Chap. lll.

0f a Вел” Charaöier.

13

Ъу which the noble Author,the Duke ofLunenburg,did difguife his true name of Аида/11‘: Lunseburgicm‘. 2. For Brevity : There were lingle Letters or marks, whereby the Ro mans were wont to exprefs whole words. Ennim is faid to have inven ted l leo of thefe-j` to which number Tril/ins ‘1j/ro, Cicero’s Libertas, (0- ._m-,hmíwde

thers fay Cicero himfelf,) added divers others, to Íignilie theparticles of Polygnphia. fpeech5 after whom Минут’ the Samian and метит, added yet

more. After thefe Annaus Seneca is faid to have laboured in the regu lating and digelting of thofe former notes; to which adding many of hisown,he augmented the whole number tosooo , publilhed by janus Gruterus, though amongfi his there are divers of a later invention , re lating to Chriliianinliitutions,which have been added lince .( as ’tis faid)

by S. Слайд’: the Martyr. The way of writing byY thefe dtd requirea vali memory and labour; yet it was far Íhort of expreíiing all things

and Notions, and belides , had no provifion for Grammatical varia tions.

‘

Of this nature is that Short-handwriting by Charaëiers fo fre quent with us in England, and much wondered at by Foreiners;

which hath a great advantage for fpeed and fwiftnels in writing, th‘ofe who are expert in it being ablel this way to take any ordinary difcourfc — verbatim.

Belides thefe, there have been fome other propofals and attempts a bout a Real univerjitl Charaäier, that ihould not Íignifie words, but things

V.

and notions , and confcquen‘tly might-be legible by any Nation in their

own Tongue5 which is the principal дебет: of this Treatife.

That fuch

a Real Charat‘ler is poiiìble , and hath been reckoned by Learned men

amongfi the Dtjiderata, were eafie to make out by abundance of Teíii monies.

To this purpofe is that which Piß mentions to be fomewhere Hmm, N t

the wiih of Galen, That fome way might be found out to reprefent rnaimiibì.'

things by fuch peculiar [дм and names as Íhould exprefs their natures, C' з ut Sophi/lt's eriperetur десанта’! ф ealumniandi occaßo. There are fe veral other paífages to this purpofe in the Learned Verulam, in lfd/ius, in Щ Матем НгТтМтН Htlgûßic. belides what is commonly re orted of the men of мы‘ ca 'I' O_rigfcn en~ China, who do now, and have for many Ages ufed uch a general Chara- dl. сар- 4‚ &ег‚Ьу which the Inhabitants of that large Kingdom , many of them of different Tongues , do communicate with one another , every one

underiianding this common Charaé’ter , ' and reading it in his own Lan e. g uaItgcannot be denied , but that the variety of Letters is an appendix to the Curfe of Babel, namely,the multitude and variety of Languages. And therefore, for any man to o about to add to their number, will bebut like the inventing of a Di cafe, for which he can expeól: but little thanks from the world. But this Conlìderation ought to be no ,difcourage ment: For fuppofing fu‘ch athing as is here propofed, could be well

efiablilhed , it would be the fureft remedy that could be againli the Curfe of the Confufion , by rendring all other Languages and Charaöt'ers ufelefs. `

It doth not appear that any Alphabet now in being, wasinventeel at Q_ V 1_ once or by the rules of Анд but rather that all,except the Hebrew , were ltaken