anguage.

The incidents connected with the introduction of written language among
a barbarous people are worthy of remark in this connection. That thought
can be conveyed to persons at a distance by the use of certain
cabalistic characters seems to them incredible, and when compelled to
believe it, they look upon the person that can accomplish such wonders
as embodying something supernatural. These things I mention merely to
call attention to the fact that spoken and written language is a curious
and wonderfully complicated affair. This is brought forcibly to our
minds when we hear persons conversing in a foreign tongue, or when we
pick up a book the characters of which are wholly unlike those of our
own language. To us an English book is full of instinctive beauty, every
letter or mark possessing a definite meaning that is instantly conveyed
to our minds, because we have become familiar with them by diligent
study and practise.

There are other ways of transferring thought besides the complicated
system just mentioned--ways which are much more natural and simple.
Thus, a simpler way to represent a certain object would be to draw a
picture of it; or, better still, to represent a certain character or
quality by exhibiting, not the object itself, but an analagous one whose
peculiar character that property is; for examples: the quiet, peaceful,
gentle disposition of a child, by a lamb; a man of cunning, artful,
deceptive disposition, by a fox; or a cruel, bloodthirsty, vindictive
tyrant, by a tiger, etc. This is hieroglyphical or symbolic language.
This language takes precedence over every other for naturalness and
simplicity, being common to a greater or less extent among all nations
and intelligible to all.

Spoken language was undoubtedly a gift from God originally, while
written language is probably a mere human invention. We are not to
suppose that the first attempts to convey thought in writing would be by
an alphabetical system, but by the symbolic, it being, as before stated,
the most natural and within reach of the ordinary ingenuity of man. This
is proved by the fact that the inscriptions on the ancient monuments of
Egypt and the inscriptions of other nations of antiquity are of this
character. It is also a fact worthy of notice that, four thousand years
later, men of other countries and of other languages have, by much study
and a careful comparison of the symbols, been able to decipher with
accuracy those hi