THE RISE AND PROGRESS

OF

WRITING.

NEXT to speech, writing is the most useful art of which men are possessed. Writing is an improvement upon speech, and therefore must have been posterior to it in order of time. At first, men thought of nothing more than communicating their sentiments to one another when present, by means of words or sounds, which they uttered. Afterwards, they derived this further method of mutual communication with one another, when absent, by means of marks or characters, presented to the eye, which we denominate writing.

Written characters are of two kinds; either signs for things, or signs for words. The signs for things are, the pictorial hierogly

phics and symbols employed by the ancient nations; the signs for words are, the alphabetical characters now employed by all Eu

ropeans.

Pictures were, undoubtedly, the first attempt towards writing, and as mankind are naturally fond of imitation, some methods have been obtained in all ages, and among all nations, of copying or tracing the likeness of sensible objects. Those methods would soon be employed by men for giving some imperfect information to others at a distance of what had happened, or for preserving the memory of facts which they wished to record. Thus, to signify that one man had killed another, they painted a figure of a dead man, stretched upon the earth, another standing by him with a hostile weapon in his hand. When America was first discovered, this was the only kind of writing known in the kingdom of Mexico. By historical pictures, the Mexicans are said to have transmitted to posterity the most important transactions of their empire. These, however, must have been extremely imperfect records. Pictures

could do little more than delineate external events; they could neither exhibit the connections of them, nor describe such qualities as were not visible to the eye, nor convey any idea of the dispositions or words of men.

To supply, in some degree, this defect, there arose, in process of time, the invention of what are called hieroglyphical characters; which may be considered as the second stage of the art of writing. Hieroglyphics consist in certain symbols, which are made to represent invisible objects, on account of an analogy or resemblance which such symbols were supposed to have to the objects themselves. Thus the eye was the hieroglyphical symbol of knowledge; as a circle was of eternity, which has neither beginning nor end. Hieroglyphics, therefore, were a more refined and extensive species of painting. Pictures delineated the resemblance of external visible objects; hieroglyphics painted invisible objects, by analogies taken from the external world.

Egypt was the country where this sort of writing was most studied and brought into a

regular art. In hieroglyphics was conveyed all the boasted wisdom of the priests. They represented animals as the emblems or hieroglyphics of moral objects, according to the properties or qualities which they ascribed to them. Thus, ingratitude was denominated by a viper; imprudence, by a fly; wisdom, by an ant; a man universally shunned, by an eel, which they supposed to be found in company with no other fish.

But as many of those properties of objects which they assumed for the foundation of their hieroglyphics, were merely imaginary, and the allusions drawn from them forced and ambiguous, this sort of writing could be no other than enigmatical and confusing; and, consequently, must have been a very imperfect vehicle of knowledge.

From hieroglyphics, mankind gradually advanced to simple arbitrary marks which stood for objects, though without any resemblance or analogy to the objects signified. Of this nature was the method of writing practised among the Peruvians. They made use of small cords of different colours; and

by knots upon these of various sizes, and differently arranged, they invented signs for giving information, and communicating their thoughts to one another.

Of this nature also are the written characters which are used to this day throughout the vast empire of China. The Chinese have no alphabet of letters, or simple sounds, of which with us, words are composed, but every single character which they use is expressive of an idea; it is a mark which stands for some one thing or object; consequently the number of these characters must be immense. They are said to amount to seventy thousand.

As to the origin of the Chinese characters, there have been various opinions: but the most probable one is, that the Chinese writing began, like the Egyptian, with pictures and hieroglyphical figures; and these, in process of time, became abbreviated in their form, for the sake of writing them with greater facility. In consequence, their number became enlarged, and at length passed into those marks or characters which they now use, and which have spread themselves

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