170 



use different Avords, jDrovided their meaning was similar, in 

 reading the same passage. For example; one man, accord- 

 ing as his st^'le was familiar, formal or easy, compressed or 

 diffuse, might read certain characters thus: — " The deeds of 

 talented men weigh more than the precepts of wise ones." — 

 iinother: — " Genius that acts, is of more importance than 

 Wisdom that declaims." — A third : — " The actions of the 

 able are superior in value even to the words of the wise." — 

 And there can be little doulit but that this was the case in 

 ihe infancy of their written language. It has now, however, 

 anived at the highest perfection of which, perhaps, it is sus- 

 ceptible. — The prodigious number of its words, for each of 

 which there is a separate character, comprehends a multitude 

 ofsynonimes. — Most of the words are monosyllables ; and 

 as each is designated by a distinct character, the sound is as 

 perfectly ascertained as if it was intentionally rcpresent-ed; 

 and the only inconvenience, (but which is almost an insur- 

 mountable one), is the incredible number of characters 

 that become necessary, when every word must have its own 

 peculiar representative. 



There was a time, however, among the Chinese, Egyptians, 

 and other nations, using similar symbols, when the art of 

 writing was yet in its infancy, and its progress in improve-^ 

 ment but little advanced. — At such a period, the characters 

 must have been confined in the strictest sense to the repre- 

 sentation of things and ideas only; and in pronouncing them, 

 any word miglit be used in the place of one which was 



