WRITING, the art or act of signifying and conveying our ideas to others, by letters or characters visible to the eye.

The most ancient remains of writing which have been transmitted to us are upon hard substances, such as stones and metals, which were used by the ancients for edicts and matters of public notoriety. The decalogue was written on two tables of stone; but this practice was not peculiar to the Jews, for it was used by most of the eastern nations, as well as by the Greeks and Romans; and therefore the ridicule which Voltaire attempts to cast upon that part of the book of Genesis, where the people are commanded to write the [7:21:944]law on stones, is absurd; for what is there said by no means implies that other materials might not be used on common occasions. The laws penal, civil, and ceremonial, among ’ the Greeks, were engraven on tables of brass, which were called cgrbes.

We find that wood was also used for writing on in different countries. The Chinese, before the invention of paper, wrote or engraved with an iron tool upon thin boards or on bamboo. Pliny says that table-books of wood were in use before the time of Homer. These table-books were called by the Romans pugillares. The wood was cut into thin slices, and finely plained and polished. The writing was at first upon the bare wood, with an iron instrument called a style. In latter times these tables were usually waxed over, and written upon with that instrument. The matter written upon the tables which were thus waxed over was easily effaced, and by smoothing the wax new matter might be substituted in the place of what had been written before. The Greeks and Romans continued the use of waxed table-books long after the use of papyrus, leaves, and skins became common, because they were so convenient for correcting extemporary compositions.

Table-books of ivory are still used for memorandums, but they are commonly written upon with black-lead pencils. The practice of writing on table-books covered with wax was not. entirely laid aside till the commencement of the fourteenth century.

The bark of trees was also used for writing by the ancients, and is so still in several parts of Asia. The same thing may be said of the leaves of trees. It is needless to observe the use of parchment and vellum, papyrus and paper, for writing; it is too well known. The method of fabricating these substances has been already described as they occurred in the order of the alphabet.

It is obvious, that when men wrote, or rather engraved, on hard substances, instruments of metal were necessary, such as the chisel and the stylus; but the latter was chiefly used for writing upon boards, waxed tablets, or on bark.

When the ancients wrote on softer materials than wood or metal, other instruments were used for writing with, of which reeds and canes seem to have been the first. Reeds and canes are still used as instruments for writing with by the Tartars, the Indians, the Persians, the Turks, and the Greeks. Pencils made of hair are used by the Chinese for their writing: they first liquefy their ink, and dip their pencils into it. Hair-pencils have likewise been used for writing in Europe. Large capital letters were made with them from the time of the Roman emperors till the sixteenth century. After the invention of printing they were drawn by the illuminators. Quills of geese, swans, peacocks, crows, and other birds, have been used in these western parts for writing with, but how long is not easy to ascertain. Isidorus Hispalensis, or Isidore of Seville, who lived about the middle of the seventh century, describes a pen made of a quill as used in his time. See Bibliography , Hieroglyphics, and Languages.