Subjoined are illustrations of cuneiform vowels and consonants as written: [Illustration: Cuneiform Vowels and Consonants] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER III. WHILE yielding to the charm of some master of language, who of us gives a thought to the fact that the grace and flow, the flexibility, the mysterious eloquence of written speech is largely due to the invention of letters. Only twenty-six simple signs, yet what marvels of simplicity and power! In the readiness of these for new combinations, their varied adjustments and readjustments in the formation of words, we find the life and growth, and practically unlimited expansion of language; the rhythmical melodies of verse; those inherent powers which render them so adaptive to the wants of man; and withal, so easy to be acquired. Yet writing without an alphabet is quite possible. In fact, the history of the past is revealing great nations and people in possession of systems of writing and of extensive literature, not founded on an alphabet. We are nevertheless to find that writing without an alphabet is a difficult and complicated matter. So serious and difficult, that comparatively few could acquire the art, and that though in great measure this was confined to special classes, as the scribes who devoted themselves to the practice, and the priesthood who were invested with the power, yet the art of writing was understood and in common use to an extent incomprehensible when the difficulties of its acquirement are considered. The results were nevertheless to limit the extensions of knowledge, proving in all directions a barrier to progress. Truly has it been said that “The history of our alphabet is the golden thread which entwines itself with the long story of man’s civilization;” that “It is the greatest triumph of the human mind;” and again, as “The most wonderful of intellectual achievements.” For we are coming to know that letters are an invention, not spontaneous productions or miracles of language, and that evolution, as in other directions of human inquiry, has much to say upon their origin and history. Though taking us to a past so remote, the record for the greater part is singularly distinct and clear. The story is, however, but a recent revelation, not even as yet fully told, gathering only sufficient coherence within the past forty years to make the telling intelligible or possible. A fragment of inscription here, a roll of papyrus there, illuminated by the inspirations of genius, and the ages which have so long withheld from us the story of our alphabet, are slowly yielding the secret. To give in brief review the leading facts in this story is the simple purpose of this history.