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Excerpt from The Alphabet, Vol. 1 of 2: An Account of the Origin and Development of Letters This book represents the labour of many years. It was undertaken with the intention of compiling a brief account of recent discoveries as to the origin of the Alphabet, and its subsequent developments. Knowing how extensive was the literature of the subject, I did not suppose that there would be need or place for original research in connection with such a well-worn theme. It soon became manifest, however, not only that the History of the Alphabet had never been written, but that to some extent it had not even been discovered. Although many departments of the subject had been exhaustively discussed, I found that the origin of several important Alphabets would have to be investigated anew, while with regard to some of the best known scripts various collateral problems still awaited a solution. Such questions, arising one by one, necessitated unforseen and tedious investigation, the accumulation of many books, and the study of manuscripts and inscriptions in distant Libraries and Museums. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.