ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 73 



were made to stand for sounds either syllabic or alphabetic. So 

 the growth of symbols and phonetic characters, nearly related, but 

 quite distinct, proceeded simultaneously with increasing divarica- 

 tion. Most ancient writing was, indeed, hieroglyphic ; that is, a 

 record made by one ignorant of, or unwilling to use, a phonetic 

 method, but hieroglyphs dealt more in ideographic signs, repre- 

 senting objects by simply imitating their forms, than in those purely 

 symbolic, which indicated their nature or properties. 



It is true that the letters of an alphabet may, like an infinity of 

 other objects, be adopted as symbols. In the science of algebra it 

 was convenient to represent known quantities by the first, and un- 

 known by the concluding letters of our alphabet, so that, in time, 

 A was considered a symbol of the fixed, or certain, and X of the 

 doubtful, or mutable. This is not criticised while the application 

 is limited and its wholly arbitrary nature borne in mind ; but sup- 

 pose some ardent algebraist and symbolist should insist that the 

 significance of these symbols was intrinsic to the letters, or even 

 suggested from their form: "Observe," he might say, " the very 

 frame of A, a pyramid standing on its base, the embodiment of 

 solidity, still further strengthened by a cross brace ! of course it 

 must signify the fixed and certain ! And X, two bars only united 

 at a middle point, top, base and sides nearly equal, and thus liable 

 to be deflected readily to any position, perhaps an image of the 

 spokes of a wheel never at rest, surely it is the vague, the unknown ! ' ' 

 This reductio ad absurdum is not more obvious than many cases 

 where symbols are manufactured and misapplied by enthusiasts. 



Volumes have been devoted to the symbolism in the arbitrary 

 signs used in arithmetical notation. The decimal system prevailed 

 only because the human race rejoices in ten figures for ready objec- 

 tive exhibit, and not some other digital allowance, and after the 

 expedients of notches in wood, bags of stones, strings of shells, and 

 the like, when the Hebrews and Greeks acquired the notion of 

 representing number by characters, they employed the letters of 

 the alphabets already in their possession. Our more convenient 



