750 



CHARACTER. 



Character, for the Egyptian hieroglyphics cannot be said to be- 

 "" "Y"""*' long to this class. Judging from the progress of 

 knowledge and state of society among these nations 

 where the real character prevails, we should not be 

 inclined to estimate very highly the benefits of this 

 mode of communication. Yet some ingenious philo- 

 sophers have attempted to devise, and bring into use, 

 such a mode of writing. One of the most celebra- 

 ted of these attempts is that of Bishop Wilkins, in his 

 Essay towards the formation of a real Character and 

 Philosophical Language. M. Leibnitz projected 

 something of a similar nature, under the title of what 

 he termed an Alphabet of Human Thoughts, but he 

 never completed his scheme. M. Lodovic, in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, proposed a plan of an 

 universal alphabet or character ; and in the Journal 

 Literaire for the year 1720, the formation of an uni- 

 versal character is suggested, by the application of 

 the Arabic numerals in various combinations. None 

 of these schemes, however ingenious in structure, 

 have been found applicable to purposes of practical 

 utility. It is not difficult to devise a new character, 

 bvit to bring it into use will probably always be found 

 impracticable ; and even if it were practicable, the ad- 

 vantage of it is extremely questionable. 



2. NUMERAL CHARACTERS, or marks used for 

 notation of numbers. 



Next in use and importance to alphabetic charac- 

 ters, is that class of characters known by the name 

 of numerals. These are unquestionably one species 

 of real character, and probably the only one that 

 c.ould with advantage be adopted into general use. 

 For an account of the origin and progress of numeral 

 notation, see ARITHMETIC. 



The idea of number suggests itself, by abstracting 

 from objects every circumstance except their indivi- 

 duality. It is probable, that, when men first began 

 the practice of numeration, they would proceed by 

 taking some of the objects immediately before their 

 eyes, and intimating, that those of which they were 

 speaking were equal to them in number. As the 

 objects most universally present to all men are the 

 fingers, these would of course be the earliest measure 

 of numbers ; and numeration would thus be formed 

 into a scale either of Jives or tens. The former have 

 sometime* been found, but the latter, or the decuple 

 progression, is nearly universal. The process of nu- 

 meration being commenced, it would be necessary, in 

 order to carry it on, that some marks should be found 

 to denote the numbers in their progress. It is pro- 

 bable that the earliest, as it was the simplest species 

 of mark, would be a mere notch upon a board, the 

 repetition of which would designate the number of 

 objects to be counted. It is evident, that, in this 

 mode of notation, the eye can easily and readily re- 

 cognise the different numbers only a very little way. 

 One, two, three, and even four, can be easily distin- 

 guished, as we find in the dials of church clocks, but 

 farther than this the power of distinction becomes 

 difficult, and is at last entirely lost. After four 



strokes are put down, therefore, it is necessary to Character, 

 make some alteration in the mark, to shew where a 

 new series is to commence. This could most easily be 

 done, by making a diagonal stroke through the four 

 preceding. A progression would then tak-_ place by 

 a new series of strokes, and, at the end of the second 

 five, a diagonal in the opposite direction would point 

 out the second termination. Here we have the evi- 

 dent origin of the Roman mode of notation. The 

 first diagonal produced the V, the mark of Jive, the 

 second the X, the mark of ten. After ten the same 

 notation would go on to a second ten, which would 

 be denoted by a double X, a third by a triple, and a 

 fourth by a quadruple X, The same difficulty of 

 distinguishing by the eye beyond four similar figures, 

 would niake it necessary, at the Jiflh ten, to intro- 

 duce another change. This was done by a horizon- 

 tal line at the bottom, making a figure similar to L. 

 At the tenth ten another addition became necessary, 

 which produced the figure C, afterwards modified 

 into a C for one hundred. By a similar process, the 

 fifth hundred was marked by a new line D, which 

 soon passed into a D, the mark for 500. The tenth 

 hundred became double CO, easily changing into an 

 M for 1000. This mode of notation of numbers, 

 which is the rudest and most simple, was retained to 

 the last among the Romans, improved in a small de- 

 gree by certain abbreviations ; and it is radically the 

 same as at this day is used by the Chinese ; only as 

 the Chinese mode of writing is in perpendicular, not 

 horizontal lines, the position of their numeral marks 

 corresponds to that peculiarity in their mode of wri- 

 ting. 



The inconvenience of this mode of notation, where 

 the objects of numeration were much extended, would 

 soon be felt, and some more convenient way of reckon- 

 ing would be sought. Among those people where the 

 use of letters had been introduced, a ready substitute 

 was found in the alphabetic characters j and these we 

 find actually so employed at a very early period 

 among the Hebrews, and their immediate neighbours, 

 from whom the invention passed to the Greeks. The 

 Hebrew alphabet had only 22 letters, but several of 

 these having two forms, it became easy to construct 

 three series of numeral marks, nine in each, and, by 

 using these according to the decuple progression, tu 

 denote units, tens, and hundreds, numeral notation 

 as far as a thousand was made easy. Thousands were 

 expressed, by using the same marks with an accent 

 annexed. This mode of numeral notation was exact- 

 ly copied by the Greeks, who, to complete their 

 three series of nines, inserted three additional marks, 

 called the cpisemon, the koppa, and the sanpi. Thou- 

 sands they expressed also by the same charactersi 

 with an accent below.* 



In this manner an extensive numeral notation was 

 obtained ; but it had the great inconvenience, that the 

 large numbers being expressed by one entire mark, 

 could not readily, in performing arithmetical opera- 

 tions, be broken into smaller constituent parts. These 



* The Greeks had two other modes of numeral notation ; one by using the letters for numeral marks just according to their 

 place in the alphabet; the other by the adoption of the following marks: I to denote one, nfive, A ten, H one hundred, X 

 a thousand, M ten thousand. It is commonly supposed, that these marks came to be so used, as being the initial letters of the 

 words denoting the respective numbers. May they not rather have been the remains of a mode of notation similar to the 

 Roman, in which tney originally served as the distinguishing marks of-the respective series, and, for convenience, were re- 

 tained, after a better notation was introduced ? 



