When a Western philologer asserts that
writing did not exist before a certain period, we assume that he has
some approximate certitude as to its real invention. But so far is this
from the truth, that admittedly no one knows whence the Phoenicians
learned the characters, now alleged (by Gesenius first) to be the source
from which modern 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.
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