u6 ANALOGY of GREEK LETTERS; 



Indeed, the faculty of fpeech itfelf, not to mention the va- 

 rious arts and fciences, could not have been brought to any 

 confiderable degree of improvement, without the afhftance of 

 written language. Without this, the knowledge of one age of 

 the world could not have defcended diftinctly to another, and 

 confequently mankind imift, in a great meafure, have loft thofe 

 advantages which they derive from the accumulated experience 

 of former times. 



The variety of languages, however, both written and 

 fpoken, which takes place in the world, has been matter of 

 regret to thofe who have confidered the fubjecl particularly ; 

 and it has been wifhed, that a method of fpeech, capable of 

 being conveyed by writing, had been invented, which man- 

 kind, at lead in every polifhed nation, might have been able 

 univerfally to adopt and to underftand. But the diftribution 

 of the world into fo many different kingdoms and nations, 

 feems to render the introduction of an univerfal language 

 among mankind quite impracticable *. For although men 



poflefs 



" connut le nombre afTez petit des Tons elementaires, et comprit qu'en les reprefentant 

 " par autant de cara&eres diftindb, on pourroit combiner ces caracleres comme les fons 

 " qu'ils reprefentent j ce qui conftitue en effet 



" Cet art ingenieux 



" De peindre la parole, et de parler aux yeux ; 



" art merveilleux, qui fixe a jamais la parole et la per.see qu'elle exprime, qui porte 

 " l'une et l'autre aux abfents, qui les fait paffer a la pofterite la plus reculee, et dont on 

 " peut dire avec verite et fans reftriction, ce que dit M. Diderot d'un idiome qui di- 

 " viendroit commun a tout le genre humain : [Encyclop. au mot Encyclopedie.] que 

 " par fon moyen, la diftance des temps difparotl, les lieuxfe touchent, il fe forme des liaijons 

 " entre tons les points babites de I'efpace et de la duree, et tous les etres vivants et pen/ants 

 " s'entretiennent." Grammaire Generale, &c. Par M. Beauzee. Tom. I. p. 2. See 

 alfo Ciceron. Quejl. Tufc. Lib. I. and Wilkins's Effay, &c. p. 10. 



* The ingenious, laborious and truly admirable effort of DrWiLKiNS, to invent and 

 cftablifh an univerfal character and philofophical language, has only tended to fliow more 

 ftrikingly the imprafticablenefs of fuch an attempt : At leaft, however feafible his projecl 

 may appear, his method ftill remains unemployed by the learned j and as for the vulgar, 

 it is quite beyond their comprehenfion. 



