“Love begg’d and pray’d old Time to stay
While he and Psyche toyed together;
Love held his wings: Time tore away,
But in the scuffle dropp’d a feather.
Love seized the prize, and with his dart
Adroitly work’d to trim and shape it,
O Psyche, though ’tis pain to part,
This charm shall make us half escape it.
Time need not fear to fly too slow
When he this useful loss discovers,
A pen’s the only plume I know
That wings her pace for absent lovers.”
_PENCILS._
The ancients drew their lines with leaden styles; afterwards a mixture
of tin and lead fused together was used. The mineral known under the
name of plumbago is supposed to have been first employed for the purpose
of drawing in the fifteenth century. In 1565, an old author notes that
people had pencils for writing which consisted of a wooden handle, in
which was a piece of lead; and a drawing is given of the pencil as an
object of curiosity. They continued to be uncommon for upwards of a
century, when we hear them spoken of being enclosed in pine or cedar.
_THE SCRIBE._
“Scribe was a name which, among the Jews, was applied to two
sorts of officers. 1. To a civil: and so it signifies a
notary, or, in a large sense, any one employed to draw up
deeds and writings. 2. This name signifies a church officer,
one skillful and conversant in the law to interpret and
explain it.”—_South._ vol. iv. ser. 1.
The word _scribe_ is derived from the Latin, _scribere_, which has the
same meaning as “schrabben” (Dutch), to scrape or draw a style, or pen,
over the surface of paper or parchment.
The name, however, was given to such as excelled in the use of the pen,
and who were likewise distinguished in other branches of knowledge. It
came in time to mean simply a learned man; and, as the chief part of
learning among the Jews was concerned with the sacred books of
Scripture, the word signified especially one “who was _skilled in the
law of God_”—one whose business it was, not merely to provide correct
copies of its volume, but also to explain its meaning. Thus, Ezra is
called “a ready scribe of the law of Moses.”—Ezra vii. 6.
Before the introduction of types, books were written generally upon
skins, linen, cotton-cloth, or papyrus: parchment in later times was
most esteemed. The business of the scribes was to make duplicate copies
of these books, which, when completed, the leaves were pinned together
so as to make a single long sheet. This was then rolled round a stick:
hence books of every description or size were called “rolls;” our word
volume means just the same thing in its original signification.
“_Volumed in rolling masses._”
In the time of our Saviour the scribes formed quite a considerable class
in society. Many of them belonged to the sanhedrim, or chief council,
and are therefore frequently mentioned in the New Testament with the
elders and chief priests.—See Luke v. 17, x. 25; Matthew xxiii. 2;
Matthew ii. 4, also xiii. 52; and Mark xii. 35.
_ANCIENT INK._
The ink used by the ancients appears to have been what is termed in art
a “body color,” or a more solid medium than is at present used, and
similar to what is used by the modern Chinese.
Subsequently, lamp-black, or the black taken from burnt ivory, and soot
from furnaces and baths, according to Pliny and others, formed the basis
of the ink used by old writers.
It has also been conjectured that the black liquor of the scuttle-fish
was frequently employed.[11] Of whatever ingredients it was made, it is
certain, from chemical analysis, from the blackness and solidity in the
most ancient manuscripts, and from inkstands found at Herculaneum, in
which the ink appears like thick oil, that the ink then made was much
more opaque, as well as encaustic, than what is used at present. Inks
red, purple, and blue, and also gold and silver inks were much used; the
red was made from vermilion, cinnabar, and carmine; the purple from the
_murex_, one sort of which, named the purple encaustic, was set apart
for the sole use of the emperors. Golden ink was used by the Greeks much
more than by the Romans. The manufacture of both gold and silver ink was
an extensive and lucrative business in the Middle Ages. Another distinct
business was that of inscribing the titles, capitals, as well as
emphatic words, in colored and gold and silver inks.
_INK-HORNS._
The ink-horns were sometimes made of lead, sometimes of silver, and were
generally polygonal in their form.
_HIEROGLYPHICAL WRITING._
The remote antiquity of hieroglyphical writing may be inferred from the
fact that it must have existed before the use of the _solar_ month in
Egypt,—“which,” says Gliddon, “astronomical observations on Egyptian
records prove to have been in use at an epoch close up to the Septuagint
era of the Flood.” From Egyptian annals we may glean some faint
confirmation of the view that they either possessed the _primeval_
alphabet, or else they rediscovered its equivalent from the mystic
functions and attributes of the “two Thoths,”—the first and second
Hermes, both Egyptian mythological personages, deified as attributes of
the Godhead.
To “Thoth,” Mercury, or the first Hermes, the Egyptians ascribed the
invention of _letters_.
The first attempts of “picture-writing” were to imitate certain images,
each representing a word or letter. Drawing, therefore, was the most
natural medium; and the study of representing things pictorially became
popular and the only mode of communication.
The true origin of alphabetical writing has never been traced; but that
of the Egyptians has been proved by the Comte de Caylus to be formed, as
stated above, of hieroglyphical marks, adopted with no great variations.
“We find,” says Warburton, “no appearance of alphabetical writing or
characters on their public monuments.”
This, however true at the time he wrote, cannot now be asserted; since
the celebrated Rosetta stone, in the British Museum, is engraved with
three distinct sets of characters,—Greek, Egyptian, and a third
resembling what are called hieroglyphics. The only doubt that can be
entertained is, whether these are strictly hieroglyphics,—that is,
representations of things,—or rather an alphabetical character peculiar
to the priesthood, and called hierogrammatics. 1. The existence of this
sacred alphabet is attested by Herodotus, Diodorus, and several other
writers. 2. It went occasionally under the name of hieroglyphic, as
appears not only by the passage quoted above from Manetho, if we do not
alter the text, but from one in Porphyry, which may be found in
Warburton. 3. It was, however, considered as perfectly distinct from the
genuine hieroglyphic, which was always understood to denote things,
either by mere picture-writing, or, more commonly, by very refined
allegory. 4. Works of a popular and civil nature were written in this
character, as we learn from Clement of Alexandria; whereas the genuine
hieroglyphic was exceedingly secret and mysterious, and the knowledge of
it confined to the priesthood. 5. The inscription upon the Rosetta stone
is said, in the terms of the decree contained in it, to be written in
the sacred, national, and Greek characters. 6. It could not be a
mysterious character, such as the genuine hieroglyphic seems to have
been, because it was exposed to public view with a double translation.
7. It occupies a considerable space upon the stone, although an
indefinite part of it is broken off; although the real hieroglyphic, as
is natural to emblematic writing, appears to have been exceedingly
compendious. 8. The characters do not appear to be very numerous, as
they recur in various combinations of three, four, or more, as might be
expected from the letters of an alphabet. But this argument we do not
strongly press, because our examination has not been very long. It
appears to hold out a decisive test, and we offer it as such to the
ingenuity of antiquaries.
Upon these grounds we think that the characters upon the Rosetta stone,
which are commonly denominated hieroglyphics, are in fact the original
alphabetic characters of the Egyptians, from which the others have
probably been derived by a gradual corruption through haste in writing.
They are, however, in one sense, hieroglyphics, being tolerably accurate
delineations of men, animals, and instruments. If we are right in our
conjectures, the value of the Rosetta stone is incomparably greater than
has been imagined. We have no need of hieroglyphics: Roman and Egyptian
monuments are full of them. But a primitive alphabet, probably the
earliest ever formed in the world, and illustrating an important link in
the history of writing,—the adaptation of signs to words,—is certainly a
discovery very interesting to any philosophical mind. Through what steps
the analysis of articulate sound into its constituent parts was
completed—if we can say that it ever has been completed—so as to
establish distinct marks for each of them, and whether these marks were
taken at random, or from some supposed analogy between the simple sounds
they were brought to represent and their primary hieroglyphical meaning,
are questions which stand in need of solution.[12]
The Rosetta stone is the only one yet discovered, being no doubt the
_pioneer_ to many more that may yet be unearthed. The importance of this
stone—its inscription indicating the probability of its supplying a key
to the deciphering of the long-lost meanings of Egyptian
hieroglyphics—“was immediately,” says Gliddon, in his Lectures on
Ancient Egypt, “perceived by the learned, who in vain endeavored to
trace the analogy between symbolical and alphabetical writing. Its
arrival in London excited the liveliest interest in all those who had
devoted themselves to Egyptian archæology; and the attention of the
greatest scholars of the age was directed to its critical investigation.”
(See Gliddon’s work on Ancient Egypt.)
Any one who will examine the hieroglyphical alphabet closely will
discover a most extraordinary coincidence in that of the symbolical
writing of our North American Indians, specimens of which are in the
museum at Washington City. A war despatch, giving an account of one of
their expeditions, has the same emblematical figures as has that of the
Egyptians as used 1550 B. C.
There are also among other tribes many remarkable similarities, and
analogous with Egyptian symbolical writings, which strengthen the
supposition that the Indians of North America are one of the lost tribes
of Israel. Nor is it alone the mere words which these signs and figures
convey, but certain traits of character in their habits and customs as
compared with the ancients.—(See Isaiah xi. 11-15.)
The Indians have a tradition among them to this effect: “_that nine
parts of their nation out of ten passed over a great river_.” They also
have traditions of the “Flood,” “a good book,” “Tower of Babel,”
“dispersion of the Jews,” and the “confounding of language.” It is
related by Father Charlevoix, the French historian, that the Hurons and
Iroquois in their early day had a tradition among them that the first
woman came from heaven and had twins, and that the elder killed the
younger. In 1641 an old Indian woman stated that this tradition among
her tribe was that the Great Spirit had killed his brother. This is
evidently a confusion of the story of Cain and Abel. Still, the
tradition is remarkable from the fact that this, as well as the others
alluded to, existed long before the discovery of this continent.
The Ottawas say that there are two great beings who rule and govern the
universe, and who are at war with each other. The one they call
“_Mameto_,” the other “Matchemaneto.” There is a wonderful, or rather,
we should say, a remarkable, resemblance between the language of the
Creek Indians with that of the ancient Hebrew; for instance: “Y He Howa”
means Jehovah; “Halleluwah,” hallelujah; “Abba,” in Creek, has the same
meaning as “Abba” in Hebrew; “Kesh,” kesh; “Abe,” Abel; “Kenaaj,”
Canaan; “Awah,” Eve, or Eweh; “Korah,” Cora; “Jennois,” Jannon, both
literally meaning, “He shall be called a son.” There is more in these
similarities than can be attributed to mere chance.
Any one at all familiar with hieroglyphical writing need only to examine
the Indian characters upon buffalo and other skins received in trade
from the Indians to trace, as it were, a distinct line from that most
ancient school of designing figures to suit expression and language,
down to these tribes, who may well be called the descendants of the
“remnant of” God’s people, who were scattered over the lands of Egypt
and the “islands of the sea,” in the time of Isaiah.
In the Ambrosian Library at Milan there are to be seen Mexican
hieroglyphics, painted in Mexico upon buck-leather, and were presented
to the Emperor Charles V. by Ferdinand Cortez. These hieroglyphics are
now as little understood as are those of Egypt, although both are now
gradually yielding to the mind’s influence in their development.
Impressions of these were taken on copper from fac-similes in the
possession of Humboldt.
Perhaps the first real step made into the hieroglyphical arcana may be
dated from 1797, when the learned Dane, George Zoega, published at Rome
his folio “De Origine et Usa Obeliscorum,” explanatory of the Egyptian
Obelisks.—(_G. R. Gliddon._)
_THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES—THE CONFOUNDING OF LANGUAGES._
One of the most remarkable passages in Holy Writ is that which speaks of
the confounding of language. “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is
one, and they have all one language. Let us go down, and there confound
their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So
the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the earth,
and they left off to build the city.”
The name of it was called “Babel” (confusion), from the Hebrew. The
consequence of this eternal fiat, which went forth like a flash of
lightning, was, that the people became as strangers to each other, and
spoke a language wild and chaotic. Gesticulation took the place of
words; and hence their punishment for daring to contest power with their
Creator.
The building of the Tower of Babel was an act of Nimrod’s, who
“esteemed it a piece of cowardice to submit to God;” and he urged the
people on to build this tower, saying, _He would be revenged on God_ if
he should ever have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would
build it so high the waters could not reach it. The place wherein they
built the tower is now called Babylon. From this date may be ascribed
the history of languages. It is supposed, however, that Noah and other
pious persons, chiefly the descendants of Shem in the line of Eber, not
being concerned in this project, retained the _original_ language. Now,
if this was, as it is highly probable, the Hebrew, we may conclude it
was thus called from Eber, to whose descendants it was peculiar; and
perhaps this is the most satisfactory reason that can be assigned why
Abraham is called the Hebrew and his posterity Hebrews.
It was not, however, the mere confusion of tongues which rendered the
people incapable of conversing one with another, but it was the
extraordinary miracle connected with it of the _mind’s confusion_.
Incapable, therefore, of bringing their original language back to its
former use, they invented new languages, new phrases; and thus in time
every great nation had its own language. The dividing of languages was
therefore the dividing of nations. The precise number of original
languages then heard for the first time cannot be determined. The
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Sclavonian, Tartarian, and Chinese
languages are considered to be original: the rest are only dialects from
them.
History is silent on the early data of the building of the Tower of
Babel; nor is one of its builders’ names mentioned, except the somewhat
obscure intimation respecting Nimrod.[13]
Babylon subsequently became the head-quarters of idolatry, and the type
of the “mystical Babylon,” the mother of harlots and abominations of the
earth.
The glory of Babylon departed. Its walls of sixty miles in
circumference, eighty-seven feet thick and three hundred and fifty feet
high, built of brick and containing twenty-five gates of solid brass and
two hundred and fifty towers, are now the wonder of men who gaze upon
the _debris_ of “splendor in ruins.”
The ruins of “Birs Nimrod,” on an elevated mount, are supposed to be the
Tower of Babel of the sacred Scriptures, and the temple of Belus, so
minutely described by Herodotus. The base of this tower measures two
thousand and eighty-two feet in circumference. Babylon was in its glory
in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. It was besieged and taken by Cyrus B. C.
538, and afterwards by Alexander the Great.