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. Irenajus and others to Enoch; Bibliandor to Adam; Eusebius, Clemens Alex and rin us, Cornel i us Agrippa, and others, to Moses; Pompon i us Mela, Herodian, Rufus Festus, Pliny, Lucan, and others, to the Phoenicians; St. Cyprian to Saturn; Plato and Tacitus to the Egyptians; »me to the Ethiopians, and others to the Chinese, who cannot po ibly be entitled to this honour, since all their characters are the signs of simple ideas, and have nothing in common with letters. Various, also, are the conjectures concerning the'different kinds of letters used in different languages. Thus, Moses is supposed by Crinitus to have invent- [s. 674]