Oct. 1858.— Mar. 1859.] In Roman Characters. 181 



" general adopted."* They have further considered it neces- 

 sary that such a system should not only be acceptable to the 

 scholar, but should be adapted to general use, whether by 

 means of typography or manuscript. 



For the accomplishment of these ends, they prescribed 

 to themselves the following fundamental rules : — 



1. That a distinct Roman character should, as far as 

 practicable, be employed to express each established oriental 

 letter. 



2. That the same character should always represent 

 the same letter, and should never be employed without some 

 distinguishing sign to designate a second. 



3. That two or more letters should never be em- 

 ployed where a single character could be made to suffice. 



4. That diacritical marks should only be resorted to 

 in the last necessity, and should be of the simplest descrip- 

 tion. 



5. That varieties of type, as capitals, italics, black 

 letter, should be considered inadmissable. 



6. That the scheme should be founded on the system 

 of Sir W. Jones. 



The propriety of the three first stipulations is manifest 

 and needs no illustration. The two next were dictated by 

 the difficulty of using such modifications in current writing, 

 to say nothing of their unsightly and perplexing appear- 

 ance. The last was adopted because the accuracy of the 

 principles on which that system is founded, especially with 

 regard to the vowels, has been acknowledged by the most 

 distinguished orientalists of all countries, and still maintains 

 its ground after the experience of three quarters of a 

 century. 



The modifications which have been proposed in Sir *W. 

 Jones' orthography since its first promulgation, and which 



* Sir W. Jones, 



