An essay towards a real character and a philosophical language. By John
Wilkins [Dean of Ripon, afterwards Bishop of Chester].[225] London,
1668, folio.
This work is celebrated, but little known. Its object gives it a right to a
place among paradoxes. It proposes a language--if that be the proper
name--in which _things_ and their relations shall be denoted by signs, not
_words_: so that any person, whatever may be his mother tongue, may read it
in his own words. This is an obvious possibility, and, I am afraid, an
obvious impracticability. One man may construct such a system--Bishop
Wilkins has done it--but where is the man who will learn it? The second
tongue makes a language, as the second blow makes a fray. There has been
very little curiosity about his performance, the work is scarce; and I do
not know where to refer the reader for any account of its details, except,
to the partial reprint of Wilkins presently mentioned under 1802, in which
there is an unsatisfactory abstract. There is nothing in the _Biographia
Britannica_, except discussion of Anthony Wood's statement that the hint
was derived from Dalgarno's book, {117} _De Signis_, 1661.[226] Hamilton
(_Discussions_, Art. 5, "Dalgarno") does not say a word on this point,
beyond quoting Wood; and Hamilton, though he did now and then write about
his countrymen with a rough-nibbed pen, knew perfectly well how to protect
their priorities.