LETTER

(Lat liter a.) A character used to expre one of the simple sounds of the voice. Letters properly combined form the visible signs of those sounds by which we communicate our ideas. What letters were originally, who first invented them, and among what people they were primarily used, are still questions of profound obscurity. Philo, says the Ency.Brit., attributes this great and noble invention to Abraham; St. Irenaeus and others to Enoch; Bibliander to Adam; Eusebius, Clemens Alex and rin us, Cornel i us Agrippa, and others, to Moses; Pompon i us Mela, Herodian, Rafus Festus, Pliny, Lucan, and others, to the Phcenicians; St. Cyprian to Saturn; Plato and Tacitus to [s. 668]