tJ52 DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM 



Notae igitur Rerum, quae absque ope aut medio Verborum 

 res significant, duplicis generis sunt ; quarum prius genus 

 ex Congruo, alterum ad Placitum significat. Prioris generis 

 sunt Hieroglyphics, et Gestus ; posterioris vero ii, quos dixi- 

 mus, Characteres Reales. Hieroglyphicorum usus vetustus 

 admodum et in veneratione quadam habitus, praecipue apud 

 .zEgyptios, gen tern valde antiquam ; adeo ut videantur Hi- 

 eroglyphica fuisse Scriptio quaedam ante-nata et senior ipsis 

 Elementis Literarum, nisi forte apud Hebraeos. Gestus autem 

 tanquam Hieroglyphica transitoria sunt. Quemadmodum enim 

 verba prolata volant, scripta manent; ita et Hieroglyphica 

 gestibus expressa transeunt, depicta durant. Cum enim Pe- 

 riander, consultus de conservanda tyrannide, legatum astare 

 juberet ; atque ipse in horto deambulans summitates florum 

 eminentiorum carperet, ad caedem l procerum innuens 2 ; non 



structure of the spoken languages, or rather dialects, to which written Chinese can 

 correspond must be identical. It is difficult to attach a precise meaning to such state- 

 ments as Remusat's " Les signes de leur ecriture, pris en general, n'expriment pas des 

 pronunciations, mais des idees." Every character has in truth, he immediately after- 

 wards remarks, its sound ; and a Chinese book can of course be read aloud in Chinese. 

 Moreover the great majority of Chinese characters carry with them an indication of 

 their pronunciation. They consist of two elements, one being a simpler character of 

 the same sound, although generally speaking of totally different meaning, the other 

 referring more or less precisely to the meaning. Thus the character for a particular 

 kind of tree will contain, besides the phonetic element, the character for tree or wood 

 in general ; so too will very frequently that for a thing made of wood. These elements 

 have been termed Phonetics and Classifies. But most of the latter admit of being 

 used in different combinations as Phonetica?. They correspond precisely with the 

 kind of hieroglyphics which Bunsen calls determinants, and are for the most part the 

 same as the radicals (as they are called) used in arranging words in the Chinese dic- 

 tionaries. The class of characters of which I have been speaking, is the fourth of the 

 six classes into which Chinese characters are commonly divided. They are called Hiai- 

 Ching, id est joined to sound, or Hing-Ching, id est representing the sound ; and it 

 is said that out of twenty-four thousand characters it was found that twenty-two 

 thousand are of this kind. See Gallery, Systema phoneticum Scriptures Sinicce, i. 9. 

 lie refers for his authority to a Chinese encyclopaedia. 



The view taken of the nature of these characters in Marshman's Clavis Sinica, is, 

 as Remusat has pointed out, wholly wrong. It is much to be wished that a person 

 sufficiently acquainted with the subject would investigate the analogy which exists be- 

 tween the Chinese and Egyptian modes of writing ; not, of course, with any notion 

 of establishing a historical connexion (as was once attempted) between the two 

 nations. It is exceedingly remarkable, that as early as the fourth dynasty the 

 Egyptians seem to have bad a complete and even copious system of purely alpha- 

 betic characters, though, as Lepsius has shown, the majority of their alphabetic 

 characters are of later date. I must apologise for the length of this note on a subject 

 not very closely connected with the text. 



1 Sedem in the original. J. S. 



* Compare this with Solyman's lesson to his vizir on the art of sieges. " Come 

 close to me," said the Sultan, " but on your head be it if you tread on the carpet on 

 which I sit." The vizir reflected for a while, then gradually rolling up the carpet, 

 advanced close to his instructor. "All is said," resumed Solyman ; "you know now 

 how strong places are to be taken." The lesson was given, it is said, in relation to the 

 siege of Rhodes in 1521. 



