1. Alan enjoys the noble prerogative of being able to communicate his ideas by articulate sounds. But these sounds cannot reach beyond the time and place where they are uttered. If we wish to perpetuate our ideas, some method must be discovered of giving permanency, either to these sounds, or to the notions which they de note, by means of certain durable signs or marks, so con trived, as to recal to the memory the thoughts with which they are meant to be associated. The most natu ral expedient that presented itself, was to make a pic TUVC, or representation of the very object spoken of. Thus, to signify, that one man had killed another, nothing could be more obvious than to draw the fig,: o one man stretched upon the ground, and of another standing by him, with sonic instrument of death in his hand. To denote that strangers had arrived in a country by sea, it was natural to draw a man sitting in a ship ; and so in other cases.
There is good reason to believe, that such was thr earliest kind of writing, if it can properly be so called among the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and other ancient na tions. See Essai s.ur lcs Theroglyphes des Agypti, 08.) We may also conclude, that the Grecian writing was originally of the same kind, since we find the same word 7pacpw, employed to signify both writing and painting When the people of Mexico were first visited by the Spaniards, the art of writing had advanced no farther among them. The inhabitants of the sea-coast, in order to give notice of the arrival of these strangers to their emperor, Montezuma, sent him a large cloth, in which they had painted a representation of every thing remark able that they had observed. G•costa, I. 7.) A speci men of these Mexican paintings is, we believe, still to be seen in the Bodleian library at Oxford.* This method of writing is evidently Iitborious and cumbersome. To abridge the toil attending it, men would naturally be induced to substitute abbreviations, or characteristic parts instead of the whole objects themselves. That this second stage in the art of repre senting ideas, was also practised among the Egyptians. we learn from the authority of !torus Apollo. Accord ing to that author, the Egyptians anciently represented a fullrr of cloths, by painting a man's two feet in water ; and they signified fire, by a painting of smoke ascending in the air. (1. 2. c. 16.) On the same principle, a sca ling-ladder denoted a siege ; and two hands, the one holding a buckler, the other a bow, signified a battle, (1. 2. c. 28.) As soon as it became the practice to write much, it would be discovered that even this expedient was alto gether incompetent to express a great number of the thoughts which it was necessary to communicate. There are many things familiarly spoken of, such as the pas sions and feelings of living creatures, the judgments and opinions of the human mind, which it is altogether impossible to express by such representations, as they are not of a corporeal but an intellectual nature. Hence the origin of writing by symbols., or of denoting things that are intellectual by sensible objects to which they are supposed to have a certain analogy or resemblance. Thus, ingratitude was denoted by a viper; Providence, by the head of a hawk, remarkable for its penetrating eye; a man shunned by society by an eel, which is sup posed never to be found in the company of other fish; feet standing upon water, an impossibility. This kind of sy,mbolic writing was greatly practised among the Egyptians; and from the uses to which it was applied by them, it obtained the name of Hu roglyfileic, or sacred sculpture. Sec Ihmtoemy rims.
As this manner of communicating thoughts came to be more frequently used, convenience, and even neces sity, would lead to the abbreviating more and more these symbolic delineations; a dot instead of a circle might stand for the sun; a zig-zag line for a saw, might sig nify a carpenter, and so of other symbols. By these
repeated abbreviations, the original resemblances would gradually become obscure, and at last entirely disappear; the character would then become a met e arbitrary mark, conveying only the remote idea, without suggesting at all the object from which the symbol was originally taken. The characters of the Chinese at the present day appear to be entirely of this kind ; and as the de tails which we have lately received concerning this re markable peculiarity throw a great deal of light upon the natural progress of the art of writing-, they arc well worth an attentive consideration. It is disputed whether or not the Chinese characters are founded upon a re semblance between the sign and the thing signified. Sir George Staunton asserts, that they are, and Air Bar row denies it; but all agree, that the Chinese charac ters denote things, and not words; and therefore by those who understand them, they may be read or re solved into any other language as well as the Chine-se. This has been thought to be a considerable advantage ; but the benefit of it is questionable, and at any rate is more than counterbalanced by the immense multiplica tion of characters to which this manner of writing gives rise. In the case of the Chinese, there are incompara bly more characters than words in the language, for every idea or object of thought must have its distinct character; but in all languages many different ideas arc denoted by a single word; and in Chinese, this takes place much more than in any other with which we are acquainted. According to sir George Staunton, the number of words in the Chinese language does not ex ceed 1500, while the number of characters extends to 80,000, making, at an average, near 50 characters to every word; a circumstance which must occasion a wonderful ambiguity in the spoken language, and fre quently, as Mr Barrow assures us, obliges them, in con versation, to write or draw the character, in order to remote the ambiguity." In the structure of the Chinese characters, there are what are properly termed elementary signs. These are the characters of simplest form which are intended to denote the principal, or more general objects of nature. They consist of a few lines or strokes, and 5 or 6 of them are formed by a single line. They may be con sidered as the genera, or roots, under each of which are ranked a variety of species. Thus the heart is a genus, represented by a curve line, somewhat typical of its ob ject ; and the species referable to it, include all the sen timents, passions, and affections that agitate the human breast. Under the genus hand, are arranged most trades and manual exercises. Under the genus word, every sort of speech, study, wrhing, and debate. The five elements of which the Chinese suppose all bodies to consist, form so many gene ra, cal 11 of which c(111/111: Fiends a great number of species under it. The spcei-s are discriminated by more compound t haraeters, tthmhilt sometimes consist of no fewer than its strokes. But in each compound character or species, the peculiar mark of the genus is discernible, whit h serves as an explana tory key ; and also as a mark of reference to the Chinese Dictionary. There the genera are arranged at the be ginning in an order, which, being invariable, soon be comes familiar. The species under each genus, follow each other according to the number of additional strokes of which each consists, and thus are easily lOund.