which is to be particularly noticed, in attending to language, under any of its forms. There is, every where, an aptitude in human talent, to conform to the necessity of circumstances. Our species, destitute of the best means of prosecuting desirable objects, resort to expedients, and acquire a degree of skill, which, without the trial, would seem beyond the compass of human power. A person deprived of sight or hearing, arrives at an acuteness in the exercise of his remaining senses, which excites the admiration of beholders. These principles apply, in a considerable degree, among a people destitute of written language. A great variety of devices have, at different times, been adopted, to remedy a want, which, in every unlettered community, must be severely felt. In addition to the various accounts handed down from antiquity, on this subject, the native Americans furnish many examples of recent date.

32. The emblematic paintings, the knots in strings, and various symbolic characters, among the Mexicans and Peruvians, displayed a considerable degree of mental refinement. Picture writing, in some form, has prevailed in nearly every age; and the present written languages of China and Japan are hieroglyphic, to a considerable extent, and not entirely arbitrary, as has been represented, in their structure and modifications.

The hieroglyphics of Egypt, from a common principle, must have had a tendency to retard the immediate adoption and progress of letters. This previous system of theirs must have been of course combined with their settled habits and prejudices. Being made familiar by use, they would not be likely to reject it, for a new system, though it might be one intrinsically better. For some reasons of

this kind, it doubtless happened that the Coptic alphabet was one of the latest formed, of any among the contiguous nations. It is probable also that the habits gained from hieroglyphic writing, tended to increase this Egyptian alphabet to the inconvenient number of two hundred and two letters, a large proportion of them representing syllables, instead of elementary sounds.

33. An other fact is very important, as explaining an extensive principle, running_through the first forms of written language. The Syrians, and most of the contiguous nations, looked to the Egyptians, as teachers, in most of the sciences then known; and their communications to others were almost entirely through the medium of hieroglyphics. This system very naturally extended its influence to letter writing, as is strikingly shown in the names given to the alphabetic characters, and their adaptation, on hieroglyphic principles, to the great leading words in various ancient tongues.

Thus all the names of the letters themselves, in these languages, were pre-existing, significant words. Aleph in Hebrew, and Alpha in Greek, were only a modification of the same noun, and signified leader, precursor, chief. This first letter was also the number one, and represented the general idea of unity. In composition it entered into the name of the Deity, of light, wisdom, priority, and being in general. The other characters used in the early writings were also alphabetic and hieroglyphic at the same time.

34. Among nations destitute of any kind of writing, various devices are used, to aid the memory in preserving the knowledge of events. Among the ancient nations, the conditions of trea

ties were recited before large bodies of people; remarkable formalities were used to give them soleninity, and such standing monuments were erected, as might serve to keep them in remembrance. The old became the teachers and guides of the young; for the wise Author of Nature, here, as in all the dispensations of his providence, left not his rational creatures without some means of instruction. Those who had passed the vigor of manhood, delighted in recounting the scenes of former days, which were listened to with delight, by the eager curiosity of the young. Specimens of rude carving were resorted to, as memorials of important events. Under such circumstances, mere oral language acquires a form and consistency, of which, reasoning upon abstract principles, we should hardly conceive it capable. All these operative causes were necessary to secure the farther progress of human improvement; for considerable advances must have been made, in language and mental cultivation, before men could invent an alphabet and bring it into use.

35. The instruction to be gained from the intellectual contrivances of savage life, is a very interesting theme to the mental philosopher. Among the Indians of North America, it is common, in complex transactions, for the chief orator to recite the conditions, article by article, and on the statement of each, to deliver a string of wampum, to a chosen witness, in token that he is to keep that particular portion in strict remembrance.

36. Though alphabetic characters appear to have been, soon after their invention, adopted by several nations, their progress was very unequal. In some countries, their use for ages was exceed

ingly limited; and in others they appear to have been entirely lost, after being once introduced.

37. The confederated republics of Greece, rising in their own energies, with a language intrinsically excellent, compounded of its own elements, unimitative, unborrowed, rose to a pitch of excellence, in works of genius and taste, which modern nations are contented to imitate, and would hardly dare attempt to surpass.

The unrivalled excellence of the Grecian language and literature, sustained the mental dominion of these people, long after their civil power had failed; and the hardy Roman warriors, who had subjected the country to their arms, became enamored pupils of the foes they had conquered. The history of the world affords many analogous instances of the triumph of intellect over physical force. A conspicuous example of this is the conquest of China by the Tartars, the effect of which was simply to conform the victors to the customs of those whom they had nominally subjugated. The conquest of Greece tended greatly to improve the literary taste of Rome, while the wealth and luxury introduced, at the same period, from the east, was undermining its political power. The hordes that soon poured in, from the north, on this devoted land, exercised their ferocity alike on the monuments of virtue and the productions of genius; and the consequent intellectual degradation is hardly more evident, from historical facts, than from the declining style of the writers who record them.

38. The models of excellence which escaped the general devastation, at the downfall of the Roman empire, were collected for a time in Constantinople.

This city in its turn was doomed to yield to the dominion of barbarian foes, and a series of revolutions followed, in disastrous succession. The history of this period is a history of violence and crime; but even these bloody revolutions, so frequent and desolating, assume a melancholy interest, as connected with the scanty remains of learning in the world.

In the seventh century, an extraordinary individual, founding a religious system, on the love of show, and the sensual appetites of men, had given an impulse which was overspreading the fairest portion of the earth. His Arabian followers invaded the fertile plains of the Nile. After an obstinate siege of fourteen months, Alexandria, then one of the most splendid cities in the world, was taken by Omrou, general under the Caliph Omar. The Mahometan banners were every where displayed on the ancient walls of Egypt; and the Saracens, like the locusts of a former age, overspread the land. This monarchy had become, for the second time, the general center of science, and for centuries, the royal library of Alexandria had been the pride of successive kings. Every exertion of learning and power had been employed to enrich this great storehouse of intellectual wealth; which now exceeded half a million volumes; the choicest remains of preceding times. The barbarian general knew not how to dispose of this stupendous pile, and sent to his more barbarian sovereign for orders. The answer was, "If these books of the infidels contain only what is conformable to the Koran, they are useless; if contrary to it, they are mischievous and should be destroyed." The work of ruin was begun. It was a ferocious warfare on all the embellishments of human life. For weeks these