Thus was man at once rendered as superior to the brute creation, as in after times by the aid of writing, or the art of drawing those ideas into vision, he was especially distinguished from the condition of uncivilized savages. For of all the arts that contribute to the comfort and happiness of mankind, no one, perhaps, is more intimately connected with our social habits, or more closely entwined with the best and purest feelings of our nature, than that of writing. And yet to conceive or to account for the origin of an art so invaluable in its tendency to elevate and improve mankind, as that of exhibiting to sight the various conceptions of the mind, which have no corporeal forms, by means of hieroglyphics or legible characters, is still as difficult and perplexing, as in past ages it has ever proved to the sagacity of mankind. With the poet of old we have yet to enquire— “Whence did the wondrous mystic art arise, Of painting speech, and speaking to the eyes? That we by tracing magic lines are taught How to embody, and to colour thought.” Notwithstanding the great and manifold blessings which men have received from this curious and wonderful invention, it is very remarkable, as a distinguished writer observes, that writing, which gives a sort of immortality to all other things, should, by the disposal of Divine Providence, be without any trace of the memory of its first founders. Indeed, the invention of letters and their various combinations in forming words, amounting, it is computed, to 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000, without repeating any combination capable of being made from so small a number of letters as that now comprising our alphabet, has something so extremely ingenious and surprising in its application, that most men who have treated the subject, can hardly forbear attributing it to a divine original.