Chase.] 



140 



[February 



ridges, and of modern form. 



On the reverse, in one square 

 area with raised sides, stand 

 two tall, thin, antique cha- 

 racters, side by side, of the 

 form called Chuen Shoo, or 

 Seal-letter, which are read 

 LEIH CHAE, meaning 

 "perfectly in order." 



The four modern letters, besides their general significance, are 

 also embraced in the list of about four hundred characters which are 

 employed in proper names. The cube, therefore, probably belonged 

 to Mr. Ta-Sin (or Mr. Great Heart), of Shan-Tang, by whom it may 

 have been employed as a Hong seal. It is the custom of Chinese 

 merchants, to keep private seals of such a description, with which, 

 aided by a sponge saturated with India ink or vermilion, they stamp 

 their notes and other documents, as an additional evidence of genuine- 

 ness. 



The seal is especially interesting, in consequence of the precise 

 resemblance in form between the character Shan, and the Chaldaic 

 Shin (ly). This resemblance was pointed out in the remarks on 

 *' Chinese and Indo-European Koots and Analogues" (see Proceed- 

 ings Am. Phil. Soc, volume for 1861), but in the ordinary mode of 

 writing Shan, there is a downward stroke at the right hand, which 

 is wanting in ^. It is also wanting on the seal. 



The belief in the hieroglyphic origin of our alphabet has many 

 weighty arguments to sustain it. The interest excited by the works 

 of Young and Champollion, naturally directed the attention of ar- 

 chaeologists to the monuments and papyri of Egypt, and encouraged 

 the hope that among the various hieroglyphic, hieratic, and encho- 

 rial forms, the key to our own letters might be found. Many curious 

 resemblances were pointed out, but none so decisive as to command 

 universal assent. 



M. de Guignes, in a memoir read before the Academy of Belles- 

 Lettres in 1758, called attention to the syllabic characters of the Chi- 

 nese, many of which can be readily traced to their hieroglyphic 

 originals, while some are used in a peculiar quasi-alphabetic manner. 



haps etymologically connected with the Indo-European root, Tan or Tang, "to 

 extend; to spread." Shan-Tang is probably a city situated on an elevated table- 

 land. — The woodcut represents the stamp-mark of the seal. 



