Its antiquity, however, is great.

Of this art, in which the science of grammar originated, we are not able to trace the commencement.

Different nations have claimed the honour of the invention; and it is not decided, among the learned, to whom, or to what country, it belongs.

It probably originated in Egypt.

For, "The Egyptians," it is said, "paid divine honours to the Inventor of Letters, whom they called _Theuth_: and Socrates, when he speaks of him, considers him as a god, or a god-like man."-- _British Gram._, p.32.Charles Bucke has it, "That the first inventor of letters is supposed to have been _Memnon_; who was, in consequence, fabled to be the son of Aurora, goddess of the morning."-- _Bucke's Classical Gram._, p.5.The ancients in general seem to have thought Phoenicia the birthplace of Letters: "Phoenicians first, if ancient fame be true, The sacred mystery of letters knew; They first, by sound, in various lines design'd, Express'd the meaning of the thinking mind; The power of words by figures rude conveyed, And useful science everlasting made." _Rowe's Lucan_, B.iii, l.