624 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



on the posture which the writer takes, his position with reference to 

 the light, and the material he uses, and has become dominant by custom. 

 Persons who are acquainted with the Eastern languages tell me that it 

 would be as impossible for them to write in one of them from left to 

 right, as it seems to be to write in a Western language from right to 

 left ; yet most of these persons learned to write in German or French 

 before studying Hebrew writing. The direction in which we write, 

 from left to right, is the most modern of all. It is common to all the 

 Aryans, but was probably not adopted till after the emigration from 

 the jn'imitive countries. In the face of the facts we have mentioned, 

 we need not ask why the Shemites write from right to left ; but we 

 should rather reverse the proposition, and ask w^hy the Aryans aban- 

 doned the more ancient Shemitic direction, of which they doubtless 

 had some knowledge. Whence did they get the centrifugal direction, 

 from left to right ? Difference in material does not account for the 

 divergence ; no more does difference in position, for the ancients were 

 not acquainted with our table and desk. And even now, all French 

 youth in the higher institutions write on a tablet supported on their 

 knees, which is held by the left hand while the right hand holds the 

 pencil, precisely as the Oriental writes, except that the paper is held 

 still while the right hand moves the converse of the Shemitic manip- 

 ulation and the direction of the writing is reversed. I have sought 

 for information respecting the manner in which the ancient Aryans 

 wrote in the absence of chairs and desks, without finding anything 

 which could furnish an explanation of our mode of aligning the letters, 

 so contrary to those of other peoples. The direction has become 

 hereditary with us, transmitted from generation to generation, and 

 our furniture, implements, and positions have become conformed to it. 

 In setting our tables and adjusting our positions, we always seek to 

 bring the light from the left, while the Shemite looks to the right for 

 it. In both directions, centripetal and centrifugal, w^e write from the 

 light toward the shade. If this is a general characteristic, and if, as 

 we have sought to show, the primitive position of the writers depended 

 on certain religious ideas, we may ask if there did not also exist par- 

 ticular religious reasons for the ancient Aryan method of writing. 



My friend M. Charles Mayer, of Stuttgart, has remarked to me 

 that the Aryans, in emigrating from their primitive home, followed the 

 course of the sun, from the east toward the west. Their faces turned 

 toward the setting sun, they had the noonday sun on the left. The 

 left side, then, was the side of the light, of good luck ; the right 

 hand, the side of shado^7 and bad luck. The same signs had an oppo- 

 site significance, accordingly as they appeared on one side or the other, 

 in the inverse sense to that in which the Shemites regarded them. 

 Have we not here a justification for the hj^pothesis that the Aryans 

 turned their faces toward the west when they gave themselves to the 

 holy operation of writing, and that, having the sun on their left, they 



