WITH NOTES. 433 



being Scholars ; yea, Grecian or He- 

 britian {hall as perfectly underftand 

 it in their owne Tongue, as if they 

 were perfet 8 English, diftinguishing 

 the Verbs from the Nouns, the 

 Numbers, Tenfes and Cafes as pro 

 perly exprefled in their own Lan 

 guage as it was written in English. 



8 perfect omitted. P. 



[An universall Character. ] In 1668, the Royal 

 Society ordered the printing of &quot; An Essay towards a 

 real Character, and a philosophical language $ by John 

 Wilkins, D. D. Dean of Eipon, and F. R. S.,&quot; folio. 

 It is dedicated to the president, William Lord Viscount 

 Brouncker, and consists of a treatise of 454 pages, to 

 which is appended a dictionary of 155 pages. The 

 very extent of such a work is almost fatal to its 

 acceptance, and we must admit that it is questionable 

 whether, with all its learning and ingenuity, it 

 affords a single hint calculated to promote the intended 

 object. 



In relation to this subject, the reader, desirous 

 of enlarged information, could not do better than 

 consult the recently published &quot; Lectures on the 

 Science of Language,&quot; by Professor Max Muller, M. A. 



It would be highly interesting to possess any clue 

 whatever to the ideas of the Marquis on this subject. 

 He was so truthful in his statements, that he must have 

 made a considerable advance in the discovery of means 

 for obtaining the end proposed, although he may have 

 over-estimated its application, according to our judg 

 ment. 



Of early publications on this topic we would espe 

 cially notice, u Le Caractere universe!, par lequel 



2 F 



