etters, as d, m, j, and perhaps g. The result is that the known
alphabet of the Persians, which is assumed here to have been the
invention of the Medes, consists of some thirty-six or thirty-seven
forms, which are really representative of no more than twenty-three
distinct sounds.

It appears then that, compared with the phonetic systems in vogue among
their neighbors, the alphabet of the Medes and Persians was marked by
a great simplicity. The forms of the letters were also very much
simplified. Instead of conglomerations of fifteen or sixteen wedges in
a single character, we have in the Medo-Persic letters a maximum of five
wedges. The most ordinary number is four, which is sometimes reduced
to three or even two. The direction of the wedges is uniformly either
perpendicular or horizontal, except of course in the case of the double
wedge or arrow-head, where the component elements are placed obliquely.
The arrow-head has but one position, the perpendicular, with the angle
facing towards the left hand. The only diagonal sign used is a simple
wedge, placed obliquely with the point towards the right, which is a
mere mark of separation between the words.

The direction of the writing was, as with the Arian nations generally,
from left to right. Words were frequently divided, and part carried on
to the next line. The characters were inscribed between straight lines
drawn from end to end of the tablet on which they were written. Like the
Hebrew, they often closely resembled one another, and a slight defect in
the stone will cause one to be mistaken for another. The resemblance is
not between letters of the same class or kind; on the contrary, it
is often between those which are most remote from one another. Thus g
nearly resembles u; ch is like d; tr like p; and so on: while k and kh,
s and sh, p and ph (or J) are forms quite dissimilar.

It is supposed that a cuneiform alphabet can never have been employed
for ordinary writing purposes, but must have been confined to documents
of some importance, which it was desirable to preserve, and which
were therefore either inscribed on stone, or impressed on moist clay
afterwards baked. A cursive character, it is therefore imagined, must
always have been in use, parallel with a cuneiform one; and as the
Babylonians and Assyrians are known to have used a character of this
kind from a very high antiquity, synchronously with their lapidary
cuneiform, so it is supposed that the Arian r