Vol. III. Mifcettama C uriofa. 22 j 



by roat,and depend wholly upon the ftrength 

 of the Memory to retain it. But 1 conceive 

 it might be at firft either a literal Charafter, 

 and fb the whole fquare Charader was com- 

 pofed of fo many diftinft Letters or Sylla- 

 bles, which compofed the Word fignified 

 thereby ; and fo there might be a regular 

 Order or placing thefe Letters in the Cha- 

 rafter, that is, that the whole fquare being 

 divided into fo many parts, there was a 

 Rule which was the firft, fecond, third and 

 fourth place : fo that there being placed in 

 thofe the feveral Letters that made up the 

 Word, according to the order they had in 

 the Word, it was eafie by that Rule to De- 

 cipher the faid Charader, and thence to 

 find the Word and the Signification, as re- 

 gularly as if the Letters had been written 

 one after another, as moft other literal Cha- 

 racters we know are at this Day written- 



Or Secondly, it might be a real Charafter 

 confifting of divers Marks or Letters, that 

 expreffed fo many finiple Notions, feveral 

 of which joined together might make up the 

 more compounded Charafters, of which I 

 have added fome Examples in the Plate, 

 which may be alfo made literal and pro- 

 nounceable, tho' that confideration were not 

 made ufe of, when they were firft invented. 

 |; What things I have obferved in my Chinefi 

 Books that feem to refpecl this Method, I 

 will give more particulars of by the next op- 

 portunity, by Printing a Specimen of the 

 Book Te-kim which explicated by thefe No- 

 tions will I conceive appear more intelligible, 

 than by the Accounts we find given of it by 



Q. 2 the 



