roll of the several tributes which each conquered town or province paid into the royal treasury; and the third, a digest of their civil law, the largest branch of which was, de jure patrio.

This was the first, and most simple way of recording their conceptions; obvious to every one, and common not only to the North as well as South Americans, but to all mankind.†

II. But the inconveniencies attending the too great bulk of the volume in writings of this kind, would soon set the more ingenious and better civilized people upon contriving methods to abridge their characters: and of all the improvements of this kind, that which was invented by the EGYPTIANS, and called HIEROGLYPHICS, was by far the most celebrated. By this contrivance, that writing, which amongst the Mexicans was only a simple painting, became in Egypt a pictured character.‡

This abridgment was of three kinds; and, as appears from the more or less art employed in the contrivance of each, made by due degrees; and at three different periods.

1. The first way was, to make the principal circumstance in the subject stand for the whole. Thus when they would describe a battle, or two armies in array, they painted (as we learn from that admirable fragment of antiquity, the hieroglyphics of Horapollo) two hands, one holding a shield, and the other a bow;§ when a tumult, or popular insurrection, an armed man casting arrows;|| when a siege, -a scaling ladder. This was of the utmost simplicity; and, consequently, we must suppose it the earliest way of turning painting into an hieroglyphic; that is, making it a picture-character. And this is what we shall hereafter distinguish by the name of the CURIOLOGIC HIEROGLYPHIC.

2. The second, and more artful method of contraction, was by putting the instrument of the thing, whether real or metaphorical, for the thing itself. Thus an eye, eminently placed, was designed to represent God's omniscience;** an eye and sceptre, to represent a monarch;†† a sword, their cruel tyrant Ochus:‡‡ and a ship and pilot, the governor of the universe.§§ And this is what we shall call the TROPICAL HIEROGLYPHIC.

3. Their third, and still more artificial method of abridging picturewriting, was, by making one thing to stand for, or represent another,

* Quant aux caracteres, ils n'en avoient point: et ils y suppleoient par des especes d' hieroglyphes. Charlevoix of the Northern Americans, vol. v. p. 292. Lafitau gives us a specimen of these hieroglyphics. See Plate II.

+ The same kind of characters Stahlenberg found upon rocks in Siberia in the province of Permia, and near the river Jenesei. Of which he has given a drawing. See Plate III. The author de Vet. Lit. Hunn. Scyth. p. 15, seems to admire this natural expression of things, as some uncommon stretch of invention. "Miratus ego sæpe fui caupones idiotas (nempe in Hungaria) istis, quibus aliquid credere hujusmodi ficto charactere inter debitores non adscribere tantum, sed longioris etiam temporis intervallo post, non secus, quam si alphabethario scribendi genere adnotati fuissent, promere, debitamque summam et rationes indicare potuisse; ita si debitor miles est, rudi quadam linea frameam aut pugionem pingebant; si faber, malleum aut securim: si auriga, flagrum, atque sic porro."

‡ See Plate IV.

Horapoll. Hierogl. lib. ii. cap. 5.-Ed. Corn. De Pauw, Traj. ad Rhen. 1727. 4to.

|| Id. lib. ii. cap. 12.

†† Plutarch Is. et Osir.

Id. lib. ii. cap. 28.

Jamblichus. See note P, at the end of this book.

** Clem. Alex, Strom. lib. v.

# Id. ib.

where any quaint resemblance or analogy, in the representative, could be collected from their observations of nature, or their traditional superstitions. And this was their SYMBOLIC HIEROGLYPHIC.

Sometimes it was founded in their observations on the form, or on the real or imaginary natures and qualities, of beings. Thus the universe was designed by a serpent in a circle, whose variegated spots signified the stars;* and the sunrise by the two eyes of the crocodile, because they seem to emerge from its head;† a widow who never admits a second mate, by a black pigeon; one dead of a fever, contracted by the over great solar heat, by a blind scarabæus ;§ a client flying for relief to his patron, and finding none, by a sparrow and owl; || a king inexorable, and estranged from his people, by an eagle; a man who exposes his children through poverty, by an hawk;** a wife who hates her husband, or children who injure their mother, by a viper; †† one initiated into the mysteries, and so under the obligation of secrecy, by a grasshopper,‡‡ which was thought to have no mouth.

Sometimes, again, this kind of hieroglyphic was derived from the popular superstition. Thus he who had borne his misfortunes with courage, and had at length surmounted them, was signified by the hyana,§§ because the skin of that animal, used as a defence in battle, was supposed to make the wearer fearless and invulnerable.

But it is not from analogy alone (the force of which will be seen more fully as we proceed), nor yet from the nature of the thing only (which in these inquiries is indeed the safest guide), that we conclude the hieroglyphics now described to be an improvement of an earlier picture-writing used by the Egyptians, and resembling that of the Americans. Ancient history records the fact. We are told, in that exquisite fragment of Sanchoniatho, preserved by Eusebius, that "the god Taautus, having imitated Ouranus's art of picture-writing, |||| drew the portraits of the gods Cronus, Dagon, and the rest, and delineated the sacred characters which formed the elements of this kind of writing: ¶¶ for Cronus, particularly, he imagined these symbols of royalty, four eyes, two before, and two behind; of which, two were closed in slumber; and on his shoulders, four wings, two stretched out, as in the act of flight, and two contracted, as in repose. The first symbol signified that Cronus watched though he reposed, and reposed though he watched; the second symbol of the wings signified, in like manner, that even when stationed he flew about, and, when flying, he yet remained stationed. To each of the other gods he

• Horap. Hierogl. lib. i. cap. 2. † Lib. i. cap. 68.

Lib. ii. cap. 41. || Lib. ii. cap. 51.

++ Lib. ii. cap. 59 and 60.

‡ Lib. ii. cap. 32. Lib. ii. cap. 56. ** Lib. ii. cap. 99. §§ Lib. ii. cap. 72.

# Lib. ii. cap. 55.

|||| The original is, Πρὸ δὲ τούτων θεὸς Τάαυτος μιμησάμενος τὸν Οὐρανὸν, which Vigerus thus translates, Taautus vero Deus cum jam ante cæli imaginem effinxisset; and Cumberland, But before these things the god Taautus having formerly imitated or represented Ouranus: This is wrong, μιμησάμενος τὸν Οὐρανὸν signifies here, imitating the art, or practice, or example of Ouranus; not painting his figure. So Plutarch de Fort. Alex. Ηρακλία ΜΙΜΟΥΜΑΙ καὶ Περσία ζηλῶ.

See note Q, at the end of this book.

gave two wings on their shoulders,* as the satellites of Cronus in his excursions; who had likewise two wings on his head, to denote the two principles of the mind, reason and passion."† Here we see that Ouranus practised a kind of picture-writing, which Taautus afterwards improved: Taautus, or Thoth, was the Egyptian Mercury; on which name and family all the inventions of the various kinds of writing were very liberally bestowed: this, here mentioned, as.the improvement of Taautus, being the very hieroglyphics above described: and that, as before practised by Ouranus, the same with the simple American paintings.

Such then was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic ; and this the second mode of invention for recording men's actions and conceptions; not, as hath been hitherto thought, a device of choice for secrecy, but an expedient of necessity, for popular use.

III. But the obscurity which attended the scantiness of hieroglyphic characters, joined to the most enormous bulk of picture volumes, set men upon contriving a third change in this kind of writing: of which the CHINESE have given us a famous example.

We have just observed, that the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic was an improvement on a yet more ancient manner, resembling the rude picturewriting of the Mexicans; and that it joined contracted and arbitrarily instituted marks to images. The CHINESE writing at length went still further; it threw out the images, and retained only the marks; which they increased to a prodigious number. In this writing, every distinct idea has its proper mark; and is, like every real character, whether formed by analogy or institution, common to divers neighbouring nations, of different languages. § The shapes and figures of several of these marks,

* Conformably to this account, the Etruscans and Greeks occasionally gave wings to the images of all their deities.

† Πρὸ δὲ τούτων θεὸς Τάαυτος μιμησάμενος τὸν Οὐρανὸν, τῶν θεὸν ὄψεις, Κρόνου τε καὶ Δα γῶνος, καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν διετύπωσιν τοὺς ἱεροὺς τῶν στοιχειων χαρακτῆρας· ἐπινόησε δὲ καὶ τῷ Κρόνῳ παράσημα βασιλείας, ὄμματα τέσσαρα ἐκ τῶν ἐμπροσθίων καὶ τῶν ὀπισθίων μερῶν· δύο δὲ ἡσυχῆ μύοντα, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων πτιρὰ τέσσαρα, δύο μὲν ὡς ἱστάμενα, δύο δὲ ὡς ὑφειμένα· τὸ δὲ σύμβολον ἦν, ἐπειδὴ Κρόνος κοιμώμενος ἔβλιπε, καὶ ἐγρηγορὼς ἐκοιμᾶτο καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν στερῶν ὁμοί ως, ὅτι ἀναπαυόμενος ἵστατο, καὶ ἱπτάμενος ἀνεπαύετο τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς θεοῖς, δύο ἑκάστῳ πτερώ ματα ἰπὶ τῶν ὤμων, ὡς ὅτι δὴ συνίσταντο τῷ Κρόνῳ· καὶ αὐτῷ δὲ πάλιν ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς, πτερὰ δὺς ἐν ἐπὶ τοῦ ἡγεμονικωτάτου νοῦ, καὶ ἐν ἐπὶ τῆς αἰσθήσεως.-Præp. Evang. lib. i. cap. 10. ‡ See note R, at the end af this Book.

-pero lo que se escrive en elia, en todas las lenguas se entiende, porque aunque las Provincias no se entienden de palabra unaes a otras, mas por escrito si, porque las letras o figuras son unas mismas para todos, y significan lo mismo, mas no tinen el mismo nombre ni prolacion, porque como he dicho son para denotar cosas y no palabras, assi como en el exemplo de los numeros de guarismo que puse, se puede facilmente entender. De aqui tambien procede, que fiendo los Japones y Chinas, Naciones y lenguas tam differentes leen y entendien los unos las escrituras de los otros; y si hablas sen lo que leen, o escriven, poco ni mucho no se entenderian. Estas pues son las letras y libros que usan los Chinos tan afamados en el mundo, &c. -Acosta, lib. vi. cap. 5.

Les Caracteres de la Cochinchine, du Tongking, du Japon sont les mêmes que ceux de la Chine, et signifient les mêmes choses, sans toutefois que ces peuples en parlant, s' expriment de la même sorte. Ainsi quoique les langues soint très-differentes, et qu'ils ne puissent pas s'entendre les uns les autres en parlant; ils s'entendent fort bien en s'ecrivant, et tous leurs livres sont communs. Ces Caracteres sont en cela comme des chiffres d' arithmetique: plusieurs nations s'en servent: on leur donne differens noms; mais ils signifient par tout la même chose l'on compte jusqu'à quatre vingt mille de ces Caracteres.Du Halde, Descr. de l' Empire de la Chine, tom. ii. p. 226. fol. ed.

however now disguised, do yet betray their original to be from picture and images; as the reader may perceive by casting his eye on the specimen given us by Kircher; * for, that it is only a more contracted and refined hierogylphic, we have the concurrent testimony of the best writers on the arts and manners of this famous people; who inform us how their present writing was deduced, through an earlier hierogylphic, from the first simple way of painting the human conceptions.†

But it may be worth our while to consider more particularly, the origin and introduction of these ARBITRARY MARKS; the last advance of hieroglyphics towards alphabetic writing. We may observe, that substances, and all visible objects, were at first very naturally expressed by the images of the things themselves; as moral modes and other ideal conceptions of the mind were more aptly represented by marks of arbitrary institution: for it required variety of knowledge, and quickness of fancy, to design these latter ideas by analogie or symbolic figures; which therefore can be supposed no other than an after-thought of a people more than ordinary ingenious, as the Egyptians, and who, aiming to set a price upon their ingenuity, made their meaning mysterious and profound.

We shall see presently, that as all nations, in their ruder state, had hieroglyphic images or analogic or symbolic figures for marking things; so had they likewise simple characters or notes of arbitrary institution, for mental conceptions. But, commonly, that sort only which they most cultivated, or for which they were principally famous, happened to be transmitted to posterity. Thus the Mexicans are remembered for their hieroglyphic paintings only; and the Peruvians for their knotted cords. But we are not therefore to conclude that the Mexican writing had no arbitrary marks,* or that the Peruvians had no hieroglyphic paintings.† Real characters of both kinds had, at different periods, been cultivated in China, if we may credit the concurrent relations of the missionaries. In ancient Egypt, indeed, where hieroglyphic figures were so successfully cultivated as to give that general name to real characters, the use of marks by institution is more obscurely noticed. And for this a reason will be assigned. Martinus Martinius, in his History of China, tells us, they had two sorts of characters; the one, marks by institution, which had been substituted instead of knotted cords, once in use amongst them, as in Peru, but much more intricate than the Peruvian knots: their other characters were figures resembling the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and representing the things they were designed to express. Now as the Chinese improved in arts and empire, it is natural to suppose they would much increase their marks by institution. The growing number of these characters, the sciences to which they were applied, and their commodious and expeditious use, would tempt them even to change their analogic figures into marks by institution, till their whole writing became of this sort. It is now such: and that the change was produced in the manner here represented, we may collect from the words and scheme of Martinius on the other side. §

But to all this it may be said, How then came it to pass, that Egypt, which had the same imperial fortune in a long flourishing dominion, should be so far from changing their analogic figures into arbitrary. marks, that their arbitrary marks were almost lost and absorbed in analogic figures? For such arbitrary marks they had, as we may collect from their monuments, where we find them intermixed with proper hieroglyphics; and from Apuleius, where we see them described

* Joseph Acosta, as we see above, expressly says, that "the Mexicans represented those things, which had bodily shape, by their proper figures, and those which had none, by other significative characters." -las cosas que tenian figuras las ponian con sus proprias ymagines; y para las cosas que no avia ymagen propria tenian otros caracteres significativos de aquello. + The same Acosta says expressly, that, besides their quippos or strings variously knotted and coloured, they had paintings like the Mexicans. Lib. vi. c. 8.

‡ Idem imperator [Fo-hi] Sinicos characteres reperit, quos loco nodorum adhibuit, sed ipsis nodis intricatiores. Sin. Hist. lib. i.

See Plate VI.