62 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



From the last were developed, step by step, the hieratic wi'itiDg and 

 the demotic alphabet, or current hand. The arrangement of the hiero- 

 glyphics was determined by no rule, but was dependent only on the 

 form and size of the space in which the inscription was to be written. 



It is absolutely indifferent to us whether we know w^hat part the 

 Egyptian demotic or the cuneiform writing has taken in the formation 

 of existing alphabets. It is enough to know that we have three en- 

 tirely independent forms of writing : the Chino-Japanese, which ar- 

 ranges the letters from the top down, and the lines from right to left, 

 or centripetally ; the Shemitic, which arranges the letters centripetally 

 from right to left, and the lines one below the other ; and what we 

 may call the Aryan, which arranges the lines in the same manner, 

 while it places the letters centrifugally, from left to right. 



The last two styles may have been formed through a mingling of 

 the demotic and cuneiform methods. Their common point of dej^art- 

 ure is in any case to be found in the hieroglyphics, and it is doubtless 

 to this origin that we should attribute the absolute want of a fixed 

 rule in the order of the letters and the lines in the most ancient speci- 

 mens. Mr. J. J. Leslie, in his lectures on the origin and destination of 

 man, speaks especially of the complete indifference of the ancient writ- 

 ers in regard to the placing of their letters. Many of the old Greek 

 inscriptions were written alternately from right to left and from left 

 to right, turning the direction as one turns a plow in the field, and this 

 style was called " boustroj^hedon " {turning like oxen). The Egyp- 

 tians often wTote in the same manner, and M. Stern says that the hie- 

 roglyphic inscriptions might, according to the nature of the characters 

 used, run from the top down, from left to right, or from right to left 

 the latter direction, as in Shemitic writing, being the most common. 



We conclude, generally, from these facts, that the arrangement of 

 the images which were transformed successively into phonetic signs 

 and letters had no rule as long as those images, signs, or letters, were 

 engraved or painted on an immovable material, as stones, columns, or 

 architectural monuments. The arrangement was governed by the 

 character and shape of the material ; it was horizontal on a cornice, 

 vertical on a post, spiral on a column, according to the convenience 

 or fancy of the writer. There is no place here for a fixed rule based 

 on physiological necessity. 



It was only when the man ceased to move before an immovable 

 material, but when, on the other hand, the material (plates, tablets, 

 paper, etc.) became movable before the man having a fixed position, 

 that the normal directions as we now observe and distinguish them 

 were established. 



Do physiological reasons exist for the present methods of writing ? 

 Let us examine, with regard to this point, all the exterior conditions 

 under which writing is done, beginning with the Chino-Japanese sys- 

 tem. The people who employ this system do not write ; they paint, 



