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306 NOTES.of Cadmus; to these Palamedes added four, about the time ofthe Trojan war. Simoiiides, at an after period, added fourmore, making in all twenty-four. If we derive the Irish fromthe Greek alphabet, we must select the ara m hen thesealphabetsapproximate nearest both as to number and identity of letters.This aira is prior to the siege of Troy, when the alphabetsof Phoenicia, of Greece, aud of Ireland, (with the exception ofthe letter F, the origin of which is uncertain, and which mightstill be spared without any material injury to the Celtic language)absolutely coincided both in number and identity of letters.It is, indeed, worthy of remark, that the Irish have addedonly one letter (F) to the alphabet of Cadmus, whilst the Greeksbave added eight, and the Romans nine.Though there are instancesof a nation enlarging its alphabet, there is not one (asfar as I know) of curtailing or abridging it.Had the Celts borrowedtheir alphabet posterior to the siege of Troy, when theGreek alphabet (which, no doubt, kept pace with the Phoenicianone) was increased totwenty letters, they must have borrowedthe same number; and if after the time of Simonides, they musthave borrowed twenty.four letters. It is, therefore, no vainboast, when the Irish ascribe their alphabet tothe Phcenicians;for there is, in fact, no alphabet in the world, which, at the pre.sent day, bears the same intrinsic, unequivocal, and characteristicmarks of identity, with that of Cadmus. Nor is there anywell founded reason to conclude that the Celts borrowed thisalphabet through the medium of the Greeks.They were themselvesan Asiatic colony, who long preceded the Greeks, andnight have brought this alphabet along with them to Europe.We find them, at the first dawn of history, situated to the westof Greece, and along the shores of the Mediterranean, whencetheir intercourse with the Phoenicians was frequent and easy.But as 1 ha^e no certain data whereby to fix this point, I shallcontent myself with having clearly established that the Irishalphabet isof Pha-nician origin—that it is older than the siege ofTroy—and that the Celts have consequently had the use of lettersat least 3000 years.