go On an Universal Character. 
Every literary person knows the difficulties to 
which he is subjected by reason of the multiplicity 
of languages, that prevail over the globe. The 
time that is lost, in the acquisition of these languages, 
will not, I think, be over rated, if it be stated at one 
half of the whole time that literary men can apply 
to study, taking the chance of deaths at an early 
period; and, after all, very few persons can acquire 
the perfect knowledge of more than three or four 
languages; and every other person is stopped in’ 
his enquiries the moment he extends his views in 
the smallest degree beyond the limits of his native 
tongue. 
~ Thave at last hit upon a device by which this 
difficulty can be totally removed ; which is so per- 
fectly simple, that it is inconceivable why it should 
not have been adopted many ages ago. This may 
be called a new ari of writing. It is of such a na- 
ture, that two persons instructed in this art, though 
they use each a language that is totally unknown to 
the other, may correspond with each other with 
much more facility than I can correspond with you; 
and though each uses his own language in writing 
the other reads it in his own language. In short, 
the same writing, were it shewed to a multitude who 
used: five hundred different languages totally un- - 
known to each other, would be equally intelligible 
to the whole; and every individual would read it, 
and express it readily in his own native tongue, pro- 
a 
P 
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