DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0195
178 HIEROGLYPHS.
The first method represents the ideas intended to be con-
veyed, not by the abstract marks which we call letters, but by
depicting in regular order the representations of all kinds of
objects of nature and art. The Egyptian, beholding the starry
vault of heaven—man in his various relations—the infinite
realms of nature—the numerous utensils and products of art
—endeavoured, by a series of mimic pictures, to transmit to
posterity, or to convey to the knowledge of the present, the
records of the past by sculpturing and inscribing them. To
these speaking forms they had given an organisation, so as to
render them capable of distinctly expressing the required
series of ideas. This plan consisted in an improved develop-
ment of picture-writing, of which there are two other distinct
traces in the world; the Mexican, a picture-writing in its most
primitive form, with no distinct organisation, and the Chinese,
which is even further advanced in structure than the Egyptian,
the forms often representing sounds only, and always being
formed in a manner quite conventional. The hieroglyphs were
divided into two classes, those which represented ideas, called
ideographs, or pictures of ideas, and those expressive of sound,
called phonetics. The first belonged to the order of picture-
writing, but the second formed a syllabarium, perfect as far as
the Egyptian language, or " sacred dialect," was concerned. It
is of course highly probable that at one time the language was
entirely composed of pictures or ideographs ; but all the monu-
ments, even those of the most remote antiquity, exhibit the two
kinds mingled together in the inscriptions, and the age of pure
picture-writing is one to which it is not possible to reach
except by induction. Their invention was attributed to the
gods themselves. Plutarch, indeed, seems to have been aware
of an Egyptian alphabet. " Hermias," he says, " informs us
that Hermes was the inventor of letters in Egypt. Thus, to
The first method represents the ideas intended to be con-
veyed, not by the abstract marks which we call letters, but by
depicting in regular order the representations of all kinds of
objects of nature and art. The Egyptian, beholding the starry
vault of heaven—man in his various relations—the infinite
realms of nature—the numerous utensils and products of art
—endeavoured, by a series of mimic pictures, to transmit to
posterity, or to convey to the knowledge of the present, the
records of the past by sculpturing and inscribing them. To
these speaking forms they had given an organisation, so as to
render them capable of distinctly expressing the required
series of ideas. This plan consisted in an improved develop-
ment of picture-writing, of which there are two other distinct
traces in the world; the Mexican, a picture-writing in its most
primitive form, with no distinct organisation, and the Chinese,
which is even further advanced in structure than the Egyptian,
the forms often representing sounds only, and always being
formed in a manner quite conventional. The hieroglyphs were
divided into two classes, those which represented ideas, called
ideographs, or pictures of ideas, and those expressive of sound,
called phonetics. The first belonged to the order of picture-
writing, but the second formed a syllabarium, perfect as far as
the Egyptian language, or " sacred dialect," was concerned. It
is of course highly probable that at one time the language was
entirely composed of pictures or ideographs ; but all the monu-
ments, even those of the most remote antiquity, exhibit the two
kinds mingled together in the inscriptions, and the age of pure
picture-writing is one to which it is not possible to reach
except by induction. Their invention was attributed to the
gods themselves. Plutarch, indeed, seems to have been aware
of an Egyptian alphabet. " Hermias," he says, " informs us
that Hermes was the inventor of letters in Egypt. Thus, to