Daily American telegraph., 1851-12-22

lion, the hieratie version was simple outline
|of the launches and hind legs, as seen in the
set form Of the hieroglyph. There was no OPP
tlon allowed in the mode Of drawing either the
original or the abbrevation There was only
one way Of drawing lion and only one way
OF abbreyatlng the sketch. So with other
things. The hieratic characters retained no
very great resemblance TO anything in ma
ture, dwhen it is added that selection from
these was committed to the popular use as do
mestic characters, for ordinary purposes, as for
example, letter writing it will be readily Inn
agined that Egyptian biLets doua were put to-
gether in characters nearly as far remote from
picture writing as the letters which now travel
through st. Martin's-le- Grand
This sketch is enough to indicate the path
by which mankind has arrived at that power
which enables each individual who learns the
mystery, toseal up a selection rom.his thoughts
within little parcel, and to transmit it safely
by hand, whithersoever he may please, for its
communication to a distant friend And now
that we have seen how hardly mind has had
to battle for the art Of writing, let us see what
difficulties have been overcome before we could
attain to such materials of writing as we now
possess let us find our way to the first letter.
writer's, and see how they wrote, and what sort
We have seen that in the first infancy of
writing in the Cradle of letters, nothing was
wanted but rock. Communities attained to
an imposing show of material power before the
notion of sending written messages was acted
upon with any vigor A fragment of rock,
not too large to be carried, was then broken
off and used as q material It was the first
and most natural idea; but as the arts of con-
structlon supply pressing material want and
are advanced without much difficulty, it is easy
to perceive that in many nations, moderately
destitute of stone brick making would be a
discovered art before the time when there
would be felt any strong necessity for sending
letters. Letters coming afterwards would, in
such cases. take the form of inscriptions upon
brick and tile. We find this accordingly to
be the case. Among the curiosities turned up
at Nineveh, by Mr.. Layard, are some of the
Assyrian documents inscribed on this material.
Well, certainly, society could not stop there.
Ii we We're still obliged to write our letters
upon bricks, and build a brick wall when we
made book, or write novel in three stakes,
instead Of three volumes, we should find the
literature and correspondence of the country
to be a somewhat heavier commodity than it
is at present The inconvenience was felt even
i'll those days, when there were no books and
no postmen were wanted to cart bricks to peo-
pies doors; no editors to be bricked in with
correspondence; only high and mighty people
sent these written messages, for they were
chiefly edicts, testaments and SO forth The
Ten Commandments were written, as we
know, upon stone. Nations possessing lead-a
metal scratched with ease-would find it a
convenient substitute for stone or brick In
"Job,o there is allusion made to writing ma
terials of this kind. Flat shells would also
suggest themselves as portable and hard, and
easy to be scratched The Athenian practice
of ostracism, by which the people inscribed
the character of certain votes on oyster-shells,
arose in this way. 1t was not for want of other
materials, but for the sake of secrecy, that
Histieus shaved mans head, and engraved
a message on his skull then let the hair grow,
and sent him to Mietus to be shaved and read
man himself being, in this case, used as writing
material, and transformed into locomotive
letter.
The very absurd question has been raised,
Who was the first letter-writer? Who invent
ed the art of lotter-writing? And credit has
been given on this account to Atossa, the
mother of Xerxes A letter is message writ
ten upon something portable, and then trans
mitted to distant person. 1t is obvious that
messages of this kind would be sent, though at
first very rarely, among each people, from the
first month after it had passed in its develop
ment to the idea Of writing on detached and
reasonably light pieces of material The idea
of detached, transmissible writing having once
begun to run alone and grow familiar with a
people it would soon be obvious that the light
er the material, the better it would be for men
who had to carry it about and the more easily
could person addressed retain his informa-
ton in privacy, by carrying Il about his person.
Leaves, especially in Oriental countries where
the leaves are large and smooth, would soon
suggest themselves. The Cumaan Sibyls pro-
phecies were said to be inscribed on this mate
rial. Votes written upon olive-lcaycs, instead
of oyster-shells, are also mentioned. The Hin
docs arc known to have used leaves, and in
some parts of India and Ceylon it is said that
books arc still occasionally found whose pa
ging is on leaves, in the precise and strict sense
of the word Leaves, however, would soon be
found a material in various ways inconyenient,
and the drier bark Of trees would be preferred,
especially that thin, smooth, inner bark which
in some trees is exceedingly coherent, strong,
and durable The Saxons, in this country, are
said to have used the bark of beech trees,
called by them "boc,p for writing purposes
and from this fact, our word "book is some
times thought TO be derived The Latin for a
book means certainly, the inner bark, and
points to the use of that material. So the
word library" reminds US of the days when
letters were still in their cradle. Bark tablets
were prepared for use by polishing and it was
one of the amusements of king of Persia on
his travels to take bark and knife, that he
might beguile the time by rubbing them to-
gether, as an American might take stick to
whittlc.
Thanks to the bees men would not be long
in finding out the excellence of honey, and the
use Of wax. The idea Of writing upon wax,
first spread over thin board, to give to it the