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CHAP. IT. 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 

 SECTION I. 



On Hieroglyphic and Picture-writing. 



1 HE desire of communicating ideas, seems to be implanted in 

 every human breast. The two most usual methods of gratifying 

 this desire, are, by sounds addressed to the ear ; or, by represen. 

 tations or marks exhibited to the eye ; or, in other words, by 

 speech and writing. The first method was rendered more complete 

 by the invention of the second, because it opened a door for com- 

 municating information, through the sense of sight as well as that 

 of hearing. Speech may be considered as the substance ; and 

 writing, as the shadow which followed it. These remarks may be 

 illustrated, by stating a few observations concerning the former, 

 which will naturally lead us to the origin of the latter. 



One of the greatest advantages which we possess is that of speech, 

 or the power of expressing the conceptions of the mind by articu- 

 late sounds. By this faculty we are capable of social intercourse, 

 of enjoying the endearments of friendship and the communications 

 of wisdom. Without language, we should have been solitary in the 

 midst of crowds ; excluded from every kind of knowledge but what 

 fell under our immediate notice ; and should have been confined 

 to dull and tedious efforts of intimating our desires by signs and 

 gestures : in short, without speech we should scarcely have been 

 rational beings. 



Two things are essential to speech ; namely, mental conceptions, 

 and sounds articulate. The former are, by far, the most excellent, 

 because they originate in, and appertain to, the mind ; whereas the 

 latter are nothing more than the operations of certain organs of the 

 body. 



Human voice is produced by two semicircular membranes in the 

 middle of the larynx, which form by their separation the aperture 

 that is termed the glottis. The space between these membranes is 



