4 
country in the world!” This con- 
fession comes from an Englishman. 
In the United States, we imitate, 
as yet, England in almost every 
thing, good or bad. Thus we can 
hardly believe that it is possible to 
have Free Institutions, Colleges, 
Lectures, Libraries, Museums, &c. 
without paying at least a fee of 25 
cents each time we visit them, or 
an annual subscription. And thus 
we have intemperance, immorality, 
paupers, ignorance— with all their 
baneful consequences. What ought 
to be done, and what free Institu- 
tions are immediately required to 
foster, preserve and secure, the fu-. 
ture liberties and morals of our peo- 
ple, will be indicated at a future 
time. Public Instruction or the ac- 
quirement of knowledge, by all 
young and old, unlimited and with- 
out cost, must be the principal 
means of future national happiness. 
Benj. Franklin, jk. 
3. PHILOLOGY. 
First Letter to Mr . Champolion, on the 
Graphic systems of America, and the Glyphs 
of Otolum or Palenque, in Central Ame- 
rica* 
You have become celebrated by 
decyphering, at last, the glyphs and 
characters of the ancient Egyptians, 
which all your learned predecessors 
had deemed a riddle, and pronounc- 
ed impossible to read. You first 
announced your discovery in a let- 
ter. I am going to follow your foot- 
steps on another continent, and a 
theme equally obscure; to none but 
yourself can I address with more 
propriety, letters on a subject so 
much alike in purpose and import- 
ance, and so similar to your own la- 
bours. 
I shall not enter at present into 
any very elaborate discussion. 1 
shall merely detail in a concise 
manner, the object and result of my 
inquiries, so as to assert my claim 
to a discovery of some importance 
in a philological and historical point 
of view; which was announced as 
early as 1828 in some journals, (3 
letters to Mr. M’Culloh on the Ame- 
rican nations,) but not properly il- 
lustrated. Their full development 
would require a volume, like that of 
yours on the Egyptian antiquities, 
and may follow this perhaps at some 
future time. 
It may be needful to prefix the 
following principles as guides to my 
researches, or results of my inqui- 
ries. 
1. America has been the land of 
false systems; all those made in 
Europe on it are more or less vain 
and erroneous. 
2. The Americans were equal in 
antiquity, civilization, and sciences 
to the nations of Africa and Europe; 
like them the children of the Asiatic 
nations. 
3. It is false that no American 
nations had systems of Writing, 
glyphs, and letters. Several had 
various modes of perpetuating ideas. 
4. There were several such gra- 
phic systems in America to express 
ideas; all of which find equivalents 
in the east continent. 
5. They may be ranged in twelve 
series, proceeding from the most 
simple to the most complex. 
1st Series , — Pictured symbols or 
glyphs of the Toltecas, Aztecas, 
Huaztecas, Skeres, Panos, &c. Si- 
milar to the first symbols of the Chi- 
nese, invented by Tien-hoang before 
the flood, and earliest Egyptian 
glyphs. 
2 d Series . — Outlines of figures or 
abridged symbols and glyphs, ex- 
pressing words or ideas; used by 
almost all the nations of North and 
South America, even the most rude. 
Similar to the second kind of Egyp- 
tian symbols, and the Tortoise let- 
ters brought to China by the Long - 
ma (dragon and horse) nation of 
barbarous horsemen, under Sui-gin . 
. Sd Series . — Quipos or knots on 
strings used by the Peruvians and 
several other South American na- 
tions. Similar to the third kind of 
Chinese glyphs introduced under 
Yong-chingt and used also by many 
nations of Africa. 
4th Series**-* Wampums or strings 
