Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/194

 years. Nor were they able to gratify a premature curiosity by the reading of works not intended for their perusal.

The explanation of how the perusal of unsuitable works could be prevented forces me to another digression. This prevention was effected by a contrivance, that, more than any of the material achievements I have mentioned, might well excite the envy of those in the present age who are puzzled by the difficulty of reconciling freedom of printing with a proper regard to the reverence that even the heathen satirist claimed as due to youthful purity.

Although, as already mentioned, there was but one universal language, there were two entirely different methods of printing that language. One method was alphabetic, as among us; that is, by means of thirty-six characters —twelve representing vowel sounds—they could spell all the words of their language.

The other method was syllabic, and arose as follows: Some of the causes by which the language had been formed and changed have already been adverted to. The most important cause of change, however, had been the persistent effort, which became at last a fixed tendency, to render the language more euphonious by the suppression of all consonants not required for the separation of the vowel sounds.

The number of different syllabic combinations in use had thus been reduced to about five hundred. To represent all of these, only two hundred and fifty characters were necessary; since, for example, the character representing the syllable pronounced ros (meaning a horse), when used in the reverse position was read sor. These