’ 
12 
Az Trusty: from 
Egyptian Researches. 
A man, and = word. 
(Feb. 1, 
ye ac SurrasLe: from A man, and aC garment. 
AW Satyr, or Witp Man: from A man, and ANY mountain. 
Tn all these, man is the key; and there are about 400 other characters under 
the same key. It is worthy remark, that the Chinese and Egyptian modes of 
expressing the dual and indefinite plural number are the same. _ 
From the foregoing comparative ana- 
lysis, it will be evident that the compilers 
and digesters (we will not say the in- 
ventors) of the cognate hieroglyphical 
languages of China and Egypt proceeded 
upon principles perfectly scientific and 
analogous. We say, scientific; for though 
there may be, occasionally, anomalies in 
the Chinese classification of ideal species 
under their appropriate genera, the de- 
fect is to be attributed to the limited 
knowledge, physical and metaphysical, 
current at the time. The theory itself, 
both as to its scope of analysis and 
combination, is strictly correct and beau- 
tiful; and the language which it has 
established in China, with all its defects, 
is, to all intents and purposes, an extant 
Universat Lancuace. 
But, if the two languages are so simi- 
lar, it may be said, What is to prevent a 
quick development of the long-sought 
mystery of the Egyptian hieroglyphical 
language? It is this: —That the Egyp- 
tians stopped, or were stopped, at a 
remarkable point of the progress of lan- 
guage; while the Chinese were compelled 
to proceed by necessity. The former, 
as far as can be justly inferred, did not 
attempt to perpetuate their Sacred Lan- 
guage, and preserve or define the meaning 
of its symbols, whether simple or com- 
pound, by arranging and digesting the 
whole body of pictural words into the 
form of a dictionary. This the Chinese 
have done: and to effect it, they resorted 
to amost ingenious process, They broke 
up all the symbols of their language, whe- 
ther imitative or conventional, into new 
forms, preserving a faint resemblance of 
the original character (for instance, man, 
), but having the advantage of being 
resoluble into the following six elemen- 
TUCS — Before 
this was done, it is probable that the 
pictural characters resembled the Egyp- 
tian. Indeed, there is proof, from many 
Chinese gems, medals and inscriptions, 
that a great number did resemble them, 
tary strokes, — 
in their imitation of the natural object. 
Some of these may be shortly referred 
to: — YF water ; zh the head ; © 
»)) moon; <=> eye; GCG ear ; 
EB reid; ra) dog ; T a nail; a a 
bow; &c. &c. It is curious, that the 
character for thousand remains un- 
sun 5 
changeably the same :—in Chinese, ¥- 
in Egyptian, x 
This being effected, the plan of com- 
pilation into a dictionary is simply this: 
The whole 30,000 or 40,000 signs were 
found (as, probably, the Egyptian lan- 
guage also might, and as the Greek does, 
under about 300 radicals) to range under 
214 keys. To each key there are at- 
tached 17 columns, which embrace all 
characters, from one elementary line or 
gas a flute. 
Each key has a reference to another 
table, in which the characters it rules, in 
a combined form, are also arranged in 
columns, according to the number of 
their elementary strokes. Any character, 
either simple or compound, can be there- 
fore found, and its meaning defined, by 
this ingenious system, with as much ease 
as an alphabetical dictionary. This was 
all that was wanting to make the Chinese 
Universat Laneuacs as intelligible, as 
comprehensive, and as manageable, as 
permanent,—and this the Egyptian hie- 
roglyphical system obviously wanted. ~ 
In another number, we will examine 
the probability of the learned men of 
Egypt possessing some substitute for this 
practical desideratum,—and shewin what 
the Phonetic System of China and Egypt 
(as applied to proper names) resembled 
each other, and in what they differed. 
This Phonetic System was obviously the 
first step in both countries towards the 
construction of an Alphabetical Lan- 
guage. : 
two, as man, to 17, as 
