We shall not be surprised that at this time I fay nothing of painting. I have difcuffed that matter extenfively enough in treating of the arts which the people of Afia and Egypt could have the knowledge of in the ages which make the object of this fecond part of my work. I have declared myfelf for the fentiment of Pliny, who believes the invention of painting pofterior to the heroic times. I have nothing new to add to it. The reafons which I have alledged regard the Greeks as much and more, than the people of Afia and the Egyptians. I am perfuaded that neither one nor the other then knew the art of painting in the fenfe in which I have explained it. CHA C H A P. VỊ. Of the origin of writing. THere now remain very few lights about the firit means that the Greeks had employed to render their thoughts fenfible to the eyes, and to tranfmit them to posterity. We only fee, that in the first times they made ufe of practices almost like to those which all the people known in antiquity had ufed originally. We find among the Greeks thefe forts of poems, which they fet to mufic, to preserve the memory of important facts and discoveries. I fufpect alfo, as I have faid elsewhere, that they anciently made ufe of reprefentative writing, which confifts in defigning the objects of which they would speak. With respect to hieroglyphics, I am ignorant whether the Greeks have known that fort of writing, I find no trace, no veftige in their history. Yet I would not infer that these people have never practifed hieroglyphic writing. We are not fufficiently inftructed in 1 k Tacit. annal. 1. 4. n. 43.; Acad. des infcript. t. 6. p. 165. See also fupra, book 1. chap. 3. art. 8. p. 77. & 78. See part 1. book 2. chap. 6, the the ancient customs of Greece, to dare to pronounce any thing on that fubject. Alphabetic writing had only been introduced very lately into that part of Europe. Cadmus, according to the report of the best hiftorians of antiquity, was the first who made known to the Greeks that fublime knowledge. Some authors, indeed, would do that honour to Cecrops. But this fentiment is neither proved, nor followed. There are also found modern critics who have advanced, that, before Cadmus, the Pelafgians had an alphabetic writing . Whatever researches I have been able to make on this fubject, I confefs that I have not been able to find the leaft figns of it in antiquity. Every thing fays to us, that we ought to refer to the arrival of Cadmus the knowledge of alphabetic characters in Greece. The comparison of the Phoenician alphabet, and the Greek alphabet, would alone be fufficient to convince us. It is vifible that the Greek characters are only the Phoenician letters turned from right to left. Let us add to this the names, the form, the order, and value of the letters which are the fame in one and the other writing P. The reasons which they would oppofe to this fentiment appear to me fo weak and so void of authority, that I do not think I ought to stop to oppose them. The ancient Phoenician alphabet brought into Greece by Cadmus, was defective enough; it ended at Tau. It was only afterwards and at different times that they added to it Upfilon, Phi, Psi, &c. If we have regard to fome Greek and Roman authors, this first alphabet would have been still more imperfect than we have faid. They will have it in effect, that the alphabet of Cadmus had only been compofed of fix letters. They name Palamedes, Simonides, Epicharmes, for the authors of the new letters with which the Greek al t Herod. 1. 5. n. 58.; Ephorus apud Clem. Alex. ftrom. 1. 1. p. 362.; Diod, 1. 3. p. 236.; Plin. 1. 7. fect. 57. p. 412.; Tacit. annal. I. 11, n. 14.; Eufeb. praep. evan. 1. 10. c. 5. p. 473. "Tacit. annal. I. 11. n. 14. • Acad. des infcript. t. 6, p. 616. P See Bochart chan. 1. 1. c. 20. p. 490. &c. • Ibid. loco cit. Plin. 1. 7. fect. 57. p. 41 2. & 413. phabet phabet was fucceffively enriched. But this account very much resembles a fiction of the Greek gammarians, very ignorant of the origin of their own language; a fiction adopted afterwards by the Roman authors, and by the greateft number of our modern writers. Many reafons bring me to think thus. The diverfity of fentiments, about these pretended inventors of letters which were wanting in the ancient Greek alphabet, prove at firft fight how very uncertain every thing was they have faid of their difcoveries. I find afterwards in the Greek language more than fix Phoe nician letters which agree with each other both in name and found. Besides, there are numbers of the most common Greek words, the moft ancient and the most neceffary, which are only written by means of the letters which they attribute the invention of to Palamedes, to Simonides, or to Epicharmes. Laftly, we fee that the form of the characters has greatly varied among the Greeks; it has ex perienced fucceffive changes, fimilar to thofe which the writing of all languages has experienced. I obferve, that fome of the characters which they pretend to have been newly invented, only appear to be modifications of other letters more ancient. We ought not then to regard what fome modern writers have propagated about the pretended augmentations made fucceffively to the alphabet of Cadmus by Palamedes, Simonides, and Epicharmes. These facts are nothing less than proofs, that cuftom alone can have enriched the Greek alphabet with the characters of which it had need a. We fee, by all that remains of the monuments of antiqui ty, that originally the Greeks formed alternately their lines from right to left, and from left to right, in the fame manner that ploughmen draw their furrows. This is what has made them give to this ancient manner of writing the name "See Hermannus Hugo, de prima fcrib. orig. c. 3.; Fabricius, bibl. Graec, 1. 1. c. 23. n. 2. t. 1. p. 147. * See le Clerc, bibl. choif. t. 11. p. 39. 40. y Id. ibid. * See acad. des infcript. t. 23. mem. p. 423, & 421. * Id. ibid. loco cit. of of Bouftrophedon, a word literally fignifying furrowed writing *. I doubt further if we ought to look upon the Greeks as the inventors of this manner of writing. I am much inclined to think that the Phoenicians wrote thus originally, and that even at the time of Cadmus. It is in effect more than probable, that the Greeks, on receiving the writing of the Phoenicians, would at firft follow the manner in which thefe people ranged their charaters. Even this practice, which now feems to us fo odd, yet might be that which fhall first have prefented itself. In the origin of alphabetic writing, and when they had begun to make ufe of that invention, it must have appeared very natural to continue the line. backwards, and to follow it thus alternatively. I fhould think, that they must have had fome reflection to have determined them, after the first line was finished, to bring back their hand under the first letter of that line, and thus to begin again all the lines in the fame way. It is true, that, in the manner of writing in Bouftrophedon, they were obliged at each line to form a part of the fame characters in a contrary way. But experience teaches us, that, in making discoveries, we almost always begin with the most difficult proceffes. Moreover, I prefume, that in the early times they only writ with capital letters; and we know that in the Greek alphabet there are many which we may form equally contrarily. We muft obferve further, that originally they ingraved these characters on hard fubftances, or at least very firm ones. This practice did not permit to write fast as we do at this time. In this cafe it would be almost indifferent to ingrave the fame characters from right to left, or from left to right. Writing in Boustrophedon had subsisted a long time in Greece. It was in this manner that the laws of Solon were written. This legislator published them about 594 years I did not think it necessary to give a model of this fort of writing, reflecting that it is found in many works which are in the hands of every body. See among others vol. 23. des mem. de l' acad. des infcriptions. • Suid. in Kárabev vópeos, t. 2. p. 674.; Harpocrat, in Kávov voμcos, P. 203before before the Christian æra. They have likewife discovered fome infcriptions in Bouftrophedon which only afcend between 500 and 460 years before Chrift. The Greeks only knew very lately the inconveniency of forming their lines alternatively from left to right, and from right to left. At laft indeed they found, that the method of writing uniformly from left to right was the most natural, because it restrained and fatigued the hand lefs. This difcovery must have made them infenfibly abandon writing in Bouftrophedon. An ancient author, whofe works have not yet been published, fays, according to the report of Fabricius, who cites him in his Bibliotheca Græca, that it was Pronapides who first introduced into Greece the method of writing uniformly from left to right. This Pronapides passed in antiquity for having been the preceptor of Homer .. We may then advance, that it was nearly about 900 years before Chrift that the Greeks began to write uniformly from left to right. But we had better confefs that we can fay nothing very fatisfactorily on the ages in which this practice has been conftantly observed in Greece. We fee plainly, by fome monuments which ascend to very remote times, that this fort of writing had place among the Greeks very anciently. The Abbé Fourmont has reported in his voyage to the East, inscriptions written from left to right, which appear to have been at the time of the firft war between the Lacedæmonians and the Meffenians, that is to fay, 742 years before Chrift. But we know also, that, near 100 years after that event, writing in Bouftrophedon must have ftill been in use. The manner in which I have just said the laws of Solon were written, and other infcriptions pofterior to that legislator, prove it fufficiently. It appears then, that, for fome ages, they continued to write indifferently in BouStrophedon, and uniformly from left to right. Further, it does not appear to me poffible to determine precifely the time in c Muratori, nov. thef. t. 1. col. 48. d See parti. book 2. chap. 6. Bibl. Graec. t. 1. 1. 1. c. 27. n. 2. & 3. p. 159 Acad. des infcript, t. 15. p. 397. t. 16. hift. p. 194. Supra, p. 232. VOL. II. Gg f See Diod. 1. 4. p. 237. which |