ORIGIN OP LETTERS, 



refers tht>m to a model in familiar use, <c like the engravings of a 

 signet j" for the ancient people of the East, engraved name-sand sen. 

 tences on their seals in the same manner as is now practised by the 

 great Lama of Tartary, the princes in India, the Emperor of Con. 

 stantinople, and his subordinate rulers. 



In the State Paper office at Whitehall, are a great number of let- 

 ters from eastern princes to the kings of England, the seals of 

 which have not the likeness of any thing impressed npon them, but 

 are inscribed with moral sentences. This custom is not peculiar 

 alone to the princes who profess the Mahometan religion, but is 

 common all ovr the East. 



A letter from Shah Suleiman, King of Persia, to King Charles 

 the Second, was inclosed in a silken bag, at the mouth of which it 

 a signet or privy seal of wax, impressed with the following sentence, 

 in the Persian language and characters, which are thus translated 

 by Dr. Hyde : " Shah Suleiman is the servant of religion, 1667." 



At the bottom of the letter is the great seal, which is stamped or 

 printed on the paper with ink. Within a semicircle, on the upper 

 part of the seal, is this sentence, in Persian : " Hare God before 

 thine eyes." 



Round the seal, are words in Persian to the following purport : 

 " Praise be to God who hath bestowed upon us his servants the 

 virtue of justice, and hath turned away many evils from the sue. 

 cessois of Mahomet and his family." 



In the centre are the following words : " This is from Soleiraan, 

 and it is in the name of God gracious and merciful, 1668." 



The seal of the Emperor of Morocco, stamped or printed on a 

 letter from him to Queen Anne, written in the year 1706, is in. 

 scribed with words, in the Arabic language and characters, to the 

 fallowing purport : ** The servant of the majesty of the mighty un. 

 der God. Aly Ben Abdallah El Hamamy whom God establish." 

 In my collection are two seals of the present great Lama of Tar. 

 tary, inscribed with characters nearly Shanscrit. There are also 

 in the Bodleian and Sloanian libraries, and at the India House, 

 many seals of Asiatic princes and potentates, inscribed with sen. 

 tences *. 



* Pliny, UK Txii. cliap. 1. informs us, that the oriental nations, and the 

 Egyptians, mmle use of letters only upon their signets. The industriotfe authors 

 of the Nouveau Trai(6 de Dcplomatique (vol. iv. p. 75) say, that the ancient 

 kings of Persia and the Turkish emperors did the like. The learned abbot of 



