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It being, then, fully established that this picture drawing was the first method of writing adopted by mankind, we must now continue our inquiry, and ascertain, if possible, by what means, and by what steps men arrived at the greatest of all inventions, that is, the invention of the alphabet.

The scarcity, or rather the deficiency of monuments and authorities which might lead, or at least help us in this inquiry, is so great, that we have no other resource left than analogy; but I hope, notwithstanding these great difficulties, to be able, from the little which learned men have written on this subject, and from what has taken place amongst the Chinese and the Jews, to be able to attain our object, as far as the slender acquaintance I have with the languages of these two nations has allowed me to do.

Two things, however, I think it necessary to mention at the very first outset of our inquiry, to which I beg you will pay a particular attention, and they are, first, that the greatest part of the characters, or figurative hieroglyphics, were very simple, and absolutely confined to the exhibition of the corporeal objects they wished to represent. Thus, taking the Chinese, for instance, we find that, originally, when they wished to express the sun, the moon, a mountain, or a hand, they traced the figure of a circle with a dot in the middle, [Table 9. fig. 1. to represent the sun; two half-circles upon one another, with a dot, [fig. 2.] to express the moon; a species of five-prong fork [fig. 3.] for

the hand; and a short pyramid, with two or three points, or peaks, [fig. 4.] for the mountain; and

so on.

Now taking this for granted, and assuming that this was the general method adopted by mankind, which, in fact, we know was the mode pursued by the Chinese, the Egyptians, and the Mexicans, it follows that each of these three nations, in looking at any one of these figures, would give them the name by which they were called in their respective language. Thus, for instance, an Egyptian in looking at the figure of the sun would call out phre, while a Chinese would have said ge, because such are the names by which each of them call the sun. In the same way, if the figure of a hand were exhibited to a Jew, to an Egyptian, or to a Chinese, the Jew would call it jod, the Egyptian tot, the Chinese cheou, or you, because so is the hand called in the Hebrew, the Coptic, and the Chinese languages. To this I hope no possible objection can be made.

The second circumstance to which I beg to call your attention, is the simplicity of the language spoken by the primitive inhabitants of the world, and the small number of sounds or words by which it was composed; for as a language is intended to express all the ideas and wants belonging to the people by which it is spoken, it is evident that the fewer these ideas are, and the fewer these wants, the fewer must be the words. Now the position of mankind immediately after the flood was

such as to preclude the possibility of supposing that they had many ideas and many wants; therefore, we may reasonably conclude, that their language consisted of those words only, which were intended to express the things most necessary to life, and consequently contained a small number of words. We find, in fact, that the letters of the most ancient alphabets known, signified the most common and the most simple objects. This is particularly the case in the Ethiopian and Hebrew alphabets, under which we may comprehend also the Arabic, the Syriac, the Chaldean, the Phoenician, and the Samaritan. In these alphabets the letter A, which they call aleph, signified unity, as well as pre-eminence; the B, which they termed beth, signified a house; the gimel, that is, the G, the camel; daleth, our D, the gate, or the door ; jod, which the Ethiopians called jaman, that is, our J, the hand; mim, which the Ethiopians termed mai, that is, our M, with a very little alteration, signified water; and I might continue this catalogue through the remaining letters, and shew you, that to each of them they had attached a meaning, for each of them expressed a common and simple object.

This being admitted, I think it will not be difficult to ascertain how, from the simple picture of the objects, mankind have arrived at the invention of the alphabet. But as the deficiency of monuments respecting the western nations puts it out of my power to follow up our inquiry in regard to

the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Phoenicians, I must refer you to the Chinese, and, by comparing their characters with those employed by the Jews, endeavour, if possible, to get at the first adoption of the alphabet.

I have already said that the first mode of writing adopted by man was to express, by pictures, the nature of the thing they wished to represent. Thus, for instance, the figure of a hand has been employed to exhibit the human limb, which we call hand, and which was called ye, ya, or you; and from the great quantity of monosyllables which are found in the Oriental languages, mostly signifying the plainest and most simple objects, I am authorized to suppose that the primitive sounds, or words, invented by men to express these simple and common objects, were mostly, if not all, monosyllables. We find, in fact, this to be the case in the Chinese language, in the language of Egypt, and so on. I am also authorized to suppose, that to make a compound word, they added to the first monosyllable a second monosyllable, the signification of which was likewise determined by its figure; and these two monosyllables, so joined together, produced a compound word, or a word of two syllables, which was expressed in writing by putting together the two figures, each of which separately represented one of the two monosyllables that made the compound word.

This being established, I take, for instance, the Hebrew letter daleth, which, as I have stated,

signifies both a door and the letter D, which, in the Hebrew alphabet, is something like a door. [fig. 5.] Now suppose that the primitive Jews, when they wished to express an idea of which this word daleth formed a part, shortened its sound, and pronounced, not daleth, but da only, and that by adding to it the second monosyllable ya, which signifies both the letter J and the hand, they formed the word yada, made up by two monosyllables, one signifying a hand, and the other a door, and thus we shall express the meaning, to extend, to spread, for such must be the effect produced by the hand on a door; and now it turns out that this is precisely the meaning of the Hebrew word [fig. 6.] spelt only by a J and by a D, without the intervention of any vowel, according to the custom of all the Orientals.

Upon the same principle, if to the word yada we add the third monosyllable aïn, which means the eye, we shall have the word yadaa, which will of course signify, to open one's eyes, to extend one's sight, and, metaphorically, to know, to be aware; and this, in fact, is the meaning of the Hebrew word yadaa, spelt by a J, a D, and an A, [fig. 7.] and to which, if we were to apply hieroglyphics, that is, if we were to express this word according to the meaning of each monosyllable by the picture of the things of which it is composed, we should draw the picture of a hand, of a door, and of an eye. [fig. 8.]

This is very satisfactory; but it is not all, for we find this precisely to be the case in the Chinese

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