HIEROGLYPHICS, (from ifees, sacred, and ^/aoptv,) to carve, properly sculptures or carvings, (and hence, by an easy and obvious transition, paintings also,) symbolically denoting, by particular figures and collocations of ex ternal or corporeal objects, sacred, moral, and religious truths.
Hieroglyphics may be considered as a species, of which symbol is the genus ; for hieroglyphics are a particular class of symbols, differing however from other symbols, as well by the nature of the truths of which they are the signs, as by the mysterious and recondite mode in which these truths arc exhibited. The truths denoted by hieroglyphics properly relate not to common or trivial objects, but to things sacred or divine ; and the mode of exhibiting these is de signedly obscure and enigmatical, requiring sagacity and acuteness, as well as patient • attention, to developc their meaning.
The origin of hieroglyphical writing has generally been derived from Egypt ; and undoubtedly it appears to have been there that hieroglyphics first assumed the form of a regular system. But, in fact, the first steps in the forma tion and employment of hieroglyphic emblems may be traced as nearly coeval with the earliest attempts of man kind to communicate their thoughts by visible marks, in addition to articulate sounds. In such attempts, it seems plain, that the first, as being the most natural, way of ac complishing the end, would be by presenting a picture or delineation of the object to be denoted. To express a man, an animal, or a tree, the figure of the object would be drawn and exhibited. To intimate that a man had been slain by a wild beast, the figure of a man stretched on the earth, and the animal standing over him, would be formed; to indicate that a hunter had caught his prey, the picture of the man with the prey in his hands would be given. Such was probably the earliest mode of writing. It is the opinion of the best informed writers, that it prevailed among the Phoenicians, Egyptians, and other early communities ; and we know with certainty, that it was in use among the Mexicans when invaded by the Spaniards,—intelligence of their arrival having been transmitted to the emperor in a picture, and even the history of the empire having been delineated by paintings upon skins, afterwards found in one of the temples.
This way of communicating thoughts, however, was, of necessity, liable to much inconvenience. It was often diffi cult, and generally bulky. To lessen the toil, and abridge the size of the picture, different modes of abbreviation were resorted to. The principal part of the object might first be made to stand for the whole ; as the head for the man, a hand holding a weapon for a warrior. Next, the princi pal circumstance in a complicated action might denote the entire action ; two or more hands, with weapons opposed, might denote a battle ; a scaling-ladder, set against a wall, a siege. In a short time, a farther improvement would occur ; to put the instrument of an action for the thing itself, as, we are informed by Hori Apollo, two feet standing in water represented the fulling of cloth. Nearly connect ed with this, was the practice of denoting the efficient cause by the effect produced ; as harvest, by a sheaf of corn— winter, by a leafless tree—hostile incursion, by ruined buildings and dead bodies.
From these different kinds of contracted characters, the transition was easy to the third stage in the progress of writing ; to make one thing represent another, where any resemblance sufficiently striking between the two objects could be perceived. To this mode of communication it became frequently necessary to have recourse. Intellec tual objects of every kind ; the passions and feelings of men; the moral qualities of actions admit of no direct dc lineation by picture, they must therefore be represented, if represented at all, by sensible objects, to which they either bear, or are supposed to bear, some resemblance. Under the view of such analogies, wisdom was signified by an eye; ingratitude, by a viper biting the hand that offered it food; courage, by a lion ; cunning, by a serpent. This consti tutes what may properly be termed the symbolic mode of writing. It is in some measure analogous to that stage in the progress of speech observed among all rude tribes, where figures, tropes, and metaphors, fill up a great por tion of every harangue.