ii6 ANALOGY of GREEK LETTERS; 



Indeed, the faculty of fpeech itfelf, not to mention the va- 

 rious arts and fciences, could not have been brought to any 

 confiderable degree of improvement, without the affiftance of 

 written language. Without this, the knowledge of one age of 

 the world could not have defcended diftindlly to another, and 

 confequently mankind muft, in a great meafure, have loft thofe 

 advantages which they derive from the accumulated experience 

 of former times. 



The variety of languages, however, both written and 

 fpoken, which takes place in the world, has been matter of 

 regret to thofe who have confidered the fubjedl particularly ; 

 and it has been wiflied, that a method of fpeech, capable of 

 being conveyed by writing, had been invented, which man- 

 kind, at leaft in every poliflied nation, might have been able 

 univerfally to adopt and to underftand. But the diftribution 

 of the world into fo many different kingdoms and nations, 

 feems to render the introduflion of an univerfal language 

 among mankind quite impradicable *. For although men 



poflefs 



" connut le nombre afTez petit des fons el^mentaires, et comprit ({u'en les repr^fentant 

 " par autant de carafleres diftindli:, on pourroit combiner ces caradlercs comme les fons 

 " qu'ils reprelentent ; ce qui conftitue en cfFet 



Cet art ingenieux 



" De peindrc la parole, et dc parler aux yeux ; 



' art nierveilleux, qui fixe a jamais la parofe et la pensee qu'elle exprime, qui porte 

 ' I'une et I'autre aux abfents, qui les fait palTcr a la poftcrite la plus reculee, et dont on 

 ' peut dire avec v£rit6 et fans reftriflion, ce que dit M. Diderot d'un idiome qui di- 

 ' vlendroit rommun a tout le genre humain : \_Encyc/op. au mot Enctclopedie.] que 

 par fon moyen, la dijlance des temps diJparoU, Us lieuxfe touchent, it fe forme des Uaijons 

 entre tous les points habites de I' (/pace et de la duree, et lous les etres vhants et penfants 

 s'entretiennent." Grammaire Generate, &c. Par M. Beauzee. Tom. I. p. 2. See 

 alfo CicERON. %f/?. 7ufi. Lib. I. and Wilkins's EJJay, &c. p. lO. 



• The ingenious, laborious and truly admirable effort of DrWiLKiNS, to invent and 

 eftablilli an univerfal cliarader and philofophical language, has only tended to fliow more 

 ftrikingly the imprafticablenefs of fuch an attempt : At leaft, however (eafible his projeft 

 may appear, his method ftill remains unemployed by the learned ; and as for the vulgar, 

 it is quite beyond their comprehenfion. 



