AND THE INVENTION OF ALPHABETS. 3,37 



sad commerce of each country, produced the necessity of devising 

 some expeditious manner of communicating information to their 

 subjects, or commercial correspondents at a distance. Such an 

 improvement was of the greatest use, not only to the sovereign 

 and the statesman, but to the manufacturer and the mere! ant. 



We shall for the present, omit the mention of several modes of 

 writing which were practised by different nations, in the course of 

 their progress towards civilization, because such accounts would 

 more properly come under the history of the writing of each coun. 

 try ; particularly under (hat of Egypt, whose inhabitants displayed 

 every species of writing in the course of their improvements. At 

 present we shall pursue that part of our inquiry which relates to the 

 formation of an alphabet. 



Let us then in this place just premise, that arbitrary marks are 

 of dirterent kinds. First, those used by the Chinese ; many of 

 which were originally picture.characters. Secondly, those used 

 by the notarii amongst the ancients, and by the present short-hand 

 writers ; and thirdly, marks for sounds j such as elementary cha- 

 racters or letters, and musical notes. 



The marks of the first and second kind are very numerous, as 

 will appear hereafter ; those of the third are very few, as will pre- 

 sently be demonstrated. 



It sit ms obvious, that whilst the picture or hieroglyphic pre. 

 sented itself to the sight, the writer's idea was confined to the figure 

 or object itself; but when the picture was contracted into a mark, 

 the sound annexed to the thing signified by such mark, would be. 

 come familiar; and when the writer reflected, how small a number 

 of sounds he made use of in speech to express all his ideas, it 

 would occur, that a much fewer number of marks than he had been 

 accustomed to use, would be sufficient for the notation of all the 

 sounds which he could articulate. These coiisideiations would in- 

 duce him to reflect on the nature and power of sounds; and it 

 would occur, that, sounds being the matter of audible language, 

 marks for them must be the elements of words. 



Aristotle justly observes, " that words are the marks of thoughts; 

 and letters, of words." Words are sounds significant, and letters 

 are marks for such sounds*. ^ 



The learned author of Hermes above quoted, informs ast, 



* See Lord Bacon's Works by Sliaw, vol. i. p. IS?, 

 f Book iii. chap. 2- p. 334. 



2 A 3 



