34^ S)iJlcms of Unlvcrfnl or PhilofophicaJ Latiguage. 



It would be perhaps unjufi: to pafs in filence the Httle-known work o£ father Befnier, 

 Jefuit, who in a book entitled La Reunion des Langues, ou I'Jrt dc les cipprtndre toiites par nne 

 feuU, that is, The Union of Languages, or Art of learning all Language^ by one alone, 

 printed at Paris in 1674, has given feveral intimations which lead diredly to pafigraphy. 



The moft remarkable work of all whicli has been written on this fubjedl is, perhaps, that for 

 which we are indebted to bifliop Wilkins, the brother-in-law of Cromwell. It is entitled, An 

 Eflay towards a Real Charafler and a Philofophical Language, London 1668. It is divided 

 into four parts. I. Confiderations on the various languages, their dcfefls and imperfeflions, 

 from which a philofophical language ought to be exempt. II. Philofophical enquiries re- 

 fpefting all the things and notions to which proper names ought to be aiTigned. III. The 

 organic fclence of native grammar confidered as the necefiary means of reprefenting f.mple 

 ideas ic difcourfe, IV. The application of the general rules to every chara£ler and language. 

 Examples, &c. This concife outline fufficiently flicws the importance of the work *• 



In his appendix, the author explains the utility of a method of writing without alphabetic 

 charafters, by means of figns, which are to be ufed to denote all the principal ideas, the re- 

 lative attributes being defignated by fmall firokes added at right, acute, or obtufe angles, to 

 the right or left, .&c. Of principal or chief ideas he admits but forty, under which he 

 ranges all the others, by that means forming a kind of categories. His new language is 

 calculated to afford, great facility of comprehenfion, and new openings to the reafoning 

 procefles of fcience. A learner might make more progrefs in it in a month, than in the 

 Latin in feveral years f- 



After fo many attempts more or lefs philofophical, and of different degrees of perfe£lion, 

 with others probably of which we know nothing, we muft not overlook tlie efforts of the 

 celebrated Leibnitz for the introdudion of a pafigraphy. His Hiftory and Developement 

 of a Charadleriftic Univerfal J Language is in every library. Leibnitz exhibited, and with 

 reafon, his univerfal characteriflic as the art of inventing and judging. He was convinced 

 that an alphabet might be formed, and of this alphabet fuch words as would afford a lan- 

 guage capable of giving mathematical precifion to all the fcicnces. " Men may thus ac- 

 quire," fays he, " as it were a new organ, which would add energy to their moral faculties, 

 as the microfcopic lens increafes the power of the eye. The compafs is not more highly 



* Wilkins's EfTay tovfards a Real Charafter and a Philorophical Language is a tfiin folio of 454 pages. A 

 diiSlionary of Englifh words, referred to their places in the forty tahlcs, was printed at the fame time (j 668), and 

 of the fame fize. Thefe books are not very fcarce. They contain a treafure of information with regard to the 

 objefts comprehended in the fcheme for a philofophical language ; but neither this, nor the charafter itfclf, as 

 the bifhop has left them, appears to be enough completed to attraft the attention of the world by their facility. 

 Dr. Robert Hooke, whofe prodigious abilities give a fan<Stioa to whatever he approved, did aftually learn it, 

 and publifhed fome valuable philofophical information on an engraved plate in this univerfal charafter, with a 

 view to excite others to acquire the means of perufal. N. 



f The Chinefe writing, which is a very complicated pafigraphy, has given two learned men the idea of 

 forming one upon a more fimple plan. The firft is Caramuel, in his Apparat Philofophique, page 128 ; and the 

 other Andrew Mullcr GriefTenhag, in his Cle Cbinoife. The latter promifed to teach to women and children, in 

 the courfe of a few days, a kind of writing by which all the feveral languages fhould be rendered intelligible to 

 them. Note of the Author. 



J Hiftoria et commentatio lingua cbaraQerica univerfalis, qnafiinuljit an inveniendi ei judiccndi. Oeuvres 

 Philof. Lat. et Franqoifes dc Leibnitz, donnees par M, Rafpe. 



valuable 



