1799.] Hieroglyphics, and the Origin of diphabetical Writing, 185 
To tie Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
TNARTICULATE founds are infuf- 
ficient for the mutual communication 
of the knowledge and the defires of ra- 
tional and focial beings, fuch as men. 
Articulate language has been, therefore, 
invented. Even this is infufficient to 
commemorate the paft, or to tranfmit 
information to thofe who are at a diftance. 
Hence, among even the rudeft nations, 
arifes the ufe of moveable, material figns 
of thought, and of hieroglyphics, paint- 
ings, and {culptures. 
Hieroglyphics were, in their firft in- 
vention, fintply painted or f{culptured 
imitations of the objeéts of which the 
ideas were meant to be conveyed. To 
this clafs were almoft immediately added 
other painted figns, expreflive of the 
gettures, attitudes, and fituations, in 
which different actions were refpectively 
performed, and meant to communicate, 
by means of thefe reprefentations, the 
notions of the aétions themfelves. Thole 
figurés which fcantinels of idea, paucity 
of words, inaccuracy of conception, and 
ardour of fentiment, quickly introduced 
into f{peech, were to be expreffed by a 
correfpondent figurative ufe of the figns 
of hieroglyphic painting. Such feem to 
have been the three principal modifica- 
tions under which hieroglyphics exifted, 
after they were firft enlarged into a fyftem 
of permanent figns, and before they had 
yet begun to be, in any confiderable de- 
gree, abbreviated for the ends of mytte- 
rious cqncealment, or quicker ufe. 
In the progreffive application of thefe 
hieroglyphic figns, they were gradually 
altered and abbreviated. nalities, 
energies unconnested with external atti- 
tude or gefture, affirmations and all the 
varied tranfitions of thought, with thote 
notions of generalization, in which the 
mind endeavours to combine into genera 
and fpecies the individuals of nature, 
were neceflariiy to be marked in hiero- 
glyphical writing by other contrivances 
than that of fimply painting the object 
fignified. As in fpeech, as in the alpha- 
betical writig;g with which we are ac- 
quainted, innumerable abbreviations are, 
trom time to time, almoft vnconf{ciouily 
introduced by mere ufe alone, unaffitted 
by any profpective plans of improvement ; 
fo would hieroglyphics, in 2 manner little 
diffimilar, be gradually abbreviated in 
the hands of the priefts of India and 
Egypt, or of the merchants of Phoenicia. 
Other abbreviations were no doubt oc- 
MontTHLY Mac. No, XList, 
cafioned by the defire of priefts employ- 
ing thefe hieroglyphic figns to conceal 
what they recorded in them fiom the 
difcovery ot the vulgar. By all thefe 
means would the fyftem of hieroglyphics 
be at length wrought into a curioufly 
complex and artificial ftructure; juft as 
fpoken language that, at firlt, conlifted 
ut of the fimple name and interjection, 
has been gradually reared into a complex 
fabric of parts of fpeech, declinable 
and indeclinable, of inflexions, numbers, 
modes, genders, comparifons, and fornis 
of conftruétion. 
In this progrefs of abbreviation, it was 
natural that the attention, at leait, of the 
more unlearned among thofe who made 
ufe of hieroglyphics, fhould be at lengtix 
turned to think more of the relations be- 
tween thofe painted figns of thought and 
articulate language, than of their rela- 
tions to things. Adjeétives, pronouns, 
all the indeclinable parts of fpeech, even 
very many verbs and nouns, reprefenting 
things which were not fulceptible of be- 
ing painted, and which could fcarcely be, 
by every underftanding, even precifely 
and definitely underftood, muft in con- 
fequence of thefe circumitances have been 
denoted in hieroglyphic painting, by 
fiens having, not a natural, but an arbi- 
trary and pofitive connection with the 
things fignified. While this conneétion 
arofe, it was impoflible that the attention 
of the writers and readers of thefe arbi- 
trary figns fhould not be, in very many 
inftances, fixed particularly upon the re- 
lation between the found and the painted 
fign, and upon that almoft alone. This 
was one grand ftep in the tranfition from 
the ule of hieroglyphics to that of aipha- 
betical writing. The convertion of me- 
taphorical terms into fimple ones, the 
difficulties ariing from the attempt to 
expreis different {poken languages by the 
fame common fyftem of hieroglyphic 
fiens, the merely technical variations and 
abbreviations of different writers, would 
all likewile contribute to -feparate, in the 
ideas of thofe by whom hieroglyphic 
writing was ufed~-the greater part of 
the hieroglyphics, from the things they 
originally repreiented, and to leave them 
in affociation, merely with the vocal arti- 
culate figns denoting thofe things in 
fpeech. 
After the alliance between founds and 
hieroglyphic figns has come to be more 
regarded than the relation between thete 
Jatt figns and the things fignified, new 
dif{coveries to direé&t continued abbrevi- 
ation, are quickly made by the con- 
Aa tinual 
