and gestures. The dejection of sorrow, the smile of joy, the scowl of contempt, the frown of anger, are a universal language, read and understood alike by all nations. These natural signs may exist, independent of conventional language; but they generally concur with it, and add greatly to its force. These natural signs of mental feeling are capable of being refined and extended, to a considerable degree, as in the ancient pantomimes, and appear to be more or less practised by all nations. The open arms of friendship, the fist clenched in anger, and a multitude of others, are of this class.

18. An attentive investigation will show, that there is no way in which the individual mind can, within itself, to any extent, combine its ideas, but by the intervention of words. Every process of the reasoning powers, beyond the immediate perception of sensible objects, depends on the structure of speech, and in a great degree, according to the excellence of this chief instrument of all mental operations, will be the means of personal improvement, of the social transmission of thought, and the elevation of national character. From this, it may be laid down as a broad principle, that no individual can make great advances in intellectual improvement, beyond the bounds of a ready formed language, as the necessary means of his progress. The ideas, therefore, as well as the vocabulary of the savage, are necessarily limited; but his words being comparatively few, are often repeated, and become familiar by use. They are also generally expressive, for they have immediate relation to objects of sense; and it is farther observable, that where vocal language is restricted, men have recourse to violent and significant gesticulations to remedy its defects.

19. The cultivation of the mental powers depends chiefly on social institutions; but all establishments of a public nature are very closely connected with the individual intelligence in which they originate, and on which their maintenance must necessarily depend. It is the reciprocity of action and reaction, at every step, and these two principles cannot long be greatly out of proportion to each other. Such is the nature of man, that no government can far extend its influence and power, without laws, religious doctrines, or rules of moral conduct, contained in some written form. The union and consequent elevation of large communities, depend on the concentration of the public sentiment. All people, ignorant of writing, are, by necessary consequence, divided into small tribes, and can make but a slow progress in civilization. The consistency and elevation of public sentiment, for any length of time, depend on education in some form or other; but instruction is not likely to acquire much system or extent, while left to depend wholly on oral communication. It is with propriety, therefore, that the knowledge of letters is generally recognized by philosophic writers, as the first important advance in the career of social refinement, and all nations destitute of writ ten records characterized as barbarian.

20. Written as well as spoken language, is exceedingly important to man, in his social condition; and the unlettered tenants of the forest must, at times, strongly feel the want of some means to extend their ideas beyond the immediate objects around them.

21. Many evidences exist of the proneness of men to devise visible signs in aid of oral language;

and of all the systems of this kind, none can compare with the Egyptian hieroglyphics, either for systematic skill, or for the extent of their application.

22. The Egyptians possessed extraordinary advantages for their peculiar system of writing. The astonishing fertility of their country furnished an easy means of livelihood, to a vast population. The numerous body of priests were, by their large landed revenues, freed in a great degree, from pecuniary care, while they held sufficient political influence to inspire them with ambition. Though their hieroglyphics must have been extremely complicated and unwieldy, compared with modern letters, yet it appears to have been, for the initiated class, the great business of life, and means of distinction, to become exceedingly familiar with their principles and use. Under these special, favoring circumstances, it is less wonderful that Egypt, with a cumbrous form of written language, rose to great comparative excellence in arts, sciences, policy, and laws.

23. There is one kind of advancement, how. ever, to which the system of hieroglyphics, must, from its nature, have opposed an absolute barrier. The Egyptians, with this species of writing, could not have excelled in works of a high order of genius and taste. Accordingly, we find they are not credited by their cotemporaries, or immediate successors, for any thing of this nature. And again, if a few individuals of extraordinary intellectual powers could have produced a masterly performance, in poetry or oratory, it could not have been transmitted to posterity, through a medium of writing unintelligible to all subsequent ages.

All,

therefore, which we are able to learn of this interesting nation, is from others, and not from their own writers. Our information concerning them is a partial detail of prominent facts, in science, history, and civil policy; but extends not to their internal intercourse, their turns of expression, moral feeling, and social habits of life; for these could only have been learned from their own books.

24. And here it is proper to call the reader's attention, for a moment, to the important philosophic difference, between all hieroglyphic or arbitrary characters, and the letters which represent elementary sounds and their combinations, as employed by the civilized world at the present day.

25. It is a general law, that in all subjects of human inquiry, their principles may be easily understood and effectually applied, in proportion as their elements are few and simple. The system of Egyptian hieroglyphics must have been one with which it required a large portion of human life to become familiar; because their original elements must have been very numerous, and liable to great variations, on metaphysical principles.

26. The system of writing, with our ordinary letters, is, on the contrary, reducible to complete mathematical calculation. This is a most important fact in the science of language, and was remarkably exemplified during the late war in Europe. When the struggle for power was at its height, and kingdoms were the stake contested, it became an object of vast importance to transmit intelligence, with the greatest possible secresy. The ablest men were employed to write in characters, which, without the proper key, should defy

all human talent to read. These letters were intercepted, in several instances, forwarded to the French emperor, and handed over to the mathematicians to decipher. By assuming any language, at discretion, selecting a single character of the mysterious document, and proceeding by repeated trials, they ascertained what letter it was, by its relative position in words. Having found one, the next became more easy, and so on progressively, through each subsequent approximation.

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27. To Cadmus of Phenicia is generally ascribed the immortal honor of inventing the letters; a device of more importance in human affairs than any other, for which our race has ever been indebted to an individual. It is proper, however, to observe, that this subject is one on which learned men are far from being universally agreed. It is maintained by some that the letters introduced into Syria by Cadmus, and thence into Greece, had been in use, in India, for a long time previous. The Phenician letters were at first sixteen in number. They were soon introduced into most of the neighboring countries, and were considerably modified, according to the fancy of the different people, or from unavoidable circumstances. Their number was also soon increased. Their application appears to have been, at first, exceedingly limited, both from the want of skill in their use, and of the necessary materials on which they could be employed

28. A new era now dawned on the world, and instead of mere oral traditions, greatly perverted in the transmission, the chief events were recorded on tables of marble, lead, or brass. To these suc