280 FHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO iSSS. 



the meaning of each character be an ingredient in the notion of that com- 

 pounded character. 



I might give an instance also in the artificial language invented by the late 

 Rev. Bp. of Chester, Dr. Wilkins, which in all the accomplishments of lan- 

 guage excels every one yet extant ; to which is also annexed a real character, 

 legible into that or any other language spoken. By which language the cha- 

 racter and every additional mark are effable, and yet the character is not literal 

 but real, which is more curious and useful than the Chinese way. 



But whatever we may judge of language, it is past dispute that writing was 

 rver artificial, how anciently soever it were used, and was the invention of some 

 thinking and studious men. It is also evident that there have been various ways 

 thought of for expressing significancy, according to the several geniuses of the 

 inventors ; as may be guessed from the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Chinese 

 characters, the Mexican chronology, and the literal characters of several na- 

 tions; all of which seem to proceed by different methods, and from different 

 turns of invention. 



Which of these methods is the most ancient, may be hard to prove. The 

 Egyptian mummies and obelisks prove a great antiquity of the hieroglyphics ; 

 yet the Chinese chronology, if it may be credited, exceeds the Egyptian in that 

 respect. For the Chinese make Fohi, the first king of China, to be the in- 

 ventor of their character, and account him to have lived 2950 years before 

 Christ; during all which time they pretend to have a written and authentic his- 

 tory; but their account of the times preceding that they esteem more fabulous, 

 as chiefly depending on fiction and oral tradition ; as may easily be seen from 

 the number of years they reckon since the creation to the present year 1686, 

 viz. no less than 88,640,102 solar years, there having elapsed since the creation 

 8864 yen of years, every ven containing 10,000 such years, and of the present 

 ven this year 1686 is the 102d. Which account is abundantly more extravagant 

 than the Egyptian ; but this rieed not invalidate their history since Fohi ; by 

 which it appears that their character was invented before Moses, about 1400 

 yeaw, and even before Menes, the first king of Egypt, about 500 years. So 

 thaft the Chinese character seems to be the most ancient of the kind ; and the 

 book Yekim, said to be written by Fohi, the oldest book. 



For Paulus Jovius affirms, that the first occasion of the art of printing in 

 Germany, was owing to a German merchant, who, returning from China to 

 his own country, related what he had observed concerning the practice of it as 

 used in that comitry. And though the Chinese way be wholly different, as to 

 the method of composing from what was invented and perfected here in Europe, 

 yet such an intimation was sufficient to an ingenious artist to improve the first 



