CADMUS'S LETTERS.
B.C. 1500
Two modes of writing.--Symbols.--Example.--Symbol of the Deity.--Ancient
symbols.--The Egyptian hieroglyphics phonetic.--Natural
symbols.--Mexican record.--Arbitrary symbols.--Advantages of the
symbolical mode of writing.--The meaning of them more easily
understood.--Comparison of the two systems.--Further comparison of the
two systems.--Two modes of representing the idea of a battle.--Great
advantages of the phonetic mode of writing.--Uncertainty of the origin
of phonetic writing.--Cadmus's alphabet.--Difficulties attending the
introduction of it.--Different modes of writing.--The art of writing at
first very little used.--Proofs of this.--Story of the lots.--Other
instances.--The invention of papyrus.--Mode of manufacturing
papyrus.--Volumes.--Mode of using ancient books.--Ink.--Ink found at
Herculaneum.--Recent discoveries in respect to the Egyptian
hieroglyphics.--Specimen of Egyptian hieroglyphics.--Explanation of
the figures.--Moses in Egypt.--Importance of the art of writing.
There are two modes essentially distinct from each other, by which
ideas may be communicated through the medium of inscriptions addressed
to the eye. These two modes are, first, by _symbolical_, and secondly,
by _phonetic_ characters. Each of these two systems assumes, in fact,
within itself, quite a variety of distinct forms, though it is only
the general characteristics which distinguish the two great classes
from each other, that we shall have occasion particularly to notice
here.
[Illustration: SYMBOLICAL WRITING]
Symbolical writing consists of characters intended severally to denote
_ideas_ or _things_, and not words. A good example of true symbolical
writing is to be found in a certain figure often employed among the
architectural decorations of churches, as an emblem of the Deity. It
consists of a triangle representing the Trinity with the figure of an
eye in the middle of it. The eye is intended to denote the divine
omniscience. Such a character as this, is obviously the symbol of an
idea, not the representative of a word. It may be read Jehovah, or
God, or the Deity, or by any other word or phrase by which men are
accustomed to denote the Supreme Being. It represents, in fine, the
idea, and not any particular word by which the idea is expressed.
The first attempts of men to preserve records of facts by means of
inscriptions, have, in all ages, and among all nations, been of this
character. At first, the inscriptions so made were strictly pictures,
in which the whole scene intended to be commemorated was represented,
in rude carvings. In process of time substitutions and abridgments
were adopted in lieu of full representations, and these grew at length
into a system of hieroglyphical characters, some natural, and others
more or less arbitrary, but all denoting _ideas_ or _things_, and not
the sounds of words. These characters are of the kind usually
understood by the word hieroglyphics; though that word can not now
with strict accuracy be applied as a distinctive appellation, since it
has been ascertained in modern times that a large portion of the
Egyptian hieroglyphics are of such a nature as brings them within the
second of the two classes which we are here describing, that is, the
several delineations represent the sounds and syllables of words,
instead of being symbols of ideas or things.
It happened that in some cases in this species of writing, as used in
ancient times, the characters which were employed presented in their
form some natural resemblance to the thing signified, and in other
cases they were wholly arbitrary. Thus, the figure of a scepter
denoted a king, that of a lion, strength; and two warriors, one with a
shield, and the other advancing toward the first with a bow and arrow,
represented a battle. We use in fact a symbol similar to the
last-mentioned one at the present day, upon maps, where we often see a
character formed by two swords crossed, employed to represent a
battle.
The ancient Mexicans had a mode of writing which seems to have been
symbolical in its character, and their characters had, many of them
at least, a natural signification. The different cities and towns were
represented by drawings of such simple objects as were characteristic
of them respectively; as a plant, a tree, an article of manufacture,
or any other object by which the place in question was most easily and
naturally to be distinguished from other places. In one of their
inscriptions, for example, there was a character representing a king,
and before it four heads. Each of the heads was accompanied by the
symbol of the capital of a province, as above described. The meaning
of the whole inscription was that in a certain tumult or insurrection
the king caused the governors of the four cities to be beheaded.
But though, in this symbolical mode of writing, a great many ideas and
events could be represented thus, by means of signs or symbols having
a greater or less resemblance to the thing signified, yet in many
cases the characters used were wholly arbitrary. They were in this
respect like the character which we use to denote _dollars_, as a
prefix to a number expressing money; for this character is a sort of
symbol, that is, it represents a thing rather than a word. Our
numerals, too, 1, 2, 3, &c., are in some respects of the character of
symbols. That is, they stand directly for the numbers themselves, and
not for the sounds of the words by which the numbers are expressed.
Hence, although the people of different European nations understand
them all alike, they read them, in words, very differently. The
Englishman reads them by one set of words, the Spaniard by another,
and the German and the Italian by others still.
The symbolical mode of writing possesses some advantages which must
not be overlooked. It speaks directly to the eye, and is more full of
meaning than the Phonetic method, though the meaning is necessarily
more vague and indistinct, in some respects, while it is less so in
others. For example, in an advertising newspaper, the simple figure of
a house, or of a ship, or of a locomotive engine, at the head of an
advertisement, is a sort of hieroglyphic, which says much more plainly
and distinctly, and in much shorter time, than any combination of
letters could do, that what follows it is an advertisement relating to
a house, or a vessel, or a railroad. In the same manner, the ancient
representations on monuments and columns would communicate, perhaps
more rapidly and readily to the passer-by, an idea of the battles, the
sieges, the marches, and the other great exploits of the monarchs
whose history they were intended to record, than an inscription in
words would have done.
Another advantage of the symbolical representations as used in ancient
times, was that their meaning could be more readily explained, and
would be more easily remembered, and so explained again, than written
words. To learn to read literal writing in any language, is a work of
very great labor. It is, in fact, generally found that it must be
commenced early in life, or it can not be accomplished at all. An
inscription, therefore, in words, on a Mexican monument, that a
certain king suppressed an insurrection, and beheaded the governors of
four of his provinces, would be wholly blind and unintelligible to the
mass of the population of such a country; and if the learned sculptor
who inscribed it, were to attempt to explain it to them, letter by
letter, they would forget the beginning of the lesson before reaching
the end of it,--and could never be expected to attempt extending the
knowledge by making known the interpretation which they had received
to others in their turn. But the royal scepter, with the four heads
before it, each of the heads accompanied by the appropriate symbol of
the city to which the possessor of it belonged, formed a symbolical
congeries which expressed its meaning at once, and very plainly, to
the eye. The most ignorant and uncultivated could readily understand
it. Once understanding it, too, they could never easily forget it; and
they could, without any difficulty, explain it fully to others as
ignorant and uncultivated as themselves.
It might seem, at first view, that a symbolical mode of writing must
be more simple in its character than the system now in use, inasmuch
as by that plan each idea or object would be expressed by one
character alone, whereas, by our mode of writing, several characters,
sometimes as many as eight or ten, are required to express a word,
which word, after all, represents only one single object or idea. But
notwithstanding this apparent simplicity, the system of symbolical
writing proved to be, when extensively employed, extremely complicated
and intricate. It is true that each idea required but one character,
but the number of ideas and objects, and of words expressive of their
relations to one another, is so vast, that the system of representing
them by independent symbols, soon lost itself in an endless intricacy
of detail. Then, besides,--notwithstanding what has been said of the
facility with which symbolical inscriptions could be
interpreted,--they were, after all, extremely difficult to be
understood without interpretation. An inscription once explained, the
explanation was easily understood and remembered; but it was very
difficult to understand one intended to express any new communication.
The system was, therefore, well adapted to commemorate what was
already known, but was of little service as a mode of communicating
knowledge anew.
[Illustration: SYMBOLICAL AND PHONETIC WRITING]
We come now to consider the second grand class of written characters,
namely, the _phonetic_, the class which Cadmus introduced into Greece,
and the one almost universally adopted among all the European nations
at the present day. It is called Phonetic, from a Greek word denoting
_sound_, because the characters which are used do not denote directly
the thing itself which is signified, but the sounds made in speaking
the word which signifies it. Take, for instance, the two modes of
representing a conflict between two contending armies, one by the
symbolic delineation of two swords crossed, and the other by the
phonetic delineation of the letters of the word battle. They are both
inscriptions. The beginning of the first represents the handle of the
sword, a part, as it were, of the thing signified. The beginning of
the second, the letter _b_, represents the pressing of the lips
together, by which we commence pronouncing the word. Thus the one mode
is _symbolical_, and the other _phonetic_.
On considering the two methods, as exemplified in this simple
instance, we shall observe that what has already been pointed out as
characteristic of the two modes is here seen to be true. The idea is
conveyed in the symbolical mode by one character, while by the
phonetic it requires no less than six. This seems at first view to
indicate a great advantage possessed by the symbolical system. But on
reflection this advantage is found entirely to disappear. For the
symbolical character, though it is only one, will answer for only the
single idea which it denotes. Neither itself nor any of its elements
will aid us in forming a symbol for any other idea; and as the ideas,
objects, and relations which it is necessary to be able to express, in
order to make free and full communications in any language, are from
fifty to a hundred thousand,--the step which we have taken, though
very simple in itself, is the beginning of a course which must lead to
the most endless intricacy and complication. Whereas in the six
phonetic characters of the word battle, we have elements which can be
used again and again, in the expression of thousands of other ideas.
In fact, as the phonetic characters which are found necessary in most
languages are only about twenty-four, we have in that single word
accomplished one quarter of the whole task, so far as the delineation
of characters is concerned, that is necessary for expressing by
writing any possible combination of ideas which human language can
convey.
At what time and in what manner the transition was made among the
ancient nations from the symbolic to the phonetic mode of writing, is
not now known. When in the flourishing periods of the Grecian and
Roman states, learned men explored the literary records of the various
nations of the East, writings were found in all, which were expressed
in phonetic characters, and the alphabets of these characters were
found to be so analogous to each other, in the names and order, and in
some respects in the forms, of the letters, as to indicate strongly
something like community of origin. All the attempts, however, which
have been made to ascertain the origin of the system, have wholly
failed, and no account of them goes farther back than to the time when
Cadmus brought them from Phenicia or Egypt into Greece.
The letters which Cadmus brought were in number sixteen. The following
table presents a view of his alphabet, presenting in the several
columns, the letters themselves as subsequently written in Greece, the
Greek names given to them, and their power as represented by the
letters now in use. The forms, it will be seen, have been but little
changed.
Greek letters. Greek names. English representatives.
[Greek: A] Alpha A
[Greek: B] Beta B
[Greek: G] Gamma G
[Greek: D] Delta D
[Greek: E] Epsilon E
[Greek: I] Iota I
[Greek: L] Lamda L
[Greek: K] Kappa K
[Greek: M] Mu M
[Greek: N] Nu N
[Greek: O] Omicron O
[Greek: P] Pi P
[Greek: R] Rho R
[Greek: S] Sigma S
[Greek: T] Tau T
[Greek: U] Upsilon U
The phonetic alphabet of Cadmus, though so vastly superior to any
system of symbolical hieroglyphics, for all purposes where any thing
like verbal accuracy was desired, was still very slow in coming into
general use. It was of course, at first, very difficult to write it,
and very difficult to read it when written. There was a very great
practical obstacle, too, in the way of its general introduction, in
the want of any suitable materials for writing. To cut letters with a
chisel and a mallet upon a surface of marble is a very slow and
toilsome process. To diminish this labor the ancients contrived tables
of brass, copper, lead, and sometimes of wood, and cut the
inscriptions upon them by the use of various tools and implements.
Still it is obvious, that by such methods as these the art of writing
could only be used to an extremely limited extent, such as for brief
inscriptions in registers and upon monuments, where a very few words
would express all that it was necessary to record.
In process of time, however, the plan of _painting_ the letters by
means of a black dye upon a smooth surface, was introduced. The
surface employed to receive these inscriptions was, at first, the skin
of some animal prepared for this purpose, and the dye used for ink,
was a colored liquid obtained from a certain fish. This method of
writing, though in some respects more convenient than the others, was
still slow, and the materials were expensive; and it was a long time
before the new art was employed for any thing like continuous
composition. Cadmus is supposed to have come into Greece about the
year 1550 before Christ; and it was not until about 650 before
Christ,--that is, nearly nine hundred years later, that the art of
writing was resorted to in Greece to record laws.
The evidences that writing was very little used in any way during this
long period of nine hundred years, are furnished in various allusions
contained in poems and narratives that were composed during those
times, and committed to writing afterward. In the poems of Homer, for
instance, there is no allusion, from the beginning to the end, to any
monument or tomb containing any inscription whatever; although many
occasions occur in which such inscriptions would have been made, if
the events described were real, and the art of writing had been
generally known, or would have been imagined to be made, if the
narratives were invented. In one case a ship-master takes a cargo on
board, and he is represented as having to remember all the articles,
instead of making a record of them. Another case still more striking
is adduced. In the course of the contest around the walls of Troy, the
Grecian leaders are described at one time as drawing lots to determine
which of them should fight a certain Trojan champion. The lots were
prepared, being made of some substance that could be marked, and when
ready, were distributed to the several leaders. Each one of the
leaders then marked his lot in some way, taking care to remember what
character he had made upon it. The lots were then all put into a
helmet, and the helmet was given to a herald, who was to shake it
about in such a manner, if possible, as to throw out one of the lots
and leave the others in. The leader whose lot it was that should be
thus shaken out, was to be considered as the one designated by the
decision, to fight the Trojan champion.
Now, in executing this plan, the herald, when he had shaken out a lot,
and had taken it up from the ground, is represented, in the narrative,
as not knowing whose it was, and as carrying it around, accordingly,
to all the different leaders, to find the one who could recognize it
as his own. A certain chief named Ajax recognized it, and in this way
he was designated for the combat. Now it is supposed, that if these
men had been able to write, that they would have inscribed their own
names upon the lots, instead of marking them with unmeaning
characters. And even if they were not practiced writers themselves
some secretary or scribe would have been called upon to act for them
on such an occasion as this, if the art of writing had been at that
time so generally known as to be customarily employed on public
occasions. From these and similar indications which are found, on a
careful examination, in the Homeric poems, learned men have concluded
that they were composed and repeated orally, at a period of the world
when the art of writing was very little known, and that they were
handed down from generation to generation, through the memory of those
who repeated them, until at last the art of writing became established
among mankind, when they were at length put permanently upon record.
It seems that writing was not much employed for any of the ordinary
and private purposes of life by the people of Greece until the article
called _papyrus_ was introduced among them. This took place about the
year 600 before Christ, when laws began first to be written. Papyrus,
like the art of writing upon it, came originally from Egypt. It was
obtained from a tree which it seems grew only in that country. The
tree flourished in the low lands along the margin of the Nile. It
grew to the height of about ten feet. The paper obtained from it was
formed from a sort of inner bark, which consisted of thin sheets or
pellicles growing around the wood. The paper was manufactured in the
following manner. A sheet of the thin bark as taken from the tree, was
laid flat upon a board, and then a cross layer was laid over it, the
materials having been previously moistened with water made slightly
glutinous. The sheet thus formed was pressed and dried in the sun. The
placing of two layers of the bark in this manner across each other was
intended to strengthen the texture of the sheet, for the fibers, it
was found, were very easily separated and torn so long as they lay
wholly in one direction. The sheet when dry was finished by smoothing
the surface, and prepared to receive inscriptions made by means of a
pen fashioned from a reed or a quill.
In forming the papyrus into books it was customary to use a long sheet
or web of it, and roll it upon a stick, as is the custom in respect to
maps at the present day. The writing was in columns, each of which
formed a sort of page, the reader holding the ends of the roll in his
two hands, and reading at the part which was open between them. Of
course, as he advanced, he continually unrolled on one side, and
rolled up upon the other. Rolls of parchment were often made in the
same manner.
The term _volume_ used in respect to modern books, had its origin in
this ancient practice of writing upon long rolls. The modern practice
is certainly much to be preferred, though the ancient one was far less
inconvenient than might at first be supposed. The long sheet was
rolled upon a wooden billet, which gave to the volume a certain
firmness and solidity, and afforded it great protection. The ends of
this roller projected beyond the edges of the sheet, and were
terminated in knobs or bosses, which guarded in some measure the edges
of the papyrus or of the parchment. The whole volume was also inclosed
in a parchment case, on the outside of which the title of the work was
conspicuously recorded. Many of these ancient rolls have been found at
Herculaneum.
For ink, various colored liquids were used, generally black, but
sometimes red and sometimes green. The black ink was sometimes
manufactured from a species of lampblack or ivory black, such as is
often used in modern times for painting. Some specimens of the
inkstands which were used in ancient times have been found at
Herculaneum, and one of them contained ink, which though too thick to
flow readily from the pen, it was still possible to write with. It was
of about the consistence of oil.
These rolls of papyrus and parchment, however, were only used for
important writings which it was intended permanently to preserve. For
ordinary occasions tablets of wax and other similar materials were
used, upon which the writer traced the characters with the point of a
steel instrument called a _style_. The head of the style was smooth
and rounded, so that any words which the writer wished to erase might
be obliterated by smoothing over again, with it, the wax on which they
had been written.
Such is a brief history of the rise and progress of the art of writing
in the States of Greece. Whether the phonetic principle which Cadmus
introduced was brought originally from Egypt, or from the countries on
the eastern shore of the Mediterranean sea, can not now be
ascertained. It has generally been supposed among mankind, at least
until within a recent period, that the art of phonetic writing did
not originate in Egypt, for the inscriptions on all the ancient
monuments in that country are of such a character that it has always
been supposed that they were symbolical characters altogether, and
that no traces of any phonetic writing existed in that land. Within
the present century, however, the discovery has been made that a large
portion of these hieroglyphics are phonetic in their character; and
that the learned world in attempting for so many centuries, in vain,
to affix symbolical meanings to them, had been altogether upon the
wrong track. The delineations, though they consist almost wholly of
the forms of plants and animals, and of other natural and artificial
objects, are not symbolical representations of ideas, but letters,
representing sounds and words. They are thus precisely similar, in
principle, to the letters of Cadmus, though wholly different from them
in form.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS.]
To enable the reader to obtain a clearer idea of the nature of this
discovery, we give on the adjoining page some specimens of Egyptian
inscriptions found in various parts of the country, and which are
interpreted to express the name Cleopatra, a very common name for
princesses of the royal line in Egypt during the dynasty of the
Ptolemy's. We mark the various figures forming the inscription, with
the letters which modern interpreters have assigned to them. It will
be seen that they all spell, rudely indeed, but yet tolerably
distinctly, the name CLEOPATRA.
By a careful examination of these specimens, it will be seen that the
order of placing the letters, if such hieroglyphical characters can be
so called, is not regular, and the letter _a_, which is denoted by a
bird in some of the specimens, is represented differently in others.
There are also two characters at the close of each inscription which
are not represented by any letter, the one being of the form of an
egg, and the other a semicircle. These last are supposed to denote the
sex of the sovereign whose name they are connected with, as they are
found in many cases in inscriptions commemorative of princesses and
queens. They are accordingly specimens of _symbolic_ characters, while
all the others in the name are phonetic.
It seems therefore not improbable that the principle of forming a
written language by means of characters representing the sounds of
which the words of the spoken language are composed, was of Egyptian
origin; and that it was carried in very early times to the countries
on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean sea, and there improved upon
by the adoption of a class of characters more simple than the
hieroglyphics of Egypt, and of a form more convenient for a regular
linear arrangement in writing. Moses, who spent his early life in
Egypt, and who was said to be learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians, may have acquired the art of writing there.
However this may be, and whatever may be the uncertainty which hangs
over the early history of this art, one thing is certain, and that is,
that the discovery of the art of writing, including that of printing,
which is only the consummation and perfection of it,--the art by which
man can record language, and give life and power to the record to
speak to the eye permanently and forever--to go to every nation--to
address itself simultaneously to millions of minds, and to endure
through all time, is by far the greatest discovery, in respect to the
enlargement which it makes of human powers, that has ever been made.