oct — mab. 1858-59.] for the Indian characters-. 243b 



son with all others, arises partly from its employment of a few in- 

 dependent, unchangeable characters for the expression of the vowel 

 sounds, instead of a variety of minute signs and points ; partly 

 from its preference for straight lines, angles, and unadorned circles 

 and arcs to the flowing tracery and complicated diagrams of orien- 

 tal alphabets ; partly from the circumstance that its letters are of 

 different heights^ half of them being on a level with the line and 

 the other half rising a little above it or sinking a little below it, so 

 as to facilitate identification ; and partly also from its retention of 

 an older form of the characters for use as capitals. 



c. The Roman character is the compactest in existence. In no 

 other character can so large a quantity of matter be compress- 

 ed into so small a compass, without crowding the page or con^- 

 fusing the eye. It is, therefore, of all characters the cheapest for 

 printing 



d. It is politically and geographically the most suitable for uni- 

 versal use, and the only character which has the smallest chance of 

 obtaining this distinction. It would be absurd to propose that the 

 Malayalam character should supersede the Gujarathi, or the Tamil 

 the Bengali. It would be almost equally unreasonable to propose 

 the substitution of any one character of a class for another of the 

 same class, as the Tamil for the Telugu, or the Bengali for the Gu- 

 jarathi. None of these characters has any claim to be used beyond 

 the limits of the language to which it belongs. 



The only characters known in India which possess any such claim 

 are the Hindustani, the Deva-Nagari, and the Roman. 



Of these, the Hindustani (the Persian slightly modified) is one 

 of the least legible characters in existence, and its sole recommen- 

 dation, the political supremacy of the Mahommedans, has ceased 

 to exist. 



The Deva-Nagari, the most perfect of the Indian characters, is 

 perhaps also the most legible, though very much less legible than 

 the Roman. Probably also, next to Hindustani, it is the most 

 widely known. It is little known, however, and less used, in South- 

 ern India, even by Brahmins. In the Telugu, Canarese, and Ma- 

 layalam countries Sanscrit is written in the characters peculiar to 

 those languages, not in Deva-nagari. In the Tamil country it is 



