VOL. XVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKAKSACTIONS. 289 



and sections. They are compounded of the same strokes as the set character, 

 but modulated and shaped a little different, to make them appear the more 

 beautiful and regular. This third is used for epitaphs, and other inscriptions on 

 buildings or monuments. These 3 sorts may be called the three general kinds 

 of writing; but there is to be found an almost infinite variety of forms, as will 

 appear by considering that the printed characters are exactly the same with the 

 written ; insomuch that every variety in each stroke, line, or point, made with 

 the pencil, is perfectly expressed in the impression ; and the form, mode, or 

 hand of every writer, is exhibited so curiously, that it seems hardly possible to 

 be performed after the way of wooden cuts, as authors affirm it is, but it must 

 be done after the method of our copper cuts, printed by a rolling-press. Their 

 paper is generally very thin and fine, and very transparent, but brown ; so that 

 whatever is written or printed on it, is almost as legible on the back as on the 

 foreside ; which is of great use in the cutting of their stamps. And thence they 

 never write or print on both sides of the same leaf, but only on one side ; and 

 to make the leaf appear printed on both sides, they double the sheet, with the 

 printed sides outwards, and putting the folded part forward, they sew, bind or 

 stitch together, all these sheets by the cut edges, and upon whole sheets, in- 

 stead of single leaves. They begin the book on the top of the right hand side 

 of the page, and they read downwards to the bottom ; then they begin the 

 next line towards the left hand at the top, and so read to the bottom ; and thus 

 they proceed to the end of ihe book. The title of the book is set first, on a 

 whole leaf, usually of a thicker paper, and some title is likewise written on the 

 folding or edge of every sheet, where is set also the number of the book, and 

 that of the sheet, half of which appears on one side, and half on the other side 

 of the fold. 



As to the character itself, I find that each one is made up of a certain 

 number of strokes, lines, or marks, which are very distinct from each other, 

 in their shape and position ; and because these are single strokes, they may be. 

 called the letters, elements, or particles, out of which the more compounded 

 characters are constructed or made up. These are the first kind, and of which 

 there are but a very few. Two, three, four, or more of these joined together 

 in a certain order and contexture (in the doing of which there is a great re- 

 gularity and order observed, and all within the regular square space) seem to 

 make syllables or primitive radical characters, each of which has a primitive, 

 single, or distinct notion or signification, as well as sound, which is made much 

 use of in the more compounded characters or words. Of this kind the figures 

 of the numbers seem to be. Of this kind I understand there are about 300. 

 The third sort of characters is a decompounded kind, made up of two, three, or 



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