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They place first in the fentence the perfon or thing, which speaks or acts; next its action; and laftly the object of its action. Thus an English Writer, paying a compliment to a great man, would fay, " It is impoff"ble for me to pafs over in filence fo diftinguished "mildnefs, fo fingular and unheard of clemency, and "fo uncommon moderation, in the exercife of fupreme "power." Here is first presented to us the perfon, who fpeaks, "It is impoffible for me;" next, what the fame perfon is to do," to pass over in filence ;" and laftly the object, which excites him to action," the mildness, clem66 ency, and moderation of his patron." Cicero, from whom these words are tranflated, reverfes this order. He begins with the object; places that firft, which was the exciting idea in the speaker's mind, and ends with the speaker and his action.. "Tantam manfuetudinem, "tam inufitatam inauditamque clementiam, tantumque "in fumma poteftate rerum omnium modum, tacitus "nullo modo præterire poffum." Here, it must be obferved, the Latin order is more animated; the English more clear and distinct.

Our language naturally allows greater liberty for tranfpofition and inverfion in poetry, than in profe. Even there however this liberty is confined within nar row limits in comparison with the antient languages. In this respect modern tongues vary from each other. The Italian approaches the nearest in its character to the antient tranfpofition; the English has more invers

fion, than the reft; and the French has the leaft of all.

Writing is an improvement upon Speech, and confequently was pofterior to it in order of time. Its characters are of two kinds, figns of things and signs of words. Thus the pictures, hieroglyphics, and fymbols, employed by the Antients, were of the former fort; the alphabetical characters, now employed by Europeans,, of the latter.

Pictures were certainly the first attempt toward wri ting. Mankind in all ages and in all nations have been prone to imitation. This would foon be employed for describing and recording events. Thus to fignify that one man had killed another, they painted the figure of one man lying on the ground, and of another standing by him with a hostile weapon in his hand. When Amer-ica. was first discovered, this was the only kind of writing, with which the Mexicans were acquainted. It was however a very imperfect mode of recording facts; fince by pictures external events only could be delineated..

Hieroglyphical characters may be confidered, as the fecond stage of the Art of Writing. They confift of certain fymbols, which are made to stand for invisible objects on account of their fuppofed resemblance of the objects themselves. Thus an eye reprefented knowledge; and a circle, having neither beginning, nor end, was the fymbol of eternity. Egypt was the country,

where the kind of writing was most studied, and brought into a regular art. By these characters all the boafted wiidom of their Priefts was conveyed. They pitched upon animals, to be the emblems of moral objects, according to the qualities, with which they fupposed them to be endued. Thus imprudence was denominated by a fly; wifdom by an ant; and victory by a hawk. But this fort of writing was in the highest degree enigmatical and confused; and confequently a very imperfect vehicle of knowledge.

From hieroglyphics fome nations gradually advanced to fimple arbitrary marks, which stood for objects, though without any resemblance of the objects fignified. Of this nature was the writing of the Peruvians. They ufed fmall cords of different colors; and by knots upon these, of different fizes and variously ranged, they invented figns for communicating their thoughts to one another. The Chinese at this day use written characters of this nature. They have no alphabet of letters or fimple founds, of which their words are compofed; but every fingle character, which they use, is expreffive of an idea; it is a mark, which fignifies fome one thing or object. The number of these characters must confequently be immenfe. They are faid indeed to amount to feventy thousand. To be perfectly acquainted with them is the business of a whole life; which must have greatly retarded among them the progrefs of every kind of fcience.

It is evident, that the Chinese characters, like hiero glyphics, are figns of things, and not of words. For we are told, that the Japanese, the Tonquinese, and the Corœans, who speak different languages from each other, and from the inhabitants of China, use however the fame written characters with them, and thus correfpond intelligibly with one another in writing, though mutually ignorant of each others' language. Our arithmetiical figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, &c, are an example of this fort of writing. They have no dependence on words; each figure reprefents the number, for which it ftands; and confequently is equally understood by all nations, who have agreed in the use of thefe figures.

The first step, to remedy the imperfection, the ambiguity, and the tedioufnefs of each of the methods of communication, which have been mentioned, was the invention of figns, which should stand not directly for things, but for the words, by which things were named and diftinguished. An alphabet of fyllables feems to have been invented previously to an alphabet of letters, Such a one is faid to be retained at this day in Æthiopia and fome countries of India. But at beft it must have been imperfect and ineffectual; fince the number of characters, being very confiderable, must have rendered both reading and writing very complex and laborious.

To whom we are indebted for the fublime and refined difcovery of Letters is not determined. They were

braught into Greece by Cadmus the Phoenician, who, according to Sir Ifaac Newton's Chronology, was contemporary with King David. His alphabet contained only fixteen letters. The reft were afterward added, according as figns for proper founds were found to be wanting. The Phoenician, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman alphabets agree fo much in the figure, names, and arrangement of the letters, as amounts to demonftration, that they were derived originally from the fame fource.

The antient order of writing was from the right hand to the left. This method, as appears from fome very old infcriptions prevailed even among the Greeks. They afterward used to write their lines alternately from the right to the left, and from the left to the right. The infcription on the famous Sigean Monument is a fpecimen of this mode of writing, which continued till the days of Solon, the celebrated Legiflator of Athens. At length the motion from the left hand to the right being found more natural and convenient, this order of writing was adopted by all the nations of Europe.

Writing was firft exhibited on pillars and tables of ftone; afterward on plates of the fofter metals. As it became more common, the leaves and bark of certain trees were used in fome countries; and in others tablets of wood, covered with a thin coat of foft wax, on which the impreffion was made with a ftylus of iron. Parch

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