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archaic form for “a hare” shows the animal sitting upright. The 
form for rhinoceros shows the animal’s horn used as a drinking- 
cup, on the principle of a part for the whole, just as our letter 
A is, in origin, a bull’s horns. The form for “ man ” now shows 
only a man’s legs, the rest of the figure having, like letters in 
words innumerable, dropped off in the march of time. The 
oldest characters, called siang-hing (“ images ”), are said to 
have been about 200 in number. The sun was represented by a 
circle with a dot in the centre, the moon is a crescent, and rude 
but plain ideographs show figures of a dog, a fish, etc. There 
is no difficulty in expressing more complicated ideas ; thus 
“ tear,” both in the Chinese character and in the cuneiform, = 
eye + water. 
It is very desirable that the various forms used by different 
nations should be studied comparatively, and it is almost cer- 
tain that some connecting links between them will be dis- 
covered. Thus, according to M. Terrien de la Couperie, the 
Chinese ideograph, which represents the setting sun, is similar 
to the Akkadian ideograph, and, like it, has the phonetic value 
mi ; and his recent researches actually tend to show the com- 
mon origin of the Chinese and Akkadian writing. But the 
deduction which naturally arises from this examination of de- 
lineatory eye-language is, that, just as in the great majority of 
instances it would be utterly impossible to show a 'priori any 
connexion between the original ideograph and its ultimate con- 
ventional form, and yet that connexion is a most real and regu- 
lating one ; so, similarly in ear-language, although it may be 
utterly impossible to show directly the connexion between the 
sound and meaning of the majority of words, yet such a con- 
nexion not only may, but by analogy in all probability must, 
exist. As is the transition from drawing to writing, so is the 
transition from the idea (mental picture) to its vocal expres- 
sion (tongue-writing). 
10 . The Principle of Limitation of Choice in Original 
Names . 
If, as we have seen, one name is not as good as another, or, at 
all events, that there is some cause, reason, or principle in the 
selection of a particular name, let us next inquire if it be 
possible to indicate, or even partially to determine, the limitation 
which obtains in this selection. That there is a practical limi- 
tation is obvious, inasmuch as not every name has been applied 
to the dog, but the animal has received only a certain limited 
number of appellations ; and, again, the same name is not used 
