r "8 ] 



"in various places by Telegraphy, will tend to improve our know- 

 ledge in many parts of fcience. Public cviriofity and private 

 gain have bee a amply fatisfied by various aeroftatic exhibitions. 

 Balloons v\-ill, I hope, foon become an objedl of different fpe- 

 culation ; and at fome place diftant from the capital and from 

 any large city, they will I hope be employed at leifure to en- 

 large our knowlege of the atmofphere, of dioptrics^ acouftics, 

 pneumatick chemiftry, and of the animal ceconomy, fo far as it 

 is efFedled by the different prefTure and different qualities of 

 the higher regions of the atmofphere. *■ 



TiiFRE is another important fcientific ufe to which Telegraphy 

 may be applied— it may ferve as an introdudlion to an univer- 

 fal language. 



The idea of a univerfal character and philofophical lan- 

 guage, which all nations fhould be able to write and under- 

 ftand, has been treated by many as chimerical, becaufe it has 

 not yet been brought to perfection. The Jefuits, by the ac- 

 counts their miffionaries fent home of the peculiarities of the 

 Chinefe language, fixed the attention of men of learning and 

 ingenuity upon this fubjecfl The defects and fingularities of 

 that language afforded them ample matter for refledlion. The 

 Chinefe have no alphabet of fimple founds like ours ; no ele- 

 mentary charadlers like our letters, from the combination of 

 which European languages are formed. They have two fepa- 



rate 



