Page:A Universal Alphabet, Grammar, and Language (universalalphabe00edmo, George Edmunds, 1856) (IA universalalphabe00edmo).pdf/9



The Public may reasonably expect, at least, a short sketch of the origin and progress of the subject to which its attention is now respectfully invited:—that of a Universal Language. I am not aware of any practical attempt to realize a Universal Language before the year 1668, when Dr. Wilkins, then Dean of Ripon, and afterwards Bishop of Chester, published his justly celebrated work, entitled "An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language." The high honor of originating this grand conception is due, and most honorably is attributed, by Dr. Wilkins to Dr. Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, respecting whom he says, "It was from this suggestion of his that I first had any distinct apprehension of the proper course to be observed in such an undertaking." It has been said by Antony a Wood, that "One George Dalgarno, a Scot, wrote a book entitled Ars Signorum, &c. London 1661 which, before it went to press, the author communicated to Dr. Wilkins, who took from it a hint of his great work 'The Essay.'" I have not seen the "Ars Signorum." If it contains the principles on which Dr. Wilkin's classification of the radical substantives of language is founded, the name of Dalgarno ought to be enrolled among the benefactors of mankind.

But, after Dr. Wilkin's solemn disclamation of the honor of this invention, and his ascription of it to Dr. Seth Ward, there appears to me to be no justice in the

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