Egyptian, the Cuneiform, the Chinese, the Mexican, and the Hittite. The
tradition of the ancient world, which assigned to the Phoenicians the
glory of the invention of letters, declared that it was from Egypt that
they originally derived the art of writing, which they afterwards carried
into Greece, and the latest investigations have confirmed this tradition.

2. THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET.--Of the Phoenician alphabet the Samaritan is
the only living representative, the Sacred Script of the few families who
still worship on Mount Gerizim. With this exception, it is only known to
us by inscriptions, of which several hundred have been discovered. They
form two well-marked varieties, the Moabite and the Sidonian. The most
important monument of the first is the celebrated Moabite stone,
discovered in 1868 on the site of the ancient capital of the land of Moab,
portions of which are preserved in the Louvre. It gives an account of the
revolt of the King of Moab against Jehoram, King of Israel, 890 B.C. The
most important inscription of the Sidonian type is that on the magnificent
sarcophagus of a king of Sidon, now one of the glories of the Louvre.

A monument of the early Hebrew alphabet, another offshoot of the
Phoenician, was discovered in 1880 in an inscription in the ancient tunnel
which conveys water to the pool of Siloam.

3. THE GREEK ALPHABET.--The names, number, order, and forms of the
primitive Greek alphabet attest its Semitic origin. Of the many
inscriptions which remain, the earliest has been discovered, not in
Greece, but upon the colossal portrait statues carved by Rameses the
Great, in front of the stupendous cave temple at Abou-Simbel, at the time
when the Hebrews were still in Egyptian bondage. In the seventh century B.
C., certain Greek mercenaries in the service of an Egyptian king inscribed
a record of their visit in five precious lines of writing, which the dry