Notices respecting New Booh. 3G7 



editors and interpreters oF foreign alphabctSj without ex- 

 cepting the learned sir WilHam Jones, it is impossible to 

 represent in words the just value of certain characters, and 

 the exact intonation or articulation they express. 



We may add upon the subject of the unexplained simple 

 representing of the existing alphabets, that this task alone, 

 t^'hich is phv:jically possible to exccii.tc, is, however, so 

 tedious, laborious, nnd difficult, that in reality we have 

 nothina; of this kind but monographies. The work is exe- 

 cuted with care and success with respect to sonic Idioms: 

 as to the generality of the known languages, there exists 

 scarcely a single work where an attempt has been inade to 

 collect the methods of writing it, and it is a very defec- 

 tive attempt, the copies of which, however, are cxccssivclv 

 scarce. This is called '• Pantographia, containing ac- 

 curate copies of all the known alphabets in the world ; to- 

 gether with an English explanation of the pecidiar force or 

 power of each letter; to which are added specimens of all 

 well authenticated oral languages, forrning a comprehensive 

 digest of phonology ; bv Edmund Fry, London, 1799," in 

 one volume, 8vo. A Gcrir.an, too much led away by his 

 imagination, also published in 1/81 a kind of panto- 

 graphy, but executed in a still more execrable manner : it is 

 a curious book, however, and is entitled ^' Si//iop.sis uni- 

 verscc philologia^, in qua miranda unitas et harmonia lin- 

 guarum totius orbis occulta cruitur, adornata a Gothofrcdo 

 Henselio." Norimbergje, in 6vo, one volume. 



The above are the first two indications which we could 

 wish to see satisfied. 



The third objec^t, which would be as much the province 

 of physiolo!>y as of grammar, is equally difficult with the 

 two others, in a double respect. On the one hand, it seems 

 agreed that we cannot make known by words, i. e. by a 

 clear and sufficient description, oral or written, some move- 

 ments of the human voice, or certain very well known and 

 often used effects of this organ, so mysterious in some nica- 

 «ure, and so complicated in every respect. On the other Ijand, 

 to ttonsider even the convex and concave, the straight ami 

 apiral portions of this instrument only as so many straight 



lines • 



