CHAP. II. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. SECTION 1. On Hieroglyphic and Picture-writing. THE desire of communicating ideas, seems to be implanted in every human breast. The two most usual methods of gratifying this desire, are, by sounds addressed to the ear; or, by represen. tations or marks exhibited to the eye; or, in other words, by speech and writing. The first method was rendered more complete by the invention of the second, because it opened a door for communicating information, through the sense of sight as well as that of hearing. Speech may be considered as the substance; and writing, as the shadow which followed it.-These remarks may be illustrated, by stating a few observations concerning the former, which will naturally lead us to the origin of the latter. One of the greatest advantages which we possess is that of speech, or the power of expressing the conceptions of the mind by articu. late sounds. By this faculty we are capable of social intercourse, of enjoying the endearments of friendship and the communications of wisdom. Without language, we should have been solitary in the midst of crowds; excluded from every kind of knowledge but what fell under our immediate notice; and should have been confined to dull and tedious efforts of intimating our desires by signs and gestures in short, without speech we should scarcely have been rational beings. Two things are essential to speech; namely, mental conceptions, and sounds articulate. The former are, by far, the most excellent, because they originate in, and appertain to, the mind; whereas the latter are nothing more than the operations of certain organs of the body. Human voice is produced by two semicircular membranes in the middle of the larynx, which form by their separation the aperture that is termed the glottis. The space between these membranes is not one-tenth of an inch, through which the breath, transmitted from the lungs, passes with considerable velocity in its passage it is said to give a brisk vibratory motion to the membranous lips of the glottis, which produces the sound called voice, by an operation similar to that which produces sound from the two lips of a hautboy. Galen and others affirm, that both the larynx and the windpipe co-operate in rendering the breath vocal; but later authors do not agree in this opinion. It seems however necessary for the production of voice, that a degree of tenseness should be communicated to the larynx, or at least to the two membranes above mentioned. The voice thus formed is strengthened and mellowed by a reverberation from the palate, and other hollow places of the inside of the mouth and nostrils; and as these are better or worse shaped for this reverberation, the voice is said to be more or less agreeable; and thus the vocal organs of man appear to be, as it were, a species of flute or hautboy, whereof the membranous lips of the glottis are the mouth or reed, and the inside of the throat, palate and nostrils the body; the windpipe being nothing more than the tube or canal which conveys the wind from the lungs to the aperture of this musi. cal instrument *. The learned and ingenious author of Hermes t, with great strength of argument, shews, that language is founded in compact, and not in nature. His friend, lord Monboddo, with great learning and ingenuity, supports the same opinion, and insists that language is not natural to man; but that it is acquired: and, in the course of his reflections, he adduces the opinions not only of heathen philosophers, poets, and historians, but of christian divines both ancient and modern ‡. * See Dr. Beattie on the Theory of Language, p. 246, Lond. 1783, 4to. + See Hermes, by James Harris, Esq. book iii. p. 314, 327. This author is of opinion that mankind took the hints of the most useful arts from the brute creation, "for," saith he," it may be that men first learned to "build from the swallow; from the spider, to weave; and from the birds, to "sing." See Monboddo on the Origin and Progress of Language, books i. and ii. p. 237 and 375. "The first words of men, like their first ideas," saith Mr. Harris," had an "immediate reference to sensible objects; and, in aftertimes, when men began "to discover with their intellects, they took those words which they found al"ready made, and transferred them, by metaphor, to intellectual conceptions." Hermes, p. 269. Though language, as it is generally considered by grammarians, is a work of art; yet it is evident that vocal sounds are founded in nature; and man would vary those sounds, as impelled by his passions, or urged by his necessities. This exercise of the organs of speech would produce articulate voices, which are peculiar to the human species; vocal sounds, expressive of emotions, being natural to brutes as well as to men. These articulate voices are the first advances towards the formation of a language. The human organs are not, like those of most brutes, confined to particular sounds; but, as men are capable of learning to imitate the several sounds of the brute creation, by that means they acquire a greater variety of sounds than other animals. It is evident that children learn to speak by imitation; they acquire articulate sounds before they comprehend the ideas of which those sounds are significant. It would be digressing from the subject immediately before us, to say more at present concerning the nature of speech, or audible language; our inquiry being into the origin of visible or written language. It is obvious that men would soon discover the difficulty of conveying new ideas by sounds alone; for, as Mr. Harris observes *, "the senses never exceed their natural limits; the eye perceives no sounds, the ear perceives no figures nor colours;" therefore it became necessary to call in the assistance of the eye where the ear alone was insufficient. It will presently be demonstrated that men, even in their most uncivilized state, display a faculty of imitation †, which enables them to delineate objects and communicate information by rude pictures or representations.-For example, a man who had seen a strange animal, plant, or any other new object, for which he wanted a name, would have been almost mechanically led to illustrate his description by signs; and, if they were not readily comprehended, by a rude delineation in the sand, on the bark of a tree, on a slate, on a bone, or on such materials as first presented themselves: these being handed about, naturally suggested the hint of using this method of conveying intelligence to a distant friend. The exercise of this faculty of imitation, so eminently conspicuous in the human species, will be found, on an accurate investigation, to have been *Hermes, p. 334. + Aristotle says, man is the most imitative of all animals. common to all nations, and perhaps coeval with the first societies or communities of mankind. It is not probable that the art of picture. writing was brought to any degree of perfection by one man or nation, or even by one genera. tion; but was gradually improved and extended, by the successive hands of individuals, in the societies through which it passed; and that more or less, according to the genius of each people, and their state of civilization; the ruder nations requiring fewer signs or representations, than the more cultivated. At first, each figure meant specifically what it represented. Thus, the figure of the sun expressed or denoted that planet only; a lion or a dog, simply the animals there depicted: but, in process of time, when men acquired more knowledge, and attempted to describe qualities, as well as sensible objects, these delineations were more figuratively explained; then the figure of the sun, besides its original meaning, denoted glory and genial warmth; that of the lion, courage; and that of the dog, fidelity. A still further improvement in civilization occasioned these delineations to become too volumnious; every new object requiring a new picture, this induced the delineator to abridge the representa. tions, retaining so much of each figure as would express its species. Thus, for example, instead of an accurate representation of a lion, a slight sketch, or more general figure of that animal was substituted; and for a serpent, either a spiral or crooked line like the letter S. Besides this, as there occurred a number of ideas, not to be represented by painting, for these it was necessary to affix arbitrary signs. This transition was not so great as at first it may appear. In all probability, these signs were introduced slowly, and by degrees, and in such manner, as to be always explained by the context, until generally known and adopted. That such was the origin and progress of this invention, history, and the journals of travellers, furnish us with a variety of proofs; hieroglyphics, in all their different stages being found in very distant parts of the globe. Of these we shall mention some in stances. Joseph d'Acosta relates, that on the first arrival of the Spanish squadron on the coast of Mexico, expresses were sent to Montezuma, with exact representations of the ships, painted on cloth; in which manner they kept their records, histories, and calendars; representing things that had bodily shapes, in their proper figures; and those that had none, in arbitrary significant characters.-It is here to be observed, that the Mexicans had long been a civilized people; so that this kind of writing may be considered among them as almost advanced to its most perfect state. Specimens of Mexican painting have been given by Purchas in sixty-six plates. His work is divided into three parts. The first contains the history of the Mexican empire, under its ten monarchs; the second is a tribute-roll, representing what each conquered town paid into the royal treasury; and the third is a code of their institutions, civil, political, and military *. Another specimen of Mexican painting has been published, in thirty-two plates, by the present archbishop of Toledo. To all these is annexed a full explanation of what the figures were intended to represent; which was obtained by the Spaniards from Indians well acquainted with their own arts. The stile of painting in all these is the same; and they may be justly considered as the most curious monuments of art, brought from the new world +. * The originals are in the Bodleian library at Oxford, No. 3134, among Mr. Selden's MSS. In the same library, No. 2858, is a book of Mexican hieroglyphics painted upon thick skins, which are covered with a chalky composition, and folded in eleven folds. No. 3135, is a book of Mexican hieroglyphics painted upon similar skins, and folded in ten folds. No. 3207, is a roll containing Mexican hieroglyphics, painted on bark. These paintings are highly worthy the attention of the curious. + Upon an attentive inspection of the plates above mentioned, we may observe some approach to the plain or simple hieroglyphic, where some principal part or circumstance of the subject, is made to stand for the whole. In the annals published by Purchas, the towns conquered by each monarch are uniformly represented in the same manner, by the rude delineation of a house; but, in order to point out the particular towns, which submitted to their victorious arms, peculiar emblems, sometimes natural objects, and sometimes artificial figures are employed. In the Tribute-roll, published by the archbishop of Toledo, the house, which was properly the picture of the town, is omitted; and the emblem alone is employed to represent it. The Mexicans seem even to have made some advances beyond this, towards the use of the more figurative and fanciful hieroglyphic. In order to describe a monarch who had enlarged his dominions by force of arms, they painted a target, ornamented with darts, and placed it between him and those towns which he bad subdued. But it is only in one instance, the notation of numbers, that we discern any attempt to exhibit ideas which had no corporeal form. The Mexicans had invented artificial marks, or signs of delineation, for this purpose: by means of these they computed the years of their king's reigns, as well as the amount of tribute to be paid into the |