WRITING. The art of communicating our ideas to others by means of in scribed signs or characters. Amongst the various arts which have from time to time contributed to the improvement and advancement of society, there is, per haps, none which, in point of utility and excellence, will at all admit of compari son with the art of writing. Yet because this art may now be acquired by every body, it fails to attract the attention and command the admiration it so well merits. How curious and beautiful soever a new discovery may be, let it once become common, and from that moment it ceases to be noticed ; that which is within theof every body is despised. The time was, when a man who could write distinguished amongst his fellows ; but the time is ap proaching, when a man who cannot write will be pointed out as a remarkable character.
In the first ages of the world, while society was in its infancy, mankind had clearly no other method of expressing their ideas in writing, than the simple one of making a figure of the shape of the object And this method must have been long before their dispersion ; for it has been found to exist amongst the most rude, as well as the most polished nations of the globe ; situated too at such remote distances from each other as to preclude intercourse with the rest of mankind. This mode of writing seems the most natural, because the repre sentation of sounds, which express the names of things, by certain characters or alphabets now so extensively in use, must necessarily require some previous concert between two parties, the one of whom suggests, and the other agrees, that a particular mark or form on paper, shall be the symbol for a particular sound. But if we suppose a savage separated from his friend, and wishing to communicate with him, without having had this previous consultation, and sup posing that he has lent his distant acquaintance some articles of furniture, such as his bow and arrows, or his knife, which he is anxious to have returned, without the knowledge of his messenger, or being dependant upon his memory ; it seems highly probable, that his first impulse would be to make a rude sketch of these articles, and transmit them to his friend. Were the latter an acute man,
he would probably understand the allusion ; and were he not intelligent enough for this purpose, it is clear he would not be sufficiently so to comprehend sym bols that denote sounds. So that the simplicity of this mode of writing might suggest the probability of its being first resorted to, without alluding to the hiero glyphics yet remaining on the Egyptian tombs, which, from our want of acquaint ance with the manners, customs, and general objects with which the Egyptians were conversant, are very difficult to decipher, if we may judge from the learn ing displayed in explaining them. In Freyeinet and Arago's Voyage is given the drawing of a letter, written in this kind of language, from an inhabitant of the Caroline Islands to M. Martinez, which is perfectly intelligible. M. Mar tinez bad commissioned a Tamar of Sathoual to send him some shells, promising in exchange a few pieces of iron. The captain gave him a sheet of paper, on which he sketched with a red pigment, first, in the middle of the top of the page, ca small figure of a man with his arms extended horizontally, intended to repre sent the bearer of compliments; and underneath the man, the branch of a tree, as the type of peace and amity. On the left hand side were represented the forms •of nine different shells the Carolinean had to send; and on the right hand aide were delineated the objects he desired in exchange ; namely, three large fishing hooks, four small ones, two axes, and two longer pieces of iron. The barter was accomplished to the satisfaction of both parties. This is, perhaps, as clear an instance as can be found, of the mode in which an unlettered people would en deavour to convey the expression of their wishes to their friends at a distance, and forms a striking contrast to the elegant though complicated process of our own method of writing.