No. XXXII.
How to compose an universal character, methodical and easy to be written, yet intelligible in any language; so that if an Englishman write it in English, a Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, Irish or Welchman, being scholars, yea, Grecian or Hebritian, shall as perfectly understand it in their own tongue as if they were English, distinguishing the verbs from the nouns, the numbers, tenses, and cases, as properly expressed in their own language as it was written in English.
NOTE.
The great difficulty which the various contrivers of a universal character or philosophical language have hitherto had to encounter, from the Marquis of Worcester and Bishop Wilkins down to M. Lodowick, appears to have arisen rather from the difficulty attendant on engaging the several nations to use it, than in inventing the most convenient character.
The real character of Bishop Wilkins, which there is every reason to suppose strongly resembled that of his contemporary the Marquis, was repeatedly recommended by Dr. Hook, who, to engage the world in the study of it, published some curious inventions of his own, tending to its illustration. But the most accurate notice on the history of pasigraphy yet published appeared in the Spect. du Nord for May, 1798. The anonymous author of this interesting memoir commences by a brief inquiry into the nature and utility of the universal character, and then proceeds with this very just eulogium on our immortal countryman Bacon.
It is generally allowed that Lord Bacon of Verulam comprehended nearly the whole circle of human knowledge at the period in which he lived, and foresaw most of the discoveries which have since been made. He laid the foundation of an Encyclopædia, and was very near discovering various important philosophical results, such as the weight of the air, &c. If we open his book on the progress of the sciences, we shall find the notion of a pasigraphy in the chapter entitled The Instrument of Discourse. "It is possible to invent such signs," says he, "for the communication of our thoughts, that people of different languages may, by this means, understand each other; and that each may read immediately in his own language, a book which shall be written in another." But Bacon did not think of confining this to twelve characters: on the contrary, he requires a great number, at least as many as the number of radical words; on which head he quotes the example of the Chinese; "and although," adds he, "our alphabet may appear more commodious than this method of writing, the thing itself nevertheless is well deserving of attention. The problem relates to the signs by which thoughts may be rendered current; and, as money may be struck of other materials as well as gold and silver, it is possible likewise to discover other signs of things as well as letters and words."
Des Cartes, in his third letter to father Mercennus, discusses the invention of a Frenchman, whom he does not name, but who, by means of a certain language and an artificial writing, pretended to understand all the different idioms. He remarks on this subject, that it would be very possible to compose a short and convenient grammar, with general signs, which should render all foreign languages intelligible.
In the year 1661, John Joachim Becher published a Latin folio, the title of which was "Characters for the Universal Knowledge of Languages: a Stenographic Invention hitherto unheard of." This unheard of invention consists of a method by which a native of any country may make himself understood by all foreigners by writing in his own language, and be enabled also to comprehend what they write in theirs. It was truly at that time a thing unheard of; for Becher, being the first who had given a complete treatise on this art, may be considered as the inventor.
He begins his work by a series of highly interesting observations upon general grammar, and the fundamental relations of all languages with regard to each other. He gives a learned comparative table of the relations and harmony of the Latin, the Greek, the Hebrew, the Arabian, the Sclavonian, the French, and the German. This work cannot be too highly esteemed, and assuredly was not unknown to the author of the work Du Monde Primitif. A Latin dictionary then follows, in which every word corresponds with one or more Arabic numeral figures arbitrarily taken. Every number is assumed as distinctive, or denoting the same word in all languages; and consequently nothing more is required than to compose a dictionary for each, similar to that which he has given for the Latin.
There is likewise a table of declensions and conjugations, which presents certain determinate numbers for all the cases, moods, tenses, or persons. By means of this general disposition, when a Frenchman is desirous of writing to a German the following phrase, La guerre est un grand mal (war is a great evil), he seeks in his index, guerre, être, grand, mal; and he writes the correspondent numbers,
13, 33, 67, 68.
The sentence might be understood by these four characteristic numbers; but, to leave no room for ambiguity, he says, Guerre is the nominative case, and finds, as the characteristic of the nominative, the Arabic figure 1. Est is the third person singular of the indicative mood, present tense, of which the characteristic is 15. To grand, and to mal, belong likewise the figure 1, for the nominative case; he will therefore write
13.1 | 33.15 | 67.1 | 68.1 |
where the numbers are separated by small vertical bars to prevent confusion. It may easily be conceived how, by the inverse method, the German will find in his tables the words denoted by the ciphers, which will form Der krieg ist ein grosses uebel.
This invention of Becher, which is the same thing nearly with regard to language, as algebra is to arithmetic, is possessed of considerable simplicity, and even a few hours practice will render it easy. A great variety of attempts on this principle may be found in Sturmius, Essais d'Expériences Curieuses.
In the same year, George Dalgaru, an Englishman, published in London a work of which the prolix title is sufficient to show its object. It runs thus, "The Art of Signs, or an Universal Character and Philosophical Language, by Means of which, Men of the most different Idioms may, in the Space of two Weeks, learn to communicate, whether by Word of Mouth or by Writing, all their Thoughts, as clearly as in their Mother Tongue. Besides which, young Persons may therein learn the Principles of Philosophy, and the Practice of true Logic, more speedily and more readily than in the ordinary philosophic Writings." The book of Dalgaru is written in Latin, and Beckman accuses him of extreme pedantry. His characters likewise were ciphers.
Joachim Frisichius, professor at the Gymnasium at Riga, was employed on a similar attempt, his object being to introduce a natural, rational, and universal language, of which some sheets printed at Thorn in 1681 contain the only specimen extant. The death of the author interrupted his labours. He purposed to call his new language Ludovicean, in honour of Louis XIV., under whose patronage he pursued his labours; a prince whose generosity was extended to the learned of all countries.
Athanasius Kircher also published a work on this subject, entitled "A New and Universal Polygraphia, deduced from the Art of Combination," and by means of which, says Morhoff, (Polyhistor, l. ii. c. 5.) he who understands one language only may correspond in writing with all the nations of the earth.
It would perhaps be unjust to pass in silence the little-known work of father Besnier, a Jesuit, who, in a book entitled La Réunion des Langues, ou l'Art de les apprendre toutes par une seule, printed at Paris in 1674, has furnished many important hints for the cultivation of this branch of language.
The most remarkable work, however, which has been written on this subject, is that for which we are indebted to Bishop Wilkins, the brother-in-law of Cromwell: it is entitled, "An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, London, 1668." It is divided into four parts: 1st, Considerations on the various languages, their defects and imperfections, from which a philosophic language ought to be exempt. 2dly, Philosophical inquiries respecting all the things and notions to which proper names ought to be assigned. 3dly, The organic science of native grammar considered as the necessary means of representing simple ideas in discourse. 4thly, The application of the general rules to every character and language. Examples, &c. This concise outline sufficiently shows the importance of the work.
In his appendix, the author explains the utility of a method of writing without alphabetic characters, by means of signs, which are to be used to denote all the principal ideas, the relative attributes being designated by small strokes added at right, acute, or obtuse angles, to the right or left; &c. Of principal or chief ideas he admits but forty, under which he ranges all the others, by that means forming a series of categories. His new language is calculated to afford great facility of comprehension, and new openings to the various processes of science.
After so many attempts, more or less philosophical, and of different degrees of perfection, with others probably of which we know nothing, we must not overlook the efforts of the celebrated Leibnitz. His History and Development of a Characteristic Universal Language is very generally known. Leibnitz considered his universal characteristic as the art of inventing and judging. He stated his conviction that an alphabet might be formed, and of this alphabet such words as would afford a language capable of giving mathematical precision to all the sciences. "Men may thus acquire," says he, "as it were, a new organ, which would add energy to their moral faculties, as the microscopic lens increases the power of the eye. The compass is not more highly valuable to the navigator, than this philosophical language would be to him who embarks on the sea of reason and experiments, which is now so full of danger."
In concluding this brief sketch, it may be enough to notice the ingenious method of the Abbé de l'Epée, who, by means of various gestures, dictated to his various deaf and dumb pupils certain discourses, which they wrote with equal readiness in four languages.