UNIVERSAL PALEOGRAPHY.

INTRODUCTION.

WRITING, or the art of exhibiting and fixing the thought by means of visible signs, is the offspring of a civilization already advanced beyond the state of infancy, with which its growth has been proportionate; and its successive advances to perfection embrace the entire range between the rude drawing of the figure of a man, a horse, or a tree, and the delicate tracings of tachygraphy, which reproduce to the eye and mind the sounds of the thousands of names, by which these same objects are designated in the various languages of the world.

Thus, the history of the origin of writing is intimately connected with that of the earliest human institutions, and the facts of their respective annals, in their primitive state, notwithstanding their diversity, are nearly synchronous; we cannot, in truth, imagine even a slight degree of civilization, unaccompanied by an attempt at writing. The antiquities of the one will consequently illustrate the other; but in searching for evidences derived either from tradition or monuments, where can we find a guide capable of directing our steps without error towards these sources so attentively explored, so often discovered by vaunting systematists, but which nevertheless will probably long remain an enigma, as well as the solution of the question, Where and when did civilization commence ?

In the investigation of this almost idle question, so absolutely defined are its limits, and so impenetrable is the obscurity which envelops the subject, that credulity and criticism proceed in opposite directions. The former, in its religious quietude, accepts knowledge as it finds it. The latter, full of doubts and curiosity, rakes up the ashes of the earliest nations of the earth, and subjects to its crucible the often disfigured traditions of the past, but more frequently those monumental records, which by their authenticity serve to connect together the links of time, and reconstruct the genealogies of nations or ideas; and by succes

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sively exploring paths in various directions, all equally marked out by the works of man, it at length arrives at so many different isolated points, without any apparent mutual connexion, each of which appears in itself to be a commencement, and from their diversity so many distinct sources of civilization. The problem, therefore, instead of being resolved, becomes more complicated by such an inquiry.

There is, indeed, a more commodious sort of knowledge adapted to such minds as are only moderately inclined to search after the absolute truths of the history of ancient times. One man, the chosen of God, is considered as the progenitor of all the human race, and on him the Creator heaped his benefits, and imparted to him all that he had need to know in his mortal and fallen state; and in the history of this man is discovered the head of all the peoples of earth, the founder of all sciences, and the inventor of every useful art; in him originated all human affairs (thus reducing to a common source all mankind, living and dead), all the necessary regulations of social life, and the most practical methods for their development, namely, morals and laws, language and writing. For many centuries modern nations have received or known no other annals than these.

Time, however, has at length disinterred and brought to light some of the hidden elements of its own history, and caused these notions to change. These new ideas have led some minds to the belief, that there were distinct races of white men, black men, and yellow men; that lands existed unknown to the supposed father of the human race, his contemporaries and descendants; peoples, which appear more ancient than him; institutions, concerning which his history is silent; systems of social ideas of which he had no knowledge, and religious systems different from his own ;-and all these circumstances connected together in their results, have thrown some doubts on the unity of the human type, both as regards mankind and human affairs, so long accredited in modern times. From these doubts have sprung some useful truths and new facts, which have an intimate connexion with the subject before us.

If, indeed, it be ascertained that human civilization originated in various sources, and at epochs not contemporaneous, and that it manifested itself in different regions wide apart from, rather than adjacent to, each other; and that, like the great rivers of the earth, it has distributed itself in various currents over the globe, bearing with it fertility and life; it will necessarily follow that each of these sources of the great blessing of Providence, in

reserving to man alone the benefits of social intelligence, must be separately traced.

These historical considerations, thus generalized, will render our task less difficult; for wherever civilization was first planted and flourished, there we necessarily shall find writing. The history of its invention becomes therefore a simple chronological question, the solution of which must precede the exposition and philosophical examination of its various systems of signs.

The oldest pages of the human annals are filled with the history of mighty nations, and these are probably only the fragments of still more ancient histories, which can never be supplied by the most ingenious conjectures, since real knowledge rests solely on the authority of facts. In this inquiry, therefore, the historical critic will attentively examine the two kinds of documents which present themselves to his investigation,-namely, first, the annals written to record the facts of past times; and secondly, the monuments contemporary with the facts themselves. In the former may too often be found the spirit of system, or the effects of patriotic credulity, whilst the latter possess an all-imposing authority; facts may be accommodated to circumstances, but they cannot be absolutely false, unless the monuments are so likewise.

We shall be guided by similar rules of discernment in discussing the subject of the present remarks; not forgetting that science, as well as light and heat, have come to us from the East, and without their common and sympathetic influence there would be no perfect civilization,-ignorance and cold being synonymous with barbarism.

In directing our view, then, towards this, the original country of mankind, our attention is arrested by the striking memorials with which it abounds of several powerful nations, now for the most part extinct, those of China, Hindostan, Bactria, Persia, Babylon, Syria, and Egypt, all of which became civilized at different epochs.

Of these nations, India was probably the earliest to arrive at a state of civilization, at least amongst the countries of Eastern Asia. Enlightened, rich, and triumphant, she invented at the earliest period those arts and ideas which subsequently were transplanted to Europe by the intervention of the Persians and Greeks; and her universal influence is still manifested by the actual state of the majority of the languages both in Asia and in the Western world, in the intimate affinity of their structure with the ancient Sanscrit of India. The temples of Jaggernaut and Elephanta, the pagodas of Mahabalipuram and Chalembaram,

yet remain, with many other not less wonderful edifices, perfect marvels of art. The names of their founders have been lost in antiquity, for we find no dates on the monuments of India; everything exists there from a time immemorial, the origin of which is entirely forgotten; and of their writing (notwithstanding the diversity in its signs, and the antique inscriptions on the mountains of Guzerat and the column of Delhi,) we only possess traces in its secondary state, the alphabetic system.

China, in a more northerly part of Asia, has remained contented with its primitive efforts, and, either from design or the national indolence of the people, has been satisfied with little. At however remote a period we fix the earliest ascertained dates of its history, we shall find the commencement resembling its actual state; the writing having always consisted of the same figurative system, which is the unique source of all its combinations. Whether we refer these dates, in fact, to the reign of Fo-Hi, about the year 3468 before the Christian era, or admit the astronomical observations more recent by several centuries, or do not ascend higher than the reign of Yaou, which commenced in 2357 A.C., we cannot carry back the introduction of writing among the Chinese before the first of these periods, since it is to Fo-Hi that their annals attribute the invention of some signs for writing, namely, those of the eight kua. In regard to the era of the Emperor Yaou, less doubt exists; since a learned missionary, Père Gaubil, has drawn up the following account of the state of knowledge in his reign:-" It is certain, that in the time of Yaou China was well populated, and inhabitants existed even in the islands of the eastern sea. The art of poetry was known to the people, and colleges were founded in the reign of Shun (the successor of Yaou); they knew how to calculate by means of the stars, the solstices, and equinoxes; they possessed an annual period, consisting of 365 days and a quarter, which they knew how to divide into twelve lunar months, and by means of intercalations to make it equal to a solar year; they were accustomed to observe the heavens; they had manufactures in copper, iron, varnish, and silk stuffs; and they knew how to construct barks, of size sufficient to navigate to their isles of the eastern ocean. All this is proved by the first part of the book Shoo-king, composed in the reigns of Yaou and Shun; and it follows of course, that we must admit the existence of the Chinese people before that period." The advancement of Chinese civilization to this point was necessarily forwarded by the use of writing.

Iran or Persia, to the east of India, was in the most ancient

times governed by a dynasty of Hindu kings, established at Mahabad, in Media. From this historical fact we can comprehend why the Zend language, the mother of all the Persian idioms, is itself only the daughter of the Sanscrit, the sacred language of India. This Hindu dynasty, however, belongs to the most obscure period of Persian history, yet its existence is fully proved; and it was only on the expulsion of this Mahabadian race that the long anarchy succeeded, which lasted until the voice of the people of Iran proclaimed Kaïoumorz the chief of the new dynasty of Iranian origin, that of the Pishdadians, which became the common source of the two subsequent national dynasties, the Kayanides and Sassanides. The commencement of the reign of Kaïoumorz is carried back to about the year 3000 A.C.; and it is to this sovereign that the foundation of the splendid city of Istakar (the Persepolis of the Greeks) is attributed. The still existing ruins of his immense palace attest the power of the Iranian empire. Trained in the school of the Hindus, Iran probably remained faithful to their precepts and examples. On the palace of Istakar (attributed to the times of Kaïoumorz or Djem-Schid), and on the ancient royal sepulchres excavated near this palace, there has only been found, as in India, an alphabetic system of writing, of which the signs are called cuneiform; and if the extreme perfection of the art of graphic signs existed in Persia in the time of Kaïoumorz, or even ten centuries later, we may at once conclude that it was both known and practised by the Hindus at the same epochs.

outshone in splendor Their origin is buried their priests, named

Babylon and Nineveh for a long period the other cities of the empire of Assyria. with the other secrets of ancient times; Chaldæans, (a name given improperly to the entire Assyrian nation, and to the country itself,) have left us no information on this subject in their annals. Nimrod, Belus, 'and Ninus, shine with a vague light in these nebulous regions. Undoubted facts, however, prove the influence exercised by the Arabian Hamyarites on the condition of the Assyrian or Chaldæan language, which, as well as the population itself, is essentially Arabic, both in its rules and words. The geographical position of this empire shews it to have been exposed to all the ill effects of a bad neighbourhood, being placed in the route of all the conquerors who issued from Asia, and successively occupied and governed by the most fortunate. Persia also introduced into it both her Indian traditions and peculiar customs. We are no longer surprised, therefore, to discover on the monuments of Babylon the writing of Persepolis