Of the Art of Writing; its importance, and origin. [From Dr Beattie's Theory of Language.] A Word is an audible and articulate fign of thought: a letter is a visible fign of an articulate found. The ufe of letters is a wonderful invention; but by no means universal. Every man can fpeak who is not deaf; and men have fpoken in all ages; but in many nations the art of writing is ftill unknown. Words fpoken make an immediate impreffion, but depend, for their permanence, upon the memory of the speaker and hearer; and the best memory lofes more than it retains: but words written may be preserved from age to age, and made as durable as any thing hu man can be.-When we fpeak, we are understood no further than we are heard: but what is written may be fent round the world, and circulated in all nations. -We can speak no longer than we live: but the thoughts of men who died three thousand years ago are ftill extant in writing and by means of this divine art, will continue to entertain and infruct mankind to the end of the world. -Moreover, while we only meditate, our memory is not always fo faithful as to enable us to revise our thoughts, compare them together, and render them confiftent; but by writing we make them pafs and repafs in review before us, till we have made them fuch as we wish them to be.-God has been pleased to reveal his will to us in writing; and with out this art, policy, which is the moft venerable of all human inftitutions, would be exceedingly imperfect. The importance of writing to the virtue and happiness of mankind, as well as to the afcertaining, methodizing, prefer. ving, and extending of human know. ledge, is indeed fo great, that one is apt to wonder, bow any age or country fhould be ignorant of an art, which may be acquired with fo little difficulty, and exercifed with fo much pleasure. But though of eafy acquifition to us, it is in itfelf neither eafy nor obvious. Savages articulate their mother tongue, without troubling themselves about the analyfis of fentences, or the separation of words; of refolving words into the fimple elementary founds they have no idea; how then should they think of expreffing those fimple founds by vifible and permanent fymbols? In fact, alphabetical writing must be so remote from the conception of those who never heard of it, that without divine aid it would feem to be unfearchable and impoffible. No won der then that fome authors fhould have afcribed it to Adam, and fupposed it to be the effect of infpiration. Of the nature of Antediluvian, or of the first, writing, whether it was alphabetical, or by hieroglyphicks, we can only form conjectures. The wildom and fimple manners of the firft men would incline me to think that they must have had an alphabet, for hieroglyphick cha racters imply quaintnefs and witticism. That Mofes knew an alphabet, is certain ; and we may venture to say, he learned it in Egypt, where he was born and educated. If this be granted, the hieroglyphicks of Egypt and Ethiopia will appear of later date than alphabetical writing; and to have been contrived, as many learned men have thought, by priests or politi cians, for expreffing, in a way not intelligible to the vulgar, the myfteries of religion and government.-A hieroglyphick, or facred Sculpture, is an emblematical figure, which denotes, not an articulate found, as a letter does, but an idea, or thing. It is a reprefentation of fome part of the human body, or of fome animal, vegetable, or work of art; but it means, not that which it represents, but fomething elfe that is, or is supposed to be, of a like nature. Thus the figure of a lamp, among the Egyptian priests, fignified, not a lamp, but life; a circle was the emblem of eternity; and an eye on the top of a fceptre denoted a fovereign. Hieroglyphicks must have been a very imperfect mode of expreffing thought. They took up a great deal of room; could hardly be connected fo as to form a fentence; were made flowly, and with difficulty; and, when made, were no better than riddles. Cefar, in his account of the Druids of Gaul, relates, that they obliged their difciples to get by heart fo great a number of verfes, that the term of their education was fometimes lengthened out to twenty years. And we are told that they accounted it unlawful to commit thofe verses to writing, notwithstanding that they understood the Greek alphabet, and made use of it in their ordinary bufinefs both public and private. Two things," continues he, "feem to me to have determined them in this; first, that their tenets might not be published to the their treaties, and are faid to express, I know not how, the particulars of the transaction. In China, if we believe what is report the vulgar; and, fecondly, that having no books to truft to, they might be the more careful to improve their memory, and more accurate ftudents of the myfteries of their order."-May not the Egyp-ed by travellers, the art of writing_has tian hieroglyphicks have been invented for been understood these three or four thou the fame purposes? By the vulgar they fand years; and yet they have no alphacould not be understood; and their bet to this day*. There is for each word enigmatical nature made it neceffary a diftinct character; and the number of for the priests to ftudy them, and confe- words is faid to be fourscore thousand; quently the doctrines implied in them, fo that a Chinese doctor grows old and with extraordinary perseverance and ap. dies, before he has learned one half of plication. his letters. The characters are of the nature of hieroglyphicks, but fo curtailed or contracted, for the fake of expedition, that their primitive shape cannot be gues fed from their prefent form. They di vide them into four claffes; the ancient, which are preferved on account of their antiquity, but never used; a fecond fpecies, appropriated to public infcriptions; a third, common enough in printing and even in writing, but too unwieldy for daily ufe; and a fourth, more manageable, for ordinary business.—It is further faid of the Chinese tongue, that every word in it is a monofyllable; and that one and the same syllable may have ten or a dozen different meanings, according to the tone with which it is pronounced. If this be true, there must be more accent in it than in any other language that has yet been heard of; and we need not wonder that it is of fo difficult ac quifition to strangers. When the Spaniards invaded Mexico, in the fifteenth century, the news of their landing was fent to the emperor Montezuma, not by writing, or by hierogly. phicks (for the Mexicans had neither) but by a rude draught or picture of the fhips. This is no doubt a natural way of expreffing things vifible; but I cannot agree in opinion with these authors, who suppose it to have been the most ancient form of writing; as it is fo laborious, fo liable to be misunderstood, expreffive of fo few ideas, and in general so very inconvenient. The Mexican who carried the news was certainly able to give a verbal account of what had happened. If he carried alfo a draught of the ships, it must have been, as we carry plans, with a view to give a more lively idea than words could convey. European fhips had never appeared in that part of the world before; and if thofe people had any skill in drawing, it was as natural for them to practise it_on_so_memorable an occafion, as it would be for us, if a huge unknown fea-monfter were to be thrown upon the land. In Peru and Chili, when we firft became acquainted with those countries, there was found a curious art, that in fome measure supplied the place of writing. It was called Quipos; and confifted in certain arrangements of threads, or knots, of different colours; whereby they preferved, in a way which we cannot explain, inventories of their moveables, and the remembrance of extraordinary events. The knowledge of the Quipos is faid to have been a great mystery, handed down by tradition from fathers to their children, but never divulged by the parent till he thought his life near an end. -Belts of wampum (as it is called) are probably contrivances of a like nature, made of a great number of little beads of different colours, artfully and not inele. gantly interwoven. Thefe belts are ufed by the Indians of North America in Some of our modern philofophers affect to be great admirers of the genius, policy, and morality of the Chinese. The truth is, the Europeans know very little of that remote people; and we are apt to admire what we do not understand: and for those who, like the Chinese, obftinately fhut their eyes against the light of the gospel, the French authors, nowa-days, and their imitators, are apt to cherish an extraordinary warmth of brotherly affection.-But if we confider, that, This is the common opinion, and was once mine. But I have lately been informed, by a Scots gentleman who refided long at Ba tavia, that a Chinese, on hearing his Christian name and furname, wrote fomething upon paper, and that another Chinese, on feeing it, articulated the two words diftinctly. Thi could hardly have been done, except by thofe who understood the art of expreffing by written fymbols the elementary founds of language.. compofe the name might be Chinese words. Aud yet it is poffible, that the fyllables which The gentleman, however, is of opinion, that the trading people of China have a fort of alphabet. though though their empire is fuppofed to have ftood for upwards of four thousand years, the Chinese are still unfkilled in almost every branch of literature; that their most learned men have never thought it worth while to invent or adopt an alphabet, though they must have heard that there is fuch a thing in other parts of the world: that their painting, though gaudy, is without perspective, and looks like a mafs of things, men, trees, houses, and mountains, heaped on one another's heads; that, when a fire broke out at Canton, whereof Commodore Anfon was an eyewitnefs, they did not know how to extinguish it, but held out the images of their gods to it: if we alfo confider their proneness to deceit and theft; their low cunning; their abfurd jealousy and timidity, which refufes almost all communication with the rest of the world; their excessive admiration of their own wifdom, and their contempt of other nations, although they must be fenfible, that one European fhip of war could have nothing to fear from the whole force of their empire: if, I fay, we reflect on these things, we fhall be inclined to think, that they are an ignorant and narrow-minded people, dexterous indeed in fome petty manufactures, but incapable of enterprife and invention, and averfe to inquiry. The long continuance and ftrictnefs of their policy, which fome admire as the effect of profound wisdom, is to me a proof of their want of fpirit; thofe nations being moft liberal in their conduct to ftrangers, and withal most liable to political commotion, who are most eminently diftinguished for magnanimity and genius. When we think how difficult and how inadequate the methods hitherto mentioned are, of rendering language vifible and permanent, we must be truck with wonder at the usefulness and perfection of the Alphabet. By this invention, if it may be fo called, although every found in language has a correfpondent fymbol, yet the characters are so few, and of a form fo fimple, that one may learn the ufe of them in a very fhort time. Nay, with the help of a few additional fymbols, one alphabet might ferve for many languages. The Latin, and all the modern tongues derived from it, have the fame fyftem of letters; and if we were accu ftomed to fee Greek and Hebrew in the Roman character, we should read them as well in that as in their own. 5. Lefs tranquil last night; three hours fleep; in a state of tranquillity this morning. 6. Quiet yesterday; little disturbed evening; good night; and calm morning. 7. Good night; calm morning. 8. Very calm yesterday; little fleep, but quiet; and remains fo this morning. 9. Very compofed yesterday; good night; and calm this morning. 10. Quiet yesterday; not a good night; quiet this morning. ing. 11. Unquiet last night; tranquil this morn 12. Some fleep in the night; quieter than yefterday. 13. Seven hours and a half fleep; not unquiet this morning. 14. Three hours fleep at intervals; and not unquiet this morning. 15. Four hours fleep; quiet the rest of the night; not calm this morning. 16. Quiet evening yesterday; four hours and a half fleep; and is as he was yesterday morning. 17. Reftless night; not calm this morning. 18. Calm before noon yesterday; remarkably compofed the reft of the day; flept feven hours; but is as ufual this morning. 19. Paffed great part of yesterday in compofure; reftless night; not calm morning. 20. Good night; not quiet this morning. 11. Eight hours and a half sleep; not quiet this morning. 22. Quier yesterday evening; difturbed night; not calm this morning. 23. Not calm yesterday; good night; more calm this morning than yesterday. 24. Quiet yesterday; four hours fleep in the night; not quiet this morning. 25. More calm than usual yesterday evening; good night; not unquiet morning. 26 Quiet yesterday; three hours and a half fleep; not quiet this morning. night; not quiet this morning. 27. Much difturbed yesterday; reftless 28. Quiet yesterday; good night; quiet this morning. 29. Paffed the day without irritation yefterday; very good night; calm this morning. 30. Reftiefs night; unquiet this morning. 31. Quiet yesterday; good night; as usual this morning. NEW THefe valuable lectures, which were drawn up many years ago, when the author was a tutor in the academy at Warrington, will be of great ufe to all readers, especially to young perfons, not only to affift them in the ftudy of hiftory, but to awaken their attention to important objects, and lead them to a ha bit of reflection and inquiry. We infert, as a specimen of the work, the following obfervations on the advantages and disadvantages of National Debts. "It seems not very difficult briefly to point out the principal advantages and difadvantages attending thefe national debts. The capital advantage of them is, that they afford relief in great emergencies, and may thereby give a greater permanency to ftates, which in former times, for want of fuch great occafional refources, were liable to be overturned without remedy. And if the taxes neceffary to pay the intereft of thefe debts be not immoderate, they are, as was ob. ferved before, of no differvice to a nation upon the whole. Some have reprefented the national debt as having the fame operation with the addition of so much capital ftock to the nation, encouraging the industry of it, &c. But whatever money is iffaed in the form of paper by the government, it is firft depofited in the form of cash by the individual. The man who pays the tax gives up fo much of his property, fo that it ceases to be productive to him, and it is generally expended by government in army and navy expences, revenue officers, gratuities, &c. which yield no return. It is like a man giving his fon a fum of money which he expends in eating and drinking. The money, no doubt, is employed, and thereby induftry is encouraged; but it is only that kind of industry which raifes the price of confumable goods. If any man, or any nation, should give all their property in this manner, they would certainly be impoverished, though thofe to whom their money was transferred would be gainers. VOL. LI. Some perfons have paradoxically maintained, that there can be no inconvenience whatever attending any national debt; that by this means the price of every thing is indeed raised, but that this affe&ting all persons alike, they will be as well able to pay the advanced prices, as they were the lower ones. The fallacy of this reafoning may perhaps be moft eafily expofed by the following state of the cafe. Let us suppose a society to confift of a thoufand labourers, and a thousand perfons juft able to employ them. If this fociety be loaded with any debt, and confequently be obliged to pay a tax; fince all the labourers muft ftill fubfift, and their employers can give them no more than they do, fome of these muft become labourers themselves, fo that the price of this additional labour shall be equal to the amount of the tax, It is e vident, therefore, that the whole power of the fociety will be exhaufted when the thoufand, who firft employed the labour, ers, fhall be all brought into the fame ftate with them; and when the price of their labour fhall be limited by the market to which it is brought. The tendency of a public debt, therefore, is to encrease the quantity of labour in a country; and to a certain degree this may be favourable, by promoting industry, but when carried to an extreme, the country must be diftreffed. So long as the labourers can raise the price of their labour, no tax can hurt them. If, for instance, each of them be obliged to pay one fhilling a-week, and their wages have been twelve, they muit demand thirteen fhillings; for their wages must be fufficient to fubfift them. But when the wages they must abfolute, ly have, in order to pay all the demands upon them, cannot be given, the process muft ceafe. We fhall always deceive ourselves when we imagine that the cafe of a country is, in this refpect, at all different from that of an individual, or of a number of individuals, and that though debts may ruin the latter, they will not hurt the former. The only difference is, that a ftate cannot be compelled to pay its debts. But when its credit is exhaufted, it will not only be unable to contract any more debts, but may not have it in its power even to pay the intereft of thofe already contracted; and in that çafe it must neceffarily be expofed to allthe Ꭰ in inconveniencies attending the numerous infolvencies which must be occafioned by its own. And if the infolvency of one great merchant or banker produce great diftrefs in a country, how dreadful muft be the confequence attending the infolvency of fuch a nation as England! It must be so extenfive and complicated as no politician can pretend to deferibe a priori. The inconvenience of fuch a debt as the English have now contracted, and which they rather seem difposed to increase than diminish, is great, and may be fatal. If foreigners fhould become poffeffors of the greatest fhare of our funds, we are in fact tributary to them, and the difference is very little if they be natives. For ftill the people are debtors to another body than themselves, though they may, in some respects, have the fame intereft. But the moft we have to fear from the accumulation of the nation. al debt will begin to be felt when the intereft of it comes to be fo great, that it cannot be defrayed by the taxes which the country is able to raife, and when, confequently, the monied people, not withstanding their intereft in keeping up the national credit, will not venture to lend any more. Then one of these two confequences muft follow, which I fhall introduce in the words of Mr Hume. "When the new created funds for the expences of the year are not fubfcribed to, and raise not the money projected; at the fame time that the nation is diftreffed by a foreign invasion, or the like, and the money is lying in the Exchequer to difcharge the intereft of the old debt; the money must either be seized for the current fervice, and the debt be cancelled, by the violation of all national credit; or, for want of that money, the nation be enflaved." What we have moft to fear from the accumulation of our national debt is not perhaps a fudden bankruptcy, but the gradual diminution of the power of the ftate, in confequence of the increase of taxes, which difcourage induftry, and make it difficult to vend our manufactures abroad. The private revenue of the inhabitants of Great Britain, Dr Smith fays, [Wealth of Nations, v. 3. p. 528.] is at prefent as much incumbered in time of peace, and their ability to accumulate as much impaired, as it would have been in the time of the most expenfive war, had the pernicious fyftem of funding never been adopted. The practice of funding, he fays, has gradually enfeebled every ftate which has adopted it. The Italian republics feem to have begun it. Genoa and Venice, the only two remaining which can pretend to an independent exiftence, have both been enfeebled by it. Spain feems to have learned the practice from the Italian republics; and (its taxes being probably lefs judicious than theirs) it has in proportion to its natural ftrength been ftill more enfeebled. The debts of Spain are of very old ftanding. It was deeply in debt before the end of the fix. teenth century, about an hundred years before England owed a fhilling. France, notwithstanding its natural resources, languishes under an oppreffive load of the fame kind. The republic of the United Provinces is as much enfeebled by its debts as either Genoa or Venice. Is it likely then, he adds, that in Great Bri tain alone a practice, which has either brought weaknefs or defolation into every other country, fhould prove altogether innocent? When debts have been contracted, and a fund appointed for paying the intereft of them, it is generally contrived to be fo ample, as to do something more than this, and the furplus is made a fund for finking, or paying off, the debt; and is therefore called a finking fund. And as difcharging the debt difcharges the inte reft of the debt at the fame time, it neceffarily operates in the manner of compound intereft, and therefore will in time annihilate the debt. But the temptation to apply this sinking fund to other pur pofes is fo great, that it has been of little ufe in this country. To facilitate the payment of these debts, it is cuftomary with fome nations to borrow upon lives, viz. either to give the lender an annuity for his own life, or an annual fum to a number of perfons to expire with the laft life. This laft method is called a tontine. Both these methods have fucceeded better in France than with us. Mr Poftlethwaite makes an estimate of what taxes thefe kingdoms may be fuppofed to bear, in the following manner. People who live in plenty, as in England, may part with a tenth of their income; but fo poor as Scotland and Ireland in general are, a twentieth to them would be as much as a tenth to the English. By which, confidering the number of the people, and their incomes, computed at a medium, he puts the amount of all that can be drawn from the three kingdoms annually at 8,375,000 1, |