[ I20 ] 



they are forced to conclude by f making the figure of the cha- 

 radler they would exprefs with their fingers in the air or upon a. 

 wall or table. \. 



With fuch orators adtion is every thing ! To make the af- 

 fairs ftill more complicate, the different provinces of China 

 fpeak different dialedls, incomprehenfible to each other ; but 

 they have one common written charadler which all the pro- 

 vinces and alfo the Japanefe underfland and can read off in 

 their feveral tones into their refpedtive languages — this fhews 

 the poflibility of a ^univerfal character being brought into ac- 

 tual ufe. 



Bishop Wilkins, in his " Elfay towards a Univerfal Characler," 

 as he modeftly calls it, has difplayed wonderful ingenuity and a 

 moft comprehenfive mind. His charadlers are formed on prin- 

 ciples of philofophic arrangement, fo that the fight of any char- 

 adler defigned to denote a complex idea fhall by different lines 

 or points reprefent or bring to our recolle£lion all the feveral parts 

 of which that idea is compofed. Thofe charaders which denote 

 fubftances or animals exprefs by flight differences at once the 

 fpecies and genera to which they belong. This idea of claffifica- 

 tion he traced in a few inflances in the Chinefe language. The 

 Chinefe charader, that fignifies- metals, with flight additions, dif- 



tinguifhes 



t Wilkins. 



I 



