on all monuments of the IVth Dynasty :(266) and its presence proves that writing must have
heen common enough in Egypt during ages antecedent. So again, here is
—a roll of y>«|>i/™-paper, a volume, tied with strings — meaning a “ Book.”
Its presence upon the monuments, not merely of the Xllth, but of the Vlth, and even of
the same old IVth dynasty, establishes that the invention of paper, and the usage of written
volumes, antedate the earliest hieroglyphics now extant.
It would require an especial treatise to convey to readers any adequate idea of the copiousness
of ancient Egyptian doouments written on pqpyrus-paper existing and deciphered
at the present day. There are some of the IVth (b. o. 3400) and succeeding dynasties
down to the Xllth b. o. 2200) in legible preservation; but the great “ age of the Papyri”
belongs to the XVIIth and following dynasties; (267) that is, from the 17th century B.C.
downwards. Independently of the thousands of copies of the “ Book of the Dead,” there ar,e
poems, account-books, contracts, decrees, chronological lists, histories, romances, scientific essays,
¡n short, it is really more difficult now to define what there is not, than to catalogue the
enormous collections of Papyri, some written ages before Moses’s birth, existing m European
cabinets. At foot we indicate where the curious inquirer may satisfy himself upon the
accuracy of this statement. (268) And if he wishes to. behold the transitions of Egyptian
writing from the hieroglyphic into the hieratic, he need only open lepsius’s Dmkinater.lfiW)
We have no space to enlarge upon these facts here, which the writer’s Lecture-rooms have
exhibited in most of the chief cities of the Union.
All which premised, as facts at this day open to everybbdy’s verification, the reader
comprehends that, if picture-writing, as well on the Nile as on the Hoang-ho, was the first
stage towards phonetic orthography; nevertheless, according to monumental evidences, the
Egyptians had already been inscribing their thoughts in perfect hieroglyphics, “ sacred
sculptured characters,” a thousand years before the Chinese had perfected a system of Geographies,
to us represented by their primitive character K o u - w e n .
It is from Champollion’s Orammaire Egypiienne (270) . that the reader must draw clear
definitions of Nilotic classifications into the phcmetic, figurative, and symbolical, elements of
calligraphy: and Mr. Birch’s definition of Egypt’s pristine 16 monosyllabic articulations-
a b, f , g, h, i, k, m, n, p , r X I, s, t, sh, kh, u ,— is the most accessible to the: English
reader.'(271)' For Chinese analogies and discrepancies, as said before, there is no satisfaetory
work but the Sinico-JEgyptiaca.
T h ro u g h th e i r s tu d y th e r e a d e r w ill g le an h ow — s ta r t in g b o th from th e sam e springs,
a lth o u g h c h ro n o lo g ic a lly a n d g e o g ra p h ic a lly d is tin c t, viz ., P IC TU R E -W R IT IN G - the
E g y p tia n r iv u le t, g u s h in g f o r th n a tu r a lly in - o n e d ire c tio n , fo rm e d th e h i e r o g l y p h i c s ;
w h en c e in d u e tim e , th r o u g h SemUish c h a n n e ls , s tre am e d th o s e m ig h ty r iv e r s th a t, from
• C h a ld e a , h a v e w a te re d E u ro p e , H in d o s ta n , N o r th e rn A sia , A frio a , A m e ric a , an d Austr
a lia w ith th e r e f r e s h in g r il ls o f Phoenicia’s a lp h a b e t: a n d h ow th e C h in e se fo u n ta in its
w a te rs ta k in g a n o p p o s ite d ire c tio n , c r e a te d th e i d e o g r a p h i o s ; w h ich , c ram p e d « g
g u t t e r s a rtific ia lly i f in g e n io u s ly co n c eiv ed , h a v e e n a b le d th e C h in am e n to a t ta in a sys em,
i t is tr u e , e s s e n tia lly p h o n e tic , a n d w h ic h , o rig in a tin g in a M o n g o lian b r a in , suffices for at
th e n e c e s s itie s o f M o n g o l a r t ic u l a tio n s : n o tw ith s ta n d in g t h a t A B C a r e a s a lien to l
c om p lex co n s tru c tio n a s o u r E n g lis h .la n g u a g e is rem o te from th e a g g lu tin a tio n s of an
I n d ia n o r th e “ g lu c k in g s ” o f a H o tte n to t. T h e C h in e se n e v e r h a v e h a d a n alphabet. It
is im p o ss ib le , w ith o u t o rg an ic c h a n g e s w h ic h h um a n h is to r y d o e s n o t san c tio n , th a t the
S in ie o -M o n g o l e v e r c a n p o s se ss th a t , to u s th e s im p le s t, m e th o d o f c h ro n ic lin g o u r oug
(2 6 6 ) L e p s to s : Chrondogie; i . p . 3 3 Todtenbuch; 1 8 4 2 ; P r e f. p . W f - V m m : Eg>-s PI.; i. p . 8.
(2 6 7 ) H in c k s : Tram. R- Irish Am d .; 1 846. pb.tsse.Db
12681 Select Papyri; p u b l i s h « ! h y t h e B r i t i s h M u s e u m ; - L e f sh is : Chrondbgie; i. p p . 89,
R L a i , a n d C h am p o lu o n -E ig e a c ’s p a p e r s , i n t h e Revue ArcMdtogigue; - a n d B ir c h ’s i n Trans. R . Soc. •>
in t h e Archonlcgia; &c.
(2 6 9 ) Abth.; i i . h i. 9 8 , 69.
(ZT0) A s y n o p t ic a l s k e t c h i s i n a u n nO N : Chapter,; 1 8 4 3 . 19711 ftijDDON: Otia; p p . 1 1 3 -1 1 5 ; h u t b e t t e r i n L e f s i c s : Torldufige EachncU; 1 8 4 9 , p . 85.
In consequence of which reflections, fortified by the physical deductions elsewhere embodied
in “ Types of Mankind,” we have assigned to htloxQOL-origins a distinct column in
our theoretical Tableau of human palteographic history.,
For the objects of anthropology, the above explanatory remarks would be sufficient, were
not notions, current among those readers, who look to theology for biblical criteria, to
metaphysics for archeological — 1st., that the “'Chinese” are recorded in Scripture; and
ergo, that Mongolian races were familiar to Jewish writers; 2d., that “ Chinese vases”
have been found in tombs of the XVIIIth dynasty at Thebes; and ergo, that Egypt and
China were in positive communication about the time of Moses. (272) So we digress.
Once upon a time an adage, prevailed in literary controversies—Cave hominem unius libri.
Through what impairing causes is to us unknown, but certain it is, that in proportion as
one ascends in English theological literature to the Kennicotts, Warburtons, Lowths, Cud-
worths, Stillingfleets, Waltons, and other intellectual giants of that deceased school, so
one’s respect for divines and one’s, reverence for Scripture augment. They had one book
to study professionally, and that book they knew well; because they actually read it.
It would appear that there are cycles of deterioration, as evident in theology as in the
weather, to judge by what took place in China about a. d. 1368; and inasmuch as our
-inquiries first concern the Chinese, it is but fair that they should open proceedings.
The Emperor Houng-Wou, appalled at the degradation of scholarship consequent upon
the tragic events that preceded him, one day convoked the “ Tribunals of Literature ?’
(equivalent to the French Ministhre d’lnstruction Publique),(273) and made to them a common
sense speech, the pith of which is here in extract:
“ The ancients,” said he, “ the ancients used to write but few books, but they made them
g°0“ 0ur modern litterati write a great deal, and upon subjects that cannot be of the
slightest real utility. . . . The ancients wrote with perspicacity, and their writings were
suited to the comprehension of everybody.
. . . In former times their works were read with pleasure, and one reads them at this
day [a. d. 1368, in China!] with the same.
. . . You . [addressing himself to the Censors of the Press], you, who stand at the head
pf literature, make all your efforts to restore good sense: you will never succeed but bv
imitating the ancients. (274)
In the days between Walton and Eennicott, a theological student who might have ventured
to opine that the Chinese are mentioned in the Bible, would have been sent incontinently
to read the Hebrew text of Isaiah. (275) When this task was executed (and, formerly,
divinity students could read a little Hebrew), the young man would have found a
place on the lowest form, by command of the Professor of History, for ignorance of the
rudiments of his class. ; Shame would soon have impelled an ingenuous youth, of those
days gone by, to cram his head with simple facts of which some of his elders in theology
now seem unaware. (276)
Chinese history—-in this question the most valid— proves that, until the year 102 after
Christ, the Chinese never knew of the existence of any countries situate north and west
of Persia. Between the years 89-106 a. d., in the reign of Ho-Ti, a vast Chinese army,
under General Kan-Ying, detached by the Commander-in-Chief, Pan-tchao, halted on the
shores of the Caspian Sea; (277) receiving the submission of the Tad-jiks (Persians) and
(2T2) Tide Gmnxw’s IVth Lecture—reported in “ Daily Dispatch,” March 18 ; and in “ Richmond Examiner,”
March 21; Richmond, Ta., 1851. Also, more extensively, in “ The Union,” Washington, D. C, April 25,1851.
The a b u s iv e writers alluded to in th a t disoourse, as
“ Mere youths in science, and to fame unknown,”
were the reverend authors of “ Unity of the Human Races,” 1850; of an article in the Princeton Review,
1851; and of a third article, the one proiauded [supra, p. 587], as emanating from an Ass. of Min. at Col, S. C.
(273) E d . B io t : Essai sur F Instruction publique en Chine; 1846.
• (274) P a t jt k ie f . : Chine d’après les Documents Chinois; pp. 393, 394.
(275) I sa ia h ; xlix. 12.
(276) Rev. T homas S a rm r a , D.D.: Unity o f Oie Human Races; 1860; p. 43 ;—Rev. Dr. H owe: Southern Pres-
byterian Review; Columbia, S. C, No. 3, Jan. 1851; 4c.
(277) R em u sa t: Mênt. sur VExtension deVEmpire Chin, du coté de VOccident;—P a u th ie r , Chine; pp.258-260.