Ency. Brit.

The second is the Tchoang-tsee which succeeded the Kououen, and lasted until the end of the Dynasty of the Tcheou. This was in use during the life of Confucius who was born about 551 years before Christ.

The third, or Li-tsee, commenced under the reign of Chihoang-ti, founder of the Dynasty of the Tsin, and the great enemy of learning and its professors.

The fourth, or Hing-chou, according to the learned Father was devoted to printing, like the round and italic characters among ourselves.

The fifth, or Tsao-tsee was invented under the Dynasty of Han, and appears not to have been extensively prevalent. (Lettre de Pekin, page 17. Bruxelles, 4to, 1773.)

VI. Among these Kou-ouen, or ancient characters (Kou in spoken Chinese signifying antiquity), we find Ge or Jee, the Sun, and Yue, the moon (art. "China," page 84. Sup. Ency. Brit.); and on turning to Plate 74. art. "Egypt," we discover the hieroglyphics for Phre, the sun, to be 10. Phre I believe to be a compound word resolvable, in Coptic, into the definite article Ph, and Ro a contraction for Ouro (Scholtz, Gram. p. 17-21.), in which case the perpendicular line may be the representative of the article, while the represents the sun, or the king of the host of heaven, as in the

Chinese; and as Du Halde informs us that the Chinese cannot express the letter R, their Ge or Jee may have been the nearest approximation they could make to Ro or Re, the name of the sun in the language of Egypt, without the coalescing article. In the same plate we find Ioh, the moon, the Chinese hieroglyphic being, a half moon and the name Yue; so that both the hieroglyphics, and names of the sun and moon, in China and Egypt, if not perfectly identical, approximate so closely that there can be little doubt of the derivation of the one from the other.

VII. In the plates representing the 214 Elements or Keys of the Chinese Language, in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, we find,

No. 45. Che, with the signification, a bud, grass, plants. The name of a bud in Persic is Cheh.

cy Schei. The name of the twenty-fifth letter of the Coptic alphabet, in Scholtz's Grammar of that language. This is one of the eight letters which the Coptic has added to the common Greek.

Shan, a hill or mountain in the Kou-ouen, or oldest Chinese, which is genuine picture-writing. (Ency. Brit. p. 84.) Shan, a hill or mountain. No. 46 of the 214 Keys, or common Chinese, which is demotic, or simplified picturewriting.

Shin, the twenty-first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The word in that language signifies a tooth, or sharp cliff, agreeing with the Chinese.

Sin, the twenty-first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with the position of the point altered.

Schin, the twenty-first letter of the Phoenician or Samaritan alphabet, from Dutens's medals.

Yen, Chinese, the eye, seen in front Kou-ouen. (Ency. Brit. p. 84.)

Ain, the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, being half an eye, or the eye seen in profile. Ain in Hebrew signifies the eye, as Yen does in spoken Chinese.

Ain, the sixteenth letter of the Phoenician or Samaritan alphabet, from Dutens's medals. In Masclef's Samaritan

Grammar, but both figures are rude representations of

half the eye.

Ain, the sixteenth letter of the Estrangolo, or old Syriac - obsolete.

use.

Ain, the sixteenth letter of the common Syriac, still in

VIII. So much for the letters derived by the Coptic and Shemitic languages from the real character of the Chinese. We are informed by Du Halde, and have just seen with our own eyes, that the earliest attempts of the Chinese in the art of writing, were precisely similar to those of the Mexicans, and consisted simply of pictures, and that they had no other means of conveying to others their ideas on the subject of a mountain, a tree, or a bird, than by a rude delineation of their figure. This was the Kou-ouen; and we learn from the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, that enough of it still remains on ancient seals, and vases for sacred purposes, to show the original state, or very nearly so, of the Chinese characters, and to trace the changes which have taken place from the picture to the present symbol. Père Amyot himself is disposed to believe that even of the Kououen many of the characters are not of a remote antiquity; and adds, with the characteristic caution of his order, that he would not give a guarantee that any of them were as old as the age of Ramesses or Sesostris (page 44. note); and I feel as little disposed to take guarantees for any thing connected with the age of Ramesses or Sesostris, as the learned father was to give them. With a chronology so uncertain as that of China, it is very difficult to settle dates; but one thing appears to me to be absolutely certain, that the period at which the Kou-ouen, or picture-writing, was exchanged for the demotic or simplified, must have been anterior to any known specimens of alphabetical writing existing in Europe, as the oldest alphabets we are acquainted with have borrowed several letters from the real characters actually in use in the Chinese Empire.

IX. The preceding are the only letters that I have hitherto succeeded in tracing directly to hieroglyphics, but there