in a general sense, signifies a mark, or figure, drawn on paper, metal, stone, or other matter, with a pen, graver, chisel, or other instrument, to signify or denote any thing.
The word is Greek, χαρακτήρ, formed from the verb χαράξων, insculpere, to ingrave, impress, &c.
The various kinds of characters may be reduced to three heads, viz. Literal Characters, Numerical Characters, and Abbreviations.
I. Literal Characters, is a letter of the alphabet, serving to indicate some articulate sound, expressive of some idea or conception of the mind. See Alphabet.
II. These may be divided, with regard to their nature and use, into Nominal Characters, or those we properly call letters; which serve to express the names of things: See Letter. Real Characters; those that instead of names express things and ideas: See Idea, &c. Emblematical, or Symbolical Characters; which have this in common with real ones, that they express the things themselves; but have this further, that they in some measure perpetuate them, and exhibit their form: such are the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians. See Hieroglyphic, Symbol, &c.
III. Literal Characters may be again divided, with regard to their invention and use, into particular and general or universal.
Particular Characters, or those peculiar to this or that nation. Such are the Roman, Italic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Gothic, Chinese, &c. characters. See Hebrew, Gothic, Chinese, &c.
Universal Characters, are also real characters, and make what some authors call a Philosophical Language. 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 stands forever each expresses it in their particular idiom. For instance, by seeing the character defined to signify to drink, an Englishman should read to drink; a Frenchman, boire; a Latin, bibere; a Greek, ἢμων; a Jew, יִתְבוֹא; a German, trinken; 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 Japanese 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 Dalgarne; but these, with how much art forever 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 anything 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. Lodwig, 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, to 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 standard 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°, We have here a stable, faithful interpreter; never to be corrupted or changed, as the popular languages continually are. 2°, 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 accustomed 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 show the sex, youth, maturity, or old age: a letter also to express the bigness or size of things; thus, e.g., 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 purifying 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 throughout all Europe, was formed from the Greek, as the Greek was from the Phoenician; and the Phoenician, as well as the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic characters, were formed from the ancient Hebrew, which subsisted till the Babylonian 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 1097 that the Gothic characters, invented by Ulphilas, 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 Jullin, 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. Numerical 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 five, 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, IC; 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 CIQ. The addition of C and Q before or after raises, CIQ by tens, thus, CCICQ expresses ten thousand, CCCICQ, a hundred thousand. The Romans also expressed any number of thousands by a line drawn over any numeral less than a thousand; thus V denotes five thousand, LX, sixty thousand; so likewise M is one million, 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 α, one, to ω, twenty-four. 2. The alphabet was divided into eight units, α one, β two, γ three, &c.; into eight tens, ι ten, κ twenty, λ thirty, &c.; and eight hundreds, ε one hundred, σ two hundred, τ three hundred, &c. 3. I stood for one, Π five, Δ ten, Η a hundred, Χ a thousand, Μ ten thousand; and when the letter Π included any of these, except Ι, it showed the included letter to be five times its value; as ΠΑ fifty, ΠΗ five hundred, ΠΜ five thousand, ΠΗ 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, fig. i.
Characters used in Astronomy, viz.
Of the Planets. See Plate XLIII. fig. 5.
Of the Signs. Ibid. fig. 3.
Of the aspects.
σ or S Conjunction ∆ Trine SS Semiflute Bq Biquintile * Sextile Vc Quincunx Q Quintile Q Opposition □ Quartile Q Dragon's head Td Tredécile Q Dragon's tail
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.
Do ditto, the same R° retto No numero, or number V° vero folio Fe fello, or page C or ℄ hundred £, or l. pounds sterling weight, or ℥ 12 pounds pounds qts quarters R° rixdollar S or s shillings D° ducat d' pence or deniers P.S. postscript, &c. lb pound weight.
Characters in Chemistry. See Plate LXXVI.
Characters in Geometry and Trigonometry.
|| the character of parallelism △ triangle □ square □ rectangle ○ circle denotes a degree; thus 45° implies 45 degrees. Denotes a minute; thus, 50', is 50 minutes. Denote seconds, thirds, and fourths: and the same characters are used where the progressions are by tens, as it is here by sixties.
Characters in Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry, &c.
() parenthesis [] crotchet - hyphen ' apostrophe emphasis or accent " breve " dialysis ^ caret and circumflex.
D.D. doctor in divinity V.D.M. minister of the word of God LL.D. doctor of laws J.V.D. doctor of civil and canon law
" quotation † ‡ and Character.
† and * references ‡ sektion or division § paragraph F. R. S. fellow of the royal society.
For the other characters used in grammar, see Comma, Colon, Semicolon, &c.
Characters among the ancient Lawyers, and in ancient Inscriptions.
§ paragraphs # digests Seto. senatus consulto E. extra S. P. Q. R. senatus populi Romani
Characters in Medicine and Pharmacy.
B. recipe ½, ¼, or ana, of each alike ½b a pound, or a pint ½ an ounce ½ a drachm ½ a scruple gr. grains ½ or ¼, half of any thing. cong. congius, a gallon coch. cochlearie, a spoonful
Manipulus, a handful P. a pugil P. A. equal quantities S. A. According to art q. s. a sufficient quantity q. pl. as much as you please P. P. pulvis patrum, the Jesuit's bark.
Characters upon Tomb-stones.
S. V. Sitte viator, i.e. Stop traveller. M. S. Memoria sacrum, i.e. Sacred to the memory. D. M. Diis manibus. I. H. S. Iesus.
X. P. a character found in the catacombs, about the meaning of which authors are not agreed.
Characters used in Music, and of musical Notes with their proportions, are as follow.
character of a large § crotchet a long 4 quaver a breve 2 semiquaver a semibreve 1 demisemiquaver a minim
# 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.
b or b, character of a flat note: this is the contrary to the other above; that is, a semitone lower.
h character of a natural note: when in a line or series of artificial notes, marked at the beginning b or #, the natural note happens to be required, it is denoted by this character.
b character of the treble cliff. h character of the mean cliff. b bass cliff.
½ or ¼ characters of common duple time, signify-
ing the measure of two crotchets to be equal to two notes, of which four make a semibreve.
C, D, E, characters that distinguish the movements of common time, the first implying slow, the second quick, and the third very quick.
½, ¼, ⅛, ⅜, characters of simple triple time, the measure of which is equal to three semibreves, or to three minims.
½, ¼, or ⅛, characters of mixed triple time, where the measure is equal to six crotchets, or six quavers.
½, or ¼, or ⅛, or ⅜, or ⅝, characters of compound triple time.
½, ¼, or ⅛, or ⅜, or ⅝, characters of that species of triple time called the measure of twelve times.
epic and dramatic poetry, that which is peculiar in the manners of any person, and distinguishes him from all others.
The poetical character, says Mr Boiss, is not properly any particular virtue or quality, but a composition of several which are mixed together, in a different degree, according to the necessity of the fable and the unity of the action: there must be one, however, to reign over all the rest; and this must be found, in some degree, in every part. The first quality in Achilles, is wrath; in Ulysses, dissimulation; and in Æneas, mildness: but as these characters cannot be alone, they must be accompanied with others to embellish them, as far as they are capable, either by hiding their defects, as in the anger of Achilles, which is palliated by extraordinary valour; or by making them center in some solid virtue, as in Ulysses, whose dissimulation makes a part of his prudence; and in Æneas, whose mildness is employed in a submission to the will of the gods. In the making up of which union, it is to be observed, the poets have joined together such qualities as are by nature the most compatible; valour with anger, piety with mildness, and prudence with dissimulation. The fable requires prudence in Ulysses, and piety in Æneas; in this, therefore, the poets were not left to their choice: but Homer might have made Achilles a coward without abating anything from the justness of his fable: so that it was the necessity of adorning his character that obliged him to make him valiant: the character, then, of a hero in the epic poem, is compounded of three sorts of qualities; the first essential to the fable; the second, embellishments of the first; and valour, which sustains the other two, makes the third.
Unity of character is as necessary as the unity of the fable. For this purpose a person should be the same from the beginning to the end: not that he is always to betray the same sentiments, or one passion; but that he should never speak nor act inconsistently with his fundamental character. For instance, the weak may sometimes fall into a warmth, and the breast of the passionate be calm, a change which often introduces in the drama a very affecting variety; but if the natural disposition of the former was to be represented as boisterous, and that of the latter mild and soft, they would both act out of character, and contradict their persons.
True characters are such as we truly and really see in men, or may exist without any contradiction to nature. Character, nature: no man questions but there have been men as generous and as good as Æneas, as passionate and as violent as Achilles, as prudent and wise as Ulysses, as impious and atheistical as Mezentius, and as amorous and passionate as Dido; all these characters, therefore, are true, and nothing but just imitations of nature. On the contrary, a character is false when an author so feigns it, that one can see nothing like it in the order of nature wherein he feigns it shall stand; these characters should be wholly excluded from a poem, because, transgressing the bounds of probability and reason, they meet with no belief from the readers; they are fictions of the poet's brain, not imitations of nature; and yet all poetry consists in an imitation of nature.
Character is also used for certain visible qualities, which claim respect or reverence to those vested therewith.—The majesty of kings gives them a character which procures respect from the people. A bishop should sustain his character by learning and solid piety, rather than by worldly lustre, &c. The law of nations secures the character of an ambassador from all insults.