alphabets were directly derived. De Rouge's
investigations make it extremely probable that "they were borrowed, or
rather adapted from certain archaic hieroglyphics of Egypt:" a theory
which the Prisse Papyrus, "the oldest in existence," strongly supports
by its "striking similarities with the Phoenician characters." But the
same authority traces it back one step farther. He says that the
ascription (by the myth-makers) of the art of writing to Thoth, or to
Kadmos, "only denotes their belief in its being brought from the East
(Kedem), or being perhaps primeval." There is not even a certainty
whether, primevally or archaically, "there were several original
alphabetical systems, or whether one is to be assumed as having given
rise to the various modes of writing in use." So, if conjecture has the
field, it is no great disloyalty to declare one's rebellion against the
eminent Western gentlemen who are learnedly guessing at the origin of
things. Some affirm that the Phoenicians derived their so-called
Kadmean or Phoenician writing-characters from the Pelasgians, held also
to have been the inventors, or at least the improvers, of the so-called
Kadmean characters. But, at the same time, this is not proven, they
confess, and they only know that the latter were in possession of the
art of writing "before the dawn of history." Let us see what is known of
both Phoenicians and Pelasgians.

If we inquire who were the Phoenicians, we learn as follows:--From
having been regarded as Hamites on Bible testimony, they suddenly became
Semites--on geographical and philological evidence(?). Their origin
begins, it is said, on the shores of the Erythrian Sea; and that sea
extended from the eastern shores of Egypt to the western shores of
India. The Phoenicians were the most maritime nation in the world.
That they knew perfectly the art of writing no one would deny. The
historical period of Sidon begins 1500 B.C. And it is well ascertained
that in 1250 Sanchoniathon had already compiled from annals and State
documents, which filled the archives of every Phoenician city, the full
records of their religion. Sanchoniathon wrote in the Phoenician
language, and was mis-translated later on into Greek by Philo of Byblus,
and annihilated bodily--as to his works--except one small fragment
preserved by Eusebius, the literary Siva, the Destroyer of nearly all
heathen documents that fell in his way. To see the direct bearing of
the allege