Universal CHARACTERS

Universal CHARACTERS, are also real characters, and make what some authors call a Philosophical Language.

Characters. That diversity of characters used by the several nations to express the same idea, is found the chief obstacle to the advancement of learning: to remove this, several authors have taken occasion to propose plans of characters that should be universal, and which each people should read in their own language. The character here is to be real, not nominal: to express things and notions; not, as the common ones, letters or sounds: yet to be mute, like letters, and arbitrary; not emblematical, like hieroglyphics.

Thus, every nation should retain its own language, yet every one understand that of each other, without learning it; only by seeing a real or universal character, which should signify the same things to all people, by what sounds soever each expresses it in their particular idiom. For instance, by seeing the character destined to signify to drink, an Englishman should read to drink; a Frenchman, boire; a Latin, bibere; a Greek, πίνω; a Jew, שׁמַך; a German, trincken; and so of the rest: in the same manner as seeing a horse, each people expresses it after their own manner; but all mean the same animal.

This real character is no chimera; the Chinese and Japonefe have already something like it. They have a common character which each of those nations understand alike in their several languages; though they pronounce them with such different sounds, that they do not understand one another in speaking.

The first and most considerable attempts for a real character, or philosophical language, in Europe, are those of bishop Wilkins, and Dalgarme: but these, with how much art soever they were contrived, have yet proved ineffectual.

M. Leibnitz had some thoughts the same way; he thinks those great men did not hit the right method. It was probable, indeed, that by their means, people, who do not understand one another, might easily have a commerce together; but they have not hit on true real characters.

According to him, the characters should resemble those used in algebra: which, in effect, are very simple, yet very expressive; without any thing superfluous or equivocal; and contain all the varieties required.

The real character of bishop Wilkins has its just applause: Dr Hook recommends it on his own knowledge and experience, as a most excellent scheme; and to engage the world to the study thereof, publishes some fine inventions of his own therein.

M. Leibnitz tells us, he had under consideration an alphabet of human thoughts; in order to a new philosophical language, on his own scheme: but his death prevented its being brought to maturity.

M. Lodwic, in the philosophical transactions, gives us a plan of an universal alphabet or character of another kind: this was to contain an enumeration of all such single sounds, or letters, as are used in any language: by means whereof, people should be enabled to pronounce truly and readily any language; to describe the pronunciation of any language that shall be pronounced in their hearing, so as others accustomed to this language, though they had never heard the language pronounced, shall at first be able truly to pronounce it: and, lastly, this character to serve as a stan-

dard to perpetuate the sounds of any language. In Characters, the journal Litteraire, an. 1720, we have a very ingenious project for an universal character. The author, after obviating the objections that might be made against the feasibility of such schemes in the general, proposes his own: his characters are to be the common Arabic, or numeral figures. The combinations of these nine are sufficient to express distinctly an incredible quantity of numbers, much more than we shall need terms to signify our actions, goods, evils, duties, passions, &c. Thus is all the trouble of framing and learning any new character at once saved; the Arabic figures having already all the universality required.

The advantages are immense. For, 1^o, We have here a stable, faithful interpreter; never to be corrupted or changed, as the popular languages continually are. 2^o, Whereas the difficulty of pronouncing a foreign language is such as usually gives the learner the greatest trouble, and there are even some sounds which foreigners never attain to; in the character here proposed, this difficulty has no place: every nation is to pronounce them according to the particular pronunciation that already obtains among them. All the difficulty is, the accustoming the pen and the eye to affix certain notions to characters that do not, at first sight, exhibit them. But this trouble is no more than we find in the study of any language whatever.

The inflections of words are here to be expressed by the common letters. For instance, the same character shall express a filly, or a colt, a horse, or a mare, an old horse, or an old mare, as accompanied with this or that distinctive letter, which shall shew the sex, youth, maturity, or old age: a letter also to express the bigness or size of things; thus, &c. a man with this or that letter, to signify a great man, or a little man, &c.

The use of these letters belongs to the grammar; which, once well understood, would abridge the vocabulary exceedingly. An advantage of this grammar is, that it would only have one declension, and one conjugation: those numerous anomalies of grammarians are exceeding troublesome; and arise hence, that the common languages are governed by the populace, who never reason on what is best: but in the character here proposed, men of sense having the introduction of it, would have a new ground, whereon to build regularly.

But the difficulty is not in inventing the most simple, easy, and commodious character, but in engaging the several nations to use it; there being nothing they agree less in, than the understanding and pursuing their common interest.

3. Literal characters may again be divided, with respect to the nations among whom they have been invented, into Greek characters, Roman characters, Hebrew characters, &c. The Latin character now used through all Europe, was formed from the Greek, as the Greek was from the Phœnician; and the Phœnician, as well as the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic characters, were formed from the ancient Hebrew, which subsisted till the Babylonish captivity; for after that event the character of the Assyrians, which is the square Hebrew now in use, prevailed, the ancient being only found

Characters. found on some Hebrew medals, commonly called Samaritan medals. It was in 1091 that the Gothic characters, invented by Ulfilas, were abolished, and the Latin ones established in their room.

Medallists observe, that the Greek character, consisting only of majuscule letters, has preserved its uniformity on all medals, as low as the time of Gallienus; from which time it appears somewhat weaker and rounder: from the time of Constantine to Michael we find only Latin characters: after Michael, the Greek characters recommence; but from that time they began to alter with the language, which was a mixture of Greek and Latin. The Latin medals preserve both their character and language as low as the translation of the seat of the empire to Constantinople: towards the time of Decius the character began to lose its roundness and beauty; some time after, it retrieved, and subsisted tolerably till the time of Justin, when it degenerated gradually into the Gothic. The rounder, then, and better formed a character is upon a medal, the fairer pretence it has to antiquity.

II. Numeral Characters, or characters used to express numbers, are either letters or figures.

The Arabic character, called also the common one, because it is used almost throughout Europe in all sorts of calculations, consists of these ten digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0.

The Roman numeral character consists of seven majuscule letters of the Roman alphabet, viz. I, V, X, L, C, D, M. The I denotes one, V five, X ten, L fifty, C a hundred, D five hundred, and M a thousand. The I repeated twice makes two, II; thrice, three, III; four is expressed thus IV, as I before V or X takes an unit from the number expressed by these letters. To express six, an I is added to a V, VI; for seven, two, VII: and for eight, three, VIII. nine is expressed by an I before X, thus IX. The same remark may be made of the X before L or C, except that the diminution is by tens; thus, XL denotes forty, XC ninety, and LX sixty. The C before D or M diminishes each by a hundred. The number five hundred is sometimes expressed by an I before a C inverted, thus, $\backslash text\{I\}\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{C\}\}$; and instead of M, which signifies a thousand, an I is sometimes used between two C's, the one direct, and the other inverted, thus $\backslash text\{C\}\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{I\}\}\backslash text\{C\}$. The addition of C and D before or after raises, $\backslash text\{C\}\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{I\}\}\backslash text\{D\}$ by tens, thus, $\backslash text\{CC\}\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{I\}\}\backslash text\{D\}$ expresses ten thousand, $\backslash text\{CCC\}\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{I\}\}\backslash text\{D\}$, a hundred thousand. The Romans also expressed any number of thousands by a line drawn over any numeral less than a thousand; thus $\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{V\}\}$ denotes five thousand, $\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{LX\}\}$, sixty thousand: so likewise $\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{M\}\}$ is one million, $\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{MM\}\}$ is two millions, &c.

The Greeks had three ways of expressing numbers: 1. Every letter, according to its place in the alphabet, denoted a number, from $\backslash alpha$, one, to $\backslash omega$, twenty-four. 2. The alphabet was divided into eight units, $\backslash alpha$ one, $\backslash beta$ two, $\backslash gamma$ three, &c.; into eight tens, $\backslash iota$ ten, $\backslash kappa$ twenty, $\backslash lambda$ thirty, &c.; and eight hundreds, $\backslash epsilon$ one hundred, $\backslash sigma$ two hundred, $\backslash tau$ three hundred, &c. 3. I stood for one, $\backslash Pi$ five, $\backslash Delta$ ten, $\backslash text\{H\}$ a hundred, $\backslash text\{X\}$ a thousand, $\backslash text\{M\}$ ten thousand; and when the letter $\backslash Pi$ inclosed any of these, except 1, it showed the inclosed letter to be

five times its value: as $\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{I\}\}$ fifty, $\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{II\}\}$ five hundred, $\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{III\}\}$ five thousand, $\backslash overline\{\backslash text\{IIII\}\}$ fifty thousand.

The French CHARACTER used in the chamber of accounts, and by persons concerned in the management of the revenue, is, properly speaking, nothing else than the Roman numerals, in letters that are not majuscule: thus, instead of expressing fifty-six by LVI, they denote it by smaller characters lvj.

III. CHARACTERS of Abbreviations, &c. in several of the arts, are symbols contrived for the more concise and immediate conveyance of the knowledge of things. For the

CHARACTERS used in Algebra. See ALGEBRA, sect. i.

CHARACTERS used in Astronomy, viz.

Of the Planets. See Plate XLIII. fig. 5.

Of the Signs. Ibid. fig. 3.

Of the aspects.

Of time.

A. M. ante meridiem, before the sun comes upon the meridian.

O. or N. noon.

P. M. post meridiem, when the sun is past the meridian.

CHARACTERS in Commerce.

CHARACTERS in Chemistry. See Plate LXXVI.

CHARACTERS in Geometry and Trigonometry.

CHARACTERS in Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry, &c.

† ‡ and

† † and * references M. D. doctor in physic
‡ section or division A. M. master of arts
¶ paragraph A. B. bachelor of arts.
F. R. S. fellow of the royal society.

For the other characters used in grammar, see
COMMA, COLON, SEMICOLON, &c.

¶ paragraphs P. P. pater patriz
¶ digests C. code
Scto. senatus con- C. C. consules
fulto T. titulus.
E. extra P. P. D. D. propria
S. P. Q. R. senatu pecunia dedicavit
tus populusque D. D. M. dono dedit
Romanus monumentum.

℞ recipe M. manipulus, a
℞, ℞, or ana, of each handful
alike P. a pugil
℞ a pound, or a pint P. ℞. equal quan-
℞ an ounce tities
℞ a drachm S. A. According to
℞ a scruple art
gr. grains q. s. a sufficient
℞ or si, half of any quantity
thing. q. pl. as much as
cong. congius, a gallon you please
coch. cochleare, a P. P. pulvis patrum,
spoonful the Jesuit's bark.

S. V. Sille viator, i. e. Stop traveller.
M. S. Memorare facrum, i. e. Sacred to the me-
mory.
D. M. Diis manibus.
I. H. S. Jesus.
X. P. a character found in the catacombs, about
the meaning of which authors are not agreed.

♯ character of a sharp note: this character at the beginning of a line or space, denotes that all the notes in that line are to be taken a semitone higher than in the natural series; and the same affects all the octaves above and below, though not marked: but when prefixed to any particular note, it shews that note alone to be taken a semitone higher than it would be without such character.

♭ or ♭, character of a flat note: this is the contrary to the other above; that is, a semitone lower.

♭ character of a natural note: when in a line or series of artificial notes, marked at the beginning ♭ or ♯, the natural note happens to be required, it is denoted by this character.

♭ character of the treble cliff.

♭ character of the mean cliff.

♭ bass cliff.

♩, or ♩ characters of common double time, signify-
VOL. III.

ing the measure of two crotchets to be equal to two Character.
notes, of which four make a semibreve.

♩, ♩, ♩, characters that distinguish the movements of common time, the first implying slow, the second quick, and the third very quick.

♩, ♩, ♩, ♩, characters of simple triple time, the measure of which is equal to three semibreves, or to three minims.

♩, ♩, or ♩, characters of mixed triple time, where the measure is equal to six crotchets, or six quavers.

♩, or ♩, or ♩, or ♩, or ♩, characters of compound triple time.

♩, ♩, ♩, or ♩, or ♩, or ♩, characters of that species of triple time called the measure of twelve times.