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PART II.

ON STYLE AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

CHAPTER I.

OF LANGUAGE, AND ITS ORIGIN.

Q. By what is man chiefly distinguished from the brute crea⚫ion?

A. By his powers of reflection and reason, and his great susceptibility of improvement.

Q. On what do these mainly depend?

A. On his being farther distinguished by the use of speech or language.

Q. What do you understand by speech or language?

A. Those sounds of the voice by which we express our thoughts or ideas.

Q. What is supposed to have been the origin of language?

A. It is supposed by some to be the fruit of human invention; but the more common opinion is, that it was a Divine gift, bestowed upon man at his creation. (See note.)

Q. Under what different aspects may language be considered? A. As a medium of thought, it may be regarded either as spoken or written.

Q. What is the difference between spoken and written language?

A. Spoken language constitutes the immediate signs of our ideas; while written language forms merely the signs of spoken language.

Q. In what does a knowledge of written language consist? A. In being able to convert it into spoken language, so as to know the ideas which it is intended to rep

resent.

Q. Is written language of as high antiquity as spoken language? A. That can hardly be supposed, as men would no doubt long enjoy the power of speech before they would attempt giving permanency to their thoughts by means of writing.

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[For able arguments to show that Adam at his creation was endowed with a knowledge of language, and prepared to use it in thought and speech, consult Dr. Magee on Atonement, and Dr. Spring on the "Obliga tions of the World to the Bible."]

CHAPTER II.

OF ALPHABETIC WRITING.

Q. What is the simplest and most effectual means of preserv ing our thoughts?

A. The adoption of certain signs to represent the various sounds of the human voice.

Q. What name is given to this method of preserving and transmitting thought?

A. It is called alphabetic writing, and, next to reason and speech, is one of the greatest blessings that mankind possess.

Q. Is any thing known with certainty respecting the origin of alphabetic writing?

A. The remoteness of its origin has caused it to be buried in great obscurity, and many have even doubted its being a human invention.-(See Dr. Spring's Lectures.)

Q. What alphabet is supposed to be the most ancient?

A. The Hebrew, or Samaritan, which is sometimes called the Phoenician.

Q. What chiefly gives rise to this supposition?

A. The circumstance of its being the earliest alphabet of which we have any certain account, as well as the source whence almost all known alphabets have been derived.

Q. How did this alphabet find its way to other countries?

A. It was, about 1000 years before Christ, imported into Greece by one Čadmus, a Phoenician; from Greece it passed into Italy; and from Italy it has spread over the most of the civilized world.

Q. Was there ever any other mode of transmitting thought besides that of alphabetic writing?

A. Yes; there prevailed, at one time, picture and symbolic writing, the latter called hieroglyphics. Q. In what did picture writing consist?

A. In drawing a figure resembling the object respecting which some information was to be impart.

ed; as two men with drawn daggers, to denote a battle.

Q. In what did symbolic writing, or hieroglyphics, consist? A. In making one thing serve to represent another; as, an eye to denote knowledge; and a circle to denote eternity.

Q. By whom have these two methods of writing been chiefly practised?

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A. Picture writing has been practised by many rude nations, but particularly by the Mexicans, prior to the discovery of America; and hieroglyphics, principally by the ancient Egyptians.

[Note. For an interesting course of argument, to show that alphabetic characters were most probably invented by God himself, as an instrument of his written revelation to man, and that he first presented them on Mount Sinai to Moses, on the tables of stone, "written by the finger of God," see the able work of Dr. Spring, referred to in a former note.]

CHAPTER III.

OF THE MATERIALS ANCIENTLY USED IN WRITING, ETC. Q. What was for some time the peculiar character of writing? A. It was for a long time a species of engraving, and was executed chiefly on pillars and tablets of

stone.

Q. What substances came next into use?

A. Thin plates of the softer metals, such as lead; and then, as writing became more common, lighter substances, as the leaves and bark of certain trees, or thin boards covered with wax.

Q. What proof is there of the bark of trees having been thus used?

A. The same word which, in many languages, denotes a book, denotes also a tree, or the bark of a tree; as, the word liber in Latin, which means either the bark of a tree or a book.

Q. What was the next step in the progress of writing?

A. The manufacture of a substance called papyrus, which was prepared from a reed of the same name, that grew in great abundance on the banks of the Nile

Q Were not the skins of animals often used for writing upon? A. Yes; and it is said to have been during a great

scarcity of the Egyptian papyrus that the important art of making skins into parchment was discovered. Q. Where and about what time did this happen?

A. In Pergamus, a city of Asia Minor; but at what time is rather uncertain.

Q. How long did parchment and papyrus continue principally in use?

A. Down to about the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the superior substance of paper was invented.

Q. In what manner did some of the ancients write their characters in forming words?

A. The Assyrians, the Phoenicians, and the He brews, wrote from right to left, as did also the Greeks for some time.

Q. Did the Greeks abandon this plan all at once?

A. No; for, in making a change, they first adopted the plan of writing from right to left, and from left to right, alternately; and, at length, the more convenient mode, which at present prevails, of writing solely from left to right.

Q. What name was given to this mode of writing from right to left, and from left to right, alternately?

A. It was called boustrophedon, because it resembled the turning of oxen at the end of the ridges in the operation of ploughing.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE SCARCITY OF BOOKS IN FORMER TIMES. Q. Were books always as abundant as they are at present? A. Far from it; for, at no very remote period, they were so scarce as to be in the hands of only the wealthy and the noble; and a very few volumes would then have brought a price equal to the purchase of a good estate.

Q. To what was the scarcity of books in ancient times to be ascribed?

A. To the great labor and expense of copying or transcribing them, which rendered every copy almost as costly as the first.

Q. What was the consequence of this scarcity?

A. A great deficiency of learning among all except the wealthier classes of society, as no others possessed the means of purchasing books.

Q. To what is the great abundance of books now owing? A. To the invention of printing, which happened early in the fifteenth century.

Q. Where and by whom did this take place?

A. The cities of Strasburg, Haarlem, and Mentz, have all preferred their claim to this distinguished honor; and Coster, Faustus, Schoeffer, and Guttemberg, have all been named as the inventors.

Q. What is the cause of such uncertainty?

A. It probably is, that the inventor in this case, as in many others, has been frequently confounded with the improver.

What benefits has the invention of printing produced? A. It has multiplied books, cheapened knowledge, and given an entirely new aspect to society.

CHAPTER V.

OF COMPOSITION.

Q. What do you understand by the term composition as applied to language?

A. The clear, accurate, and forcible expression of our thoughts and opinions in writing.

Q. Is the term ever employed in any other sense

A. It is frequently used in reference to music, painting, and architecture, or to any material mixture, as well as to writing.

Q. What is the origin and strict meaning of the word

A. It is formed from the two Latin words con, together, and positio, a placing, and literally means a placing together.

Q. How comes it from this definition to possess its present signification?

A. Because in composition we place words together for the purpose of expressing our thoughts and ideas. Q. Is composition an important acquirement?

A. Perhaps the most so of any, as upon it mainly depend the spread of knowledge and the enlightening of the world.

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