s
founded; to the extent, at least, of making it probable that the later
Grecian alphabet was introduced from Phoenicia--though not, of course,
by any individual named Kadmus, the latter being, indeed, a name of
purely Greek origin. Further studies of the past generation tended
to corroborate the ancient belief as to the original source of the
Phoenician alphabet, but divided scholars between two opinions: the one
contending that the Egyptian hieroglyphics were the source upon which
the Phoenicians drew; and the other contending with equal fervor that
the Babylonian wedge character must be conceded that honor.

But, as has often happened in other fields after years of acrimonious
controversy, a new discovery or two may suffice to show that neither
contestant was right. After the Egyptologists of the school of De
Rouge(1) thought they had demonstrated that the familiar symbols of the
Phoenician alphabet had been copied from that modified form of Egyptian
hieroglyphics known as the hieratic writing, the Assyriologists came
forward to prove that certain characters of the Babylonian syllabary
also show a likeness to the alphabetical characters that seemingly could
not be due to chance. And then, when a settlement of the dispute seemed
almost hopeless, it was shown through the Egyptian excavations that
characters even more closely resembling those in dispute had been in use
all about the shores of the Mediterranean, quite independently of
either Egyptian or Assyrian writings, from periods so ancient as to be
virtually prehistoric.

Coupled with this disconcerting discovery are the revelations brought to
light by the excavations at the sites of Knossos and other long-buried
cities of the island of Crete.(2) These excavations, which are still
in progress, show that the art of writing was known and practised
independently in Crete before that cataclysmic overthrow of the early
Greek civilization which archaeologists are accustomed to ascribe to the
hypothetical invasion of the Dorians. The significance of this is that
the art of writing was known in Europe long before the advent of the
mythical Kadmus. But since the early Cretan scripts are not to be
identified with the scripts used in Greece in historical times, whereas
the latter are undoubtedly of lineal descent from the Phoenician
alphabet, the validity of the Kadmus legend, in a modified form, must
still be admitted.

As has just been suggested, the new knowledge, parti