5

392 f«OTES,
count for the faint similarity which can be traced in some letters
of their respective alphabets.
5to, Its identity with the alphabet of Cadmus. The Irish alphabet,
as I have already stated, consists of 17 letters. With
the exception of the letter i^, the other 16 are toto corpore, the
identical 16 letters which Cadmus introduced into Greece.
This coincidence can neither have proceeded from accident nor
design, but from the original and absolute identity of the alpha,
bets themselves.
If the Irish had culled or selected their alphabet
from the Roman one, as has been foolishly imagined, by
what miracle could they have hit on the identical letters of Cad.
rous, and rejected all the rest? Had they thrown 16 dice, 16
times, and turned up the same number every time, it would not
have been so marvellous as this. The identity of the Cadmean
and Irish alphabet is not therefore the effect of chance or accident.
Neither is it the effect of design. Had the Irish framed
this alphabet with a design to make it coincide exactly with that
of Cadmus, they would, at least, have been possessed of as much
fommon sense, as to-leave out the letter F.
6to. The paucity of its letters. It St. Patrick introduced the
Roman alphabet, why were the letters J, k, e, r, jr, y, and z
omitted ?
For Jf they had no occasion, their c being always pronounced
hard. J is expressed by d put before t or e, thus Dia
\s pronounced Jeecf. There are no such sounds in the Celtic
SIS those expressed by a, x, or z. The combinations bfi and nik
express r, dh and gh, express y. Though there was no occasion
for *, «, X, and z, still j, r, and r, were of primary neces.
sity, the Celts, or Irish, having no such lettprs, and being obliged
to express them by combinations or substitutions. Bat there
is betwi?^ every -written language and its alphabet a certain aptitude
and affinity which peculiarly adapts
The peculiar alphabet of a language is its
them to each other.
most graceful and appropriate
dress. Every othpr alphabet, when applied to it is
pukward, forced, and unnatural. Were the English language
written in Greek or Hebrew characters, it would well nigh gq
fhe length pf ruining its whole fortn and orthogr^.phy.
The same