A 



3IQ ON LEGIBLE LANGUAC^E, 



dressed to all nations^ and maybe interpreted without a knowledge of then 

 oral tongues. It speaks by painting, and appeals to what all are ac- 

 quainted with. And hence M. Leibnitz, and many other philosophers, 

 have conceived an idea that a system of pasigraphy or universal writing, a 

 language of human thoughts, might be founded* upon some such in- 

 vention. 



It is easy to perceive, however, without any detail of facts, that such a 

 system could never be carried into full effect among different nations j and 

 that, plausible as it may appear at first sight, it must be loaded with incon- 

 veniences, and be equally defective and burdensome, even among people 

 of the same empire. It is easy to conceive, to adopt the language of Sir 

 George Staunton, as applied to the most perfect system of the kind that 

 has ever been actually carried into execution, that it would consist of a 

 plan of which it may justly be said, that the practice is no less inconve- 

 nient and perplexing than the theory is beautiful and ingenious."t If a 

 distinct character were to be employed to represent every distinct idea, the 

 number of distinct characters would be almost incalculable : if a few dis- 

 tinct or simple characters only were to be made use of to represent such 

 ideas as are most common, and the rest were to be expressed by combi- 

 nations of these, though the number of distinct characters would be in 

 some degree diminished, the memory would still have a difficult task to 

 retain them ; and the combinations would, in a thousand instances, be em- 

 barrassing and intricate. 



Under this pressure of evils there can be no doubt that a contemplative 

 mind, in whatever part of the world placed, would soon begin to reflect 

 on the possibility of avoiding them, by making the contracted characters 

 now in use, or any other set in their stead, significative of sounds or words 

 rather than of things or images. By minute attention it would soon be 

 discovered, that such an art, which would require, indeed, a general con- 

 vention or agreement in order to its being generally embraced or under- 

 stood, might be effected with less difficulty than would at first be imagined. 

 It would be perceived that the distinct articulate sounds in any or in every 

 language, as I had occasion to observe in our last lecture, are not many, 

 and in every language are the same or nearly so : that in few languages 

 they exceed twenty, and in none, perhaps, thirty ;| and that consequently 

 from twenty to thirty arbitrary marks or alphabetical characters might be 

 ample to express every simple sound, and, by their combinations, to de- 

 note every separate word or intermixture of sounds :§ whence a written 

 language might be formed, addressed to the ear instead of the eye, sym- 

 bolical of oral language, and, of course, possessing the whole of its accu- 



* See here also Northman's Panography, Repertory of Arts, ii. 307. iii. 9L Langlois's 

 Pantograph, Mach. A. vii. 207. Lodwick's Uaiversal Alphabet, 

 t Ta Tsing Leu Lee. Pref. p. xiv. 



X " Mr. Sheridan says the number of simple sounds in our tongue are twenty-eight. Dr. 

 Keudrick says we have only eleven distinct species of articulate sounds ; which, even by con- 

 traction, prolongation, and composition, are increased only to the number of sixteen ; every 

 syllable or articulate sound in our language being one of this number. Bishop W^ilkins and 

 Dr. William Holden, speak of about thirty-two or thirty-three distinct sounds." — Astle, p. 18. 



§ Tacquet asserts, that the various combinations of the twenty-four letters (without any re- 

 petifion), will amount to 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000.— Anthm. Theor. p. 517, cd. Amst. 

 1'304. Clavius makes them only 5,852,616,738,497,664,000. In either case, however, it is 

 evident *' that twenty- four letters will admit of aninfinity of combinations and arrangements 

 sufficient to represent not only all the conceptions ol the mind, but all words in all languages 

 whatever." Astle, p. 20.— In like manner ten simple marks are found sufficient for all the 

 purposes of universal calculations v.'hich extend to infinity : and seyen notes, differently ar- 

 ranged, fill up the whole scale of music. 



