The written language of the Chinese affords many proofs of its having origi nated in picture writing. This method of writing, of course, required consider able patience and skill to practise, and by common consent the characters or signs were from time to time simplified, so as to be expressed by much fewer lines. In Egypt, where the progress of the arts was greatly encouraged, means were discovered to substitute the original figures by very simple marks, by re taining only the most prominent peculiarities of the objects, and these, from their superior convenience and facility of execution, soon afterwards became universally adopted. Yet it may be readily conceived, that there remained many difficulties to overcome, by the great variety and intricacy of the figures. To simplify, therefore, the method of writing still further, the priests turned many of the outlines into arbitrary marks, which in course of time so deviated from their originals, as to render it almost impossible to trace them to their archetype, but which were nevertheless much less complicated and more expeditious. Thus, after incredible labour, through the lapse of many ages, were produced the three different modes of writing among the Egyptians, designated by the appellation of hieroglyphic, demotic, and hieratic. Into the nature of these our limits doing permit us to enter; but they constitute a subject well worthy of attention.
The next step of improvement was to form a connexion betweeq, the object represented, and the sound of the word used to express it. or was tbii re difficult as would at first sight be supposed: for when a man represented any image or picture, that of a "door" for instance, he would naturally give to the combination of lines with which that figure was formed, the name of a " doer; and wherever he met with this representation, or even though he should change it for some arbitrary and more simple mark, having the same signification, the same name would still remain attached to it, and by this means the word door would for ever afterwards remain associated with a certain outline or figure. The Hebrew alphabet affords a moat satisfactory illustration of this. Every letter is, in fact, a word, and expresses some simple object. Deleth, for example, their fourth letter, corresponding with our D, signifies a " door ;" Beth, their second letter, answering to our B, "a house," and in this manner each of the remaining letters of the alphabet have a meaning attached to them. Having attained this state of advancement, the progress of the art was more rapid. Every nation, in its turn, contributed some letters to the common stock ; in a happy moment it was discovered, that each monosyllable terminated by a sound which, with very little variation, was repeated in all. Nor was it difficult to ascertain the number of these which were invariably fixed to the four or five inflexions of voice. Thus were vowels added to consonants, and mankind gradually arrived
at the greatest of all inventions,—the invention of the alphabet. But who was the man, or what his nation, to whom the honour of this invention is due, is still disputed by the learned, though the majority agree in considering the presumption o be strongest in favour of Thoth, a son of Mizraim, the father of the Egyptians.
This noble invention diminished to aprodigious extent the difficulty of writing, it shortened the labour of memory, and was capable of expressing all subjects, and all ideas. The rhaenicians obtained a knowledge of the system, imparted it to the Greeks, whence it was gradually spread over the continent to our islands, and was at length over the whole world. The first substance used for writing upon is considered to have been dried leaves ; but there is much evi dence to show, that plates of brass, lead, wood, stoneAvory, and wax, were also used. The ancients generally used tables covered with a coat of wax, on which they wrote with a style, a piece of iron pointed at the end, with which they made the letters, and blunt or flat at the other end, which they used for rubbing out what they had written, either when they wished to make any alteration or to use the table for other writings. By a good or bad style, therefore, they meant at first simply to denote the quality of the instrument with which they wrote. The term was afterwards applied metaphorically to the language : in which sense it is now used.
Among the different substances that were employed for writing upon, before the art of making paper from linen-rags was discovered, we find the earliest to have been these tables of wood, made smooth, and covered with wax. But as what was written on wax might easily be defaced, leaves of the papyrus, a kind of flag, which grew in great abundance in the marshes of Egypt, were dried, and by a particular process prepared for writing. Sheets were also separated for the same purpose from the stem of the plant. On these, the letters were engraved with an instrument similar to that used for writing on wax. The sub stance so prepared was called charta, from a city of Tyre of that name, pear which the plant was also found. The words folic, leaves, and charta paper, thus derived, are well known among ourselves.
As in writing a treatise, a great number of these leaves or sheets war required, they were joined together by making a hole and passing a string through each of them. 'With the same string passed several times round them, they were confined, to prevent their separating, and being injured or lost when no one was reading them ; whence it is supposed that a roll or bundle of them obtained the name of a volumes, or volume. Those who have seen specimens of the Burmese writing on leaves thus collected, may form an accurate notion of an ancient papyrus volume.