examine all persons who could write in order to discover
the authorship of a seditious document.

The art of writing is not mentioned in the Bible
prior to the time of Moses, although as before stated,
in Egypt and the countries adjacent thereto it was not
only known but practiced.

Its first mention recorded in Scripture will be found
in Exodus xvii. v. 14; "And the Lord said unto
Moses, Write this, for a memorial, in a book; and
rehearse it in the ear of Joshua; for I will utterly put
out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven."
This command was given immediately after the defeat
of the Amalekites near Horeb, and before the arrival
of the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

It is observable, that there is not the least hint to
induce us to believe that writing was then newly invented;
on the contrary, we may conclude, that Moses
understood what was meant by writing in a book;
otherwise God would have instructed him, as he had
done Noah in building the Ark; for he would not have
been commanded to write in a book, if he had been
ignorant of the art of writing; but Moses expressed
no difficulty of comprehension when he received this
command. We also find that Moses wrote all the
works and all the judgments of the Lord, contained
in the twenty-first and the two succeeding chapters of
the book of Exodus, before the two written tables of