On the Invention of LETTERS. Joseph Stennett Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.006 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. VI. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 296-297. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

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On the Invention of LETTERS . TELL me what Genius did the art invent , The lively image of the voice to paint ; Who first the secret how to colour sound , And to give shape to reason , wisely found ; With bodies how to cloath ideas , taught ; And how to draw the picture of a thought : Who taught the hand to speak , the eye to hear A silent language roving far and near ; Whose softest noise outstrips loud thunder's sound , And spreads her accents thro' the world's vast round : A voice heard by the deaf , spoke by the dumb , Whose echo reaches long , long time to come ; Which dead men speak as well as those alive — Tell me what Genius did this art contrive .