The morning call., 1894-01-11
ANCIENT LETTERS.

George Haven Putnam has just pub
lshed the result of curious study of the
relative antiquity of ancient literatures.
1t is safe to say that even among the most
erudiIe few can tell at blow whether
letters first arose among the Egyptians or
the AsSyrians or the Hindoos or the Chi
nese, and none but scholars can trace the
synchronous progress Of written language
among the nations which came to have
literatures of their own. This infOrma-
ton Mr.. Putnam has supplied and 1t will
be welcomed by persons of education as of
great interest.
The Oldest known writing is said to be
the Chaldean account of the flood. The
legend of a flood appears in the chronicle
of all oriental nations. 1t was familiar to
the people Of Nineveh and Babylon at the
lime those cities were powerful and pros
porous. 1000 years before Christ. 1t was
written on a sun-dried clay tablet in Gu
neiform writing and deposited in a library
at the time, whence 1t was lately dis
inferred and placed on the shelves of the
British Museum. How old it may be no
one can tell. 1t is supposed to date back
5000 years and it may be many years older
than that. 1t is cODjectuTed that it was
antedated by the hierOglyphic writing of
Egypt, but it is probable that the first
Egyptian hieratic writings, OF which the
Book Of the Dead" is the best known ex-
ample, were of much later date. If it be
true, as supposed, that these writings did
not become common till the eighteenth
dynasty, say 1600 Is. c., the Assyrians
were the first in the field by thousands of
years. 1t may be observed that the Book
of the Dead" which contains directions
for the conduct of funerals, as far as we
know, is the oldest book that was sold by
booksellers.
At what period the Chinese began 10
produce books is a matter of controversy
among arcb@Ologists. They had no paper
till just before the Christian era. Before
then they scratched words or painted them
on tablets of bamboo fiber. 1t is mposs-
bic 10 determine when these tablets began
to circulate, but the general opinion now
is that the earliest OF them date from a
period subsequent to the clay tablets of
NineVeh and Babylon, and to the Dapyri of
Egypt The same conclusion has been
reached regarding the most ancient writ
ings Of India. 1t is claimed that Sanscrit
writings were in existence in the fifteenth
century before Christ. The HindoOs them
selves believe that the Vedic hymns date
from 5000 b. G., but modern archaeology
knocks off about 1900 years from this re-
mote antiquity. Buddha only dates from
the sixth century before Christ.
Greco Roman literature was born in COM
paratively recent tunes. But it is curious
that after reaching its maturity at Athens
and Rome it deserted those cradles for The
home of the hierOglypb. The Augustan
age at Rome covered the half century pre-
ceding Christ; Roman literature, after the
close Of that age, took about century and
half to die. In the third and fourth GEN.
turtles of our era writers and booksellers
abandoned both Italy and Greece TO take
up their abode in Egypt. Alexandria be-
came the center Of letters. There the mas
terpieces of literature in all languages
we're to be found. There were assembled
the brightest literary minds of the day,
some of whom wrote in Latin, some in
Greek. Hence it was that the destruction
of the library by Omar, The Arab, was such
an irreDarable loss.
Mr.. Putnam's work is the more welcome
because IL is almost the first serious at
tempt by a writer in our language to
chronicle the beginnings of letters. All the
standard works on that important topic are
in French or German. AS tho history of
the march of the human mind is at least as
valuable as the history of campaigns and
conquests, it is entitled to as thorough
study. And it is gratifying to find that an
American is competing with foreigners in
enlarging this branch of human knowledge.