said to be not less
than seventy thousand; so that the study of a whole life is scarcely
sufficient to make a man thoroughly master of them. Syllabic writing is
represented by Dr. Blair as a great improvement upon the Chinese method,
and yet as being far inferior to that which is properly _alphabetic_, like
ours. "The first step, in this new progress," says he, "was the invention
of an alphabet of syllables, which probably preceded the invention of an
alphabet of letters, among some of the ancient nations; and which is said
to be retained to this day, in Ethiopia, and some countries of India. By
fixing upon a particular mark, or character, for every syllable in the
language, the number of characters, necessary to be used in writing, was
reduced within a much smaller compass than the number of words in the
language. Still, however, the number of characters was great; and must have
continued to render both reading and writing very laborious arts. Till, at
last, some happy genius arose, and tracing the sounds made by the human
voice, to their most simple elements, reduced them to a very few _vowels
and consonants_; and, by affixing to each of these, the signs which we now
call letters, taught men how, by their combinations, to put in writing all
the different words, or combinations of sound, which they employed in
speech. By being reduced to this simplicity, the art of writing was brought
to its highest state of perfection; and, in this state, we now enjoy it in
all the countries of Europe."--_Blair's Rhetoric_, Lect. VII, p. 68.

OBS. 9.--All certain knowledge of the sounds given to the letters by Moses
and the prophets having been long ago lost, a strange dispute has arisen,
and been carried on for centuries, concerning this question, "Whether the
Hebrew letters are, or are not, _all consonants_:" the vowels being
supposed by some to be suppressed and understood; and not written, except
by _points_ of comparatively late invention. The discussion of such a
question does not properly belong to English grammar; but, on account of
its curiosity, as well as of its analogy to some of our present disputes, I
mention it. Dr. Charles Wilson says, "After we have sufficiently known the
figures and names of the letters, the next step is, to learn to enunciate
or to pronounce them, so as to produce articulate sounds. On this subject,
which appears at first sight very plain and simple, numberless contentions
and varieties of opinion mee