r knowledge of letters rises no higher than to the forms used by
the ancient Hebrews and Phoenicians. Moses is supposed to have written in
characters which were nearly the same as those called Samaritan, but his
writings have come to us in an alphabet more beautiful and regular, called
the Chaldee or Chaldaic, which is said to have been made by Ezra the
scribe, when he wrote out a new copy of the law, after the rebuilding of
the temple. Cadmus carried the Phoenician alphabet into Greece, where it
was subsequently altered and enlarged. The small letters were not invented
till about the seventh century of our era. The Latins, or Romans, derived
most of their capitals from the Greeks; but their small letters, if they
had any, were made afterwards among themselves. This alphabet underwent
various changes, and received very great improvements, before it became
that beautiful series of characters which we now use, under the name of
_Roman letters_. Indeed these particular forms, which are now justly
preferred by many nations, are said to have been adopted after the
invention of printing. "The Roman letters were first used by Sweynheim and
Pannartz, printers who settled at Rome, in 1467. The earliest work printed
wholly in this character in England, is said to have been Lily's or Paul's
Accidence, printed by Richard Pinson, 1518. The Italic letters were
invented by Aldus Manutius at Rome, towards the close of the fifteenth
century, and were first used in an edition of Virgil, in
1501."--_Constables Miscellany_, Vol. xx, p. 147. The Saxon alphabet was
mostly Roman. Not more than one quarter of the letters have other forms.
But the changes, though few, give to a printed page a very different
appearance. Under William the Conqueror, this alphabet was superseded by
the modern Gothic, Old English, or Black letter; which, in its turn,
happily gave place to the present Roman. The Germans still use a type
similar to the Old English, but not so heavy.

OBS. 5.--I have suggested that a true knowledge of the letters implies an
acquaintance with their _names_, their _classes_, their _powers_, and their
_forms_. Under these four heads, therefore, I shall briefly present what
seems most worthy of the learner's attention at first, and shall reserve
for the appendix a more particular account of these important elements. The
most common and the most useful things are not those about which we are in
general most inquisitive. Hence many, who think