The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master.—Henry IV., Part I.
H. M.
SYMBOLICAL WRITING.
It would seem that the earliest of all written language consisted of actual drawings of the forms of animals or things; rudely sketched, indeed, by the hands of our rude forefathers, but sufficiently plain to mark the object designed. This mode appears the more natural, because the representation of sounds, which express the names of things, by certain characters or alphabets, which is the mode now most extensively in use, must necessarily require some previous concert between two parties, the one of whom suggests, and the other agrees, that a particular mark or form on paper shall be the symbol for a particular sound. But if we suppose a savage separated from his friend, and wishing to communicate with him, without having had this previous consultation, and supposing that he has lent his distant acquaintance some articles of furniture, such as his bow and arrows, or his knife, which he is anxious to have returned, without the knowledge of his messenger, it seems highly probable, that his first impulse would be to make a rude sketch of these articles, and transmit the impression to his friend. Were the latter an acute man he would probably understand the allusion; and, were he not intelligent enough for this purpose, it is clear he would not be nearly sufficiently so to comprehend the symbols to denote sounds. So that the simplicity of this mode of writing might suggest the probability of its being the first resorted to, without alluding to the hieroglyphics yet remaining on the Egyptian tombs, which, from our want of acquaintance with the manners, customs, and general objects with which the Egyptians were conversant, are very difficult to decipher, if we may judge from the learning expended in explaining them. As a modern specimen of this kind of writing, it may not be uninteresting to describe a letter which M. Martinez received from an inhabitant of the Caroline Islands, in the Eastern Ocean. The following is the drawing of the letter alluded to, and the description is taken from Freycinet and Arago’s Voyage.
“This was written to M. Martinez, at Rotta, who had commissioned a Tamor of Sathoual to send him some shells, promising in exchange a few pieces of iron. The captain gave him the sheet of paper, the original of which is in my possession, and is in red characters. The figure at the top of the letter was placed there as the bearer of compliments: the branch under him is the type of peace and amity: the marks in the column on the left hand indicate the sort of shells the Carolinian had sent to M. Martinez. In the column on the right, are placed the objects he desired in exchange; namely, three large fishing hooks, four small ones, two pieces of iron of the shape of axes, and two pieces a little longer.” This curiously-expressed request was gratified, and many handsome shells obtained in return.
This is, perhaps, as clear an instance as can be found, of the mode in which an unlettered people would endeavour to convey the expression of their wishes to their friends at a distance, and forms a striking contrast to the elegant though complicated process of our own method of writing.
In the written language of the Chinese, a great proof of its having originated in this picture-writing, may yet be seen by a little attention to the forms of their characters, and is, perhaps, the only language now generally in practice, in which these early symbols are discernible, though some have attempted to explain the Hebrew language in the same way, by maintaining that the letters composing the Alphabet were at first characters or drawings of things. In the modern Chinese, however, much of the early rude formation of the characters has been altered, arising, probably, in some degree, from a greater improvement in taste inducing the nation to alter these rough to more elegant forms, and partly from the facility of writing requiring the scribe, in some cases, to strike off, and in others to connect, various parts of the original figure. Thus, the present Chinese character for ‘a man,’ is
