Page:AnEssayTowardsARealCharacterAndAPhilosophicalLanguage.pdf/40

 ь

0f Alp/saben.

Book I.

taken up by Imitation, and pall by degrees through feveral Changes5 which is the reafon that they are lefs complete, and liable to fever-al ex

ceptlons. The Hebrew Charaâer, as to the lha e of it, thoughit appear folemn and grave ‚ yet hath it not its Letter: giñiciently diítinguiihed from one another, and withall it appears fomewhat harlh and rugged. The Arabic СЬашЁЪегэ though it Íhew beautiful, yet is it too elaborate and takes up too much room ‚ and cannot well be written (mall. The Greekl Latintheir are Íeveral both of them raceful and indifferent eaßeэ thoughand not the without imperfeâions.

As for the I¿lit/tique, it hath no lefs then 202 Letter: in its Alphabet; namely, 7 Vowels, which they apply to every one of their ‘26 Conm пап“ ‚ to which they add zo other alpirated Syllables. All their Cha raůfers are exceedingly complicated and perplexed, and much more dif

ñcult then thofe propofed in this following Difcourfe for the exprellîng of things and notions. Martinair' At

l“ Лат/1:.

,

. This is faid likewile of the Tartarz'an, that every Charaäer with them 1s a Syllable,having each of the Vowels joyned to its Confonant, as La, Le, Li, Ste. which mult needs make a long and troublefome Alphabet.

But it is not my purpofe to animadvert upon thefe Tongues that are lefs known,fo much as фей: with which thefe parts of the world are bet ter acquainted.

CHAP.

ТУ.

1. Tbe Number. Defeéï: II in I.tbeDeterminate common Aqßbabetf, Powerf.as to IV. their Fitting true Order. Мета. I V. I. Pro.

per Figurer of the Letters.

V l. The [прет eäion; belonging to the

Word: of Language ‚ ш‘ to their Eqniwaalnfyâ warz'et)l vfSjnanymm

wordt, uncertain Pbrajêolagier, inapreper ma] of Writing. Ne fpecial Circumflance which adds to the Curfe of Babel is that dg'ßïculty which there is in all Languagef, ariñng from the various Irnperjî’òït'iom belonging to them,both in refpeä of I. their firft Element: or Alphabets, 2. their Words.

1. For Alphabets, they are all of them, in many refpeëts,l liable to juû exception. ‘ I. As to the Order of them, they are inartiñcial and confnfed, without

any fuch methodical difiribution as were requilite for their particular na tures and differences; the Votvelr and Сок/дяди‘: being promifcuouíly huddled together,wìthout any difiinâion : Whereas in a regular Alpba~ bet, the Votre/r and Conßnant: {hould be reduced into Claßër, according to their feveral kinds, with fuch an order of precedence and fubfequence as

their natures will bear 5 this being the proper end and defign of that which we call Metbod,to feparate the Heterogeneous,and put theI-Iomo

geneous together, according to fome rule of precedency. The Не rem Alphabet, (the order of which is obferved in feveral Scriptures, Pjàl. 119. and in the Book of Lanzentatiom) from whence the others are derived, is not free from this lmperfeftion. a. For