8

THE RECORDS OP THE

moriaj in a book.” It is observable, that there is notthe least hint to induce us to believe that writing wasthen newly invented: on the contrary, we may con-clude, that Moses understood what was meant bywriting in a book; otherwise God would have in-structed him, as he had done Noah in building theark; for he would not have been commanded to writein a book, if he had been ignorant of the art of writing:but Moses expressed no difficulty of comprehension,when he received this command." He may havebecome acquainted with the art of writing in Egypt ,which country, we learn from the Old Testament ,was long previously acquainted with all those arts ofcivilization and government, and notions of property,which usually belong to nations which have been longsettled and civilized."

Slight as are the notices of the writings of the earlyages of the world, little can here be stated relative toancient bookbinding, but that some mode of preser-vation of documents which must have required somuch care to execute, was early devised, cannot bedoubted; and therefore the art may be dated asalmost coeval with the science of composing books :and that both one and the other would soon followthe invention of hieroglvphic characters and lettersthough it must be after the latter period to which wemust look for anything that can decidedly be called

" Astle’s Origin and Progress of Writing, pp. 12,13.Sharpe’s Early History of Egypt, p. i.