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NOTES. 389that they, (the Irish) had 300 volumes of records before hisarrival.The Irish have always held St. Patrick in the highest veneration.Their gratitude has been unbounded. They have evensuperloaded him with honours. Had he really been the fatherof Irish letters, what possible motive could they have had, topluck this individual and solitary laurel from his brow. Butthey, on the contrary, (see Toland, p. 85.) ascribe their letters toFenius Farsaidh^ i. e. " Phaenix the antient, or the antientPhccnician. Whether by Fenius Farsaidh, they meant theTaaut of Sanchoniathon, or Cadmus who first introduced lettersinto Greece, it is impossible to determine. AH that we caninfer from it is, that the Irish derived their letters from the Phcenicians.The polite Greeks and Romans ascribe theirs to thesame source. Herodotus, (lib. 5.) owns that the Greeks receivedtheir letters from the Phoenicians. Diodorus Siculus, (lib, I.)says, These Phoenicians who did receive these letters from theMuses, and afienvnrds communicated them to the Greeks, arethe same who came into Europe zvith Cadmus, Lucan, (Phar*sal. lib, 3.) says,Phoenices piinii, faaiae si creJimus, ausiMansuram rudibus vocem signare figuris.i. e. " The Phoenicians, if we credit fame, were the first whoattempted to give stability to words, by marking them with rudecharacters. P/iny, (lib, 3. Sf cap, 12. also lib. 7 cap. 56.) isvery full to the same purpose. Having sufficiently establishedthat the Greeks and Romans, as well as the Irish ascribe theirletters to the Phoenicians, it is in the next place necessary tocompare these alphabets.The Phoenician, or (which is the same thing) the Hebrew orChaidaic letters are, Aleph, Beth, Gimd, Duleth, He, Vau,Dsain, Cheth, Teth, lod, Caph, Lamech, Mem, I\un, Samech,Ain, Pe, Tsade, Koph, Eesh, Shin, Tan, in all twepty-two.The Greek letters introduced by Cadmus are Alpha, Beta,Gamma, Delta, Epsilan, lota. Kappa, Lambda, Mui, Nui^3 D