the art or act of signifying and conveying our ideas to others, by letters or characters visible to the eye. See COMPOSITION, GRAMMAR, and LANGUAGE.

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 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 CYRUS.

We find that wood was also used for writing on in different countries. In the Sloanian library (No. 482.) are six specimens of Kufic writing, on boards about two feet in length, and five inches in depth. 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 papillares. The wood was cut into thin slices, and finely planed and polished. The writing was at first upon the bare wood, with an iron instrument called a stylus. In later 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 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 14th 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 16th 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. St Hildore of Seville, who lived about the middle of the 7th century, describes a pen made of a quill as used in his time.

Method of restoring decayed Writings. In the 77th vol. of the Phil. Trans. there is a paper on this subject by Sir Charles Blagden. One of the best methods he found upon experiment to be, covering the letters with phlogisticated or pruflic alkali, with the addition of a diluted mineral acid; upon the application of which, the letters change very speedily to a deep blue colour, of great beauty and intensity. To prevent the spreading of the colour, which, by blotting the parchment, detracts greatly from the legibility, the alkali should be put on first, and the diluted acid added upon it. The method found to answer best has been, to spread the alkali thin with a feather over the traces of the letters, and then to touch it gently, as nearly upon or over the letters as can be done with the diluted acid, by means of a feather or a bit of stick cut to a blunt point. Though the alkali should occasion no sensible change of colour, yet the moment the acid comes upon it, every trace of a letter turns at once to a fine blue, which soon acquires its full intensity, and is beyond comparison stronger than the colour of the original trace had been. If, then, the corner of a bit of blotting paper be carefully and dexterously applied near the letters, so as to imbibe the superfluous liquor, the staining of the parchment may be in a great measure avoided; for it is this superfluous liquor which, absorbing part of the colouring matter from the letters, becomes a dye to whatever it touches. Care must be taken not to bring the blotting paper in contact with the letters, because the colouring matter is soft whilst wet, and may easily be rubbed off. The acid chiefly employed was the marine; but both the vitriolic and nitrous succeed very well. They should be so far diluted as not to be in danger of corroding the parchment, after which the degree of strength does not seem to be a matter of much nicety.

Method of Copying Writings. The ingenious Mr Watt, about 16 years ago, invented a method of copying writing very speedily, and without the possibility of committing mistakes. A piece of thin unfixed paper is to be taken exactly of the size of the paper to be copied; it is to be moistened with water, or, what is better, with the following liquid: Take of distilled vinegar two pounds weight, dissolve it in one ounce of boracic acid; then take four ounces of oyster-shells calcined to whiteness, and carefully freed from their brown crust; put them into the vinegar, shake the mixture frequently for 24 hours, then let it stand until it deposits its sediment; filter the clear part through unfixed paper into a glass vessel; then add two ounces of the best blue Aleppo galls bruised, and place the liquor in a warm place, shaking it frequently for 24 hours; then filter the liquor again through unfixed paper, and add to it after filtration one quart, ale measure, of pure water. It must then stand 24 hours, and be filtered again if it shows a disposition to deposit any sediment, which it generally does. When the paper has been wet with this liquid, put it between two thick unfixed papers to absorb the superfluous moisture; then lay it over the writing to be copied, and put a piece of clean writing paper above it. Put the whole on the board of a rolling-press, and press them through the rolls, as is done in printing copperplates, and a copy of the writing shall appear on both sides of the thin moistened paper; on one side in a reversed order and direction, but on the other side in the natural order and direction of the lines.