NOTICES.

ADDRESS, delivered before the Patrons and Friends of the Springfield High School, at its opening, January, 1841. By Chandler Robbins, Principal. Springfield. 1841.-A well written address on the subject of education. It notices the aspects of the present age in relation to this subject, and glances at the state of education in earlier ages, in proof of the march of mind-speaks of the errors of modern systems, and of the advantages of solid acquisitions. Many passages are eloquent. Read the following:

EDITORS' TABLE.

A WOMAN OF WEALTH.-If we believed in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, we should be tempted to think that the spirit of Croesus dwelt in the late Countess of Branitska. She died recently, it seems, on her estate of Biala Cerkiew, in the eightieth year of her age. The empress Catharine treated her with great respect, and she was regarded with esteem by Alexander. Her fortune was immense. A million sterling in specie was found in her chateau. She had sixty millions of roubles in the bank of Russia, and one hundred and thirty thous and slaves on her estates. She was a speculator, a banker, a farmer, a merchant, &c., &c. It is stated that she lent money on mortgages, and made nearly all the land-holders of the empire her debtors. She discounted bills, traded in the precious metals, sold the immense produce of her estates, and executed all those supervisory offices which belong to gentlemen engaged in various and almost illimitable businesses for pecuniary gain. The following statement concerning her seems almost incredible:

and finding human hair so valuable in that country, she, on her "It is said that having visited France several years since, return to Russia, caused the heads of all her female slaves to be shaved, and shipped a cargo of cherenures to France, where they fetched a handsome return."

"To the scholar is opened a store of enjoyment at once full and inexhaustible. Said a distinguished professor, in a neighboring state, to me, not long since, 'I would rather break stones on a turnpike, or dig in our canals, with the power of accurate thought, such as an education bestows, than with a mind untrained to think, to share the honors of the world.' It forms no intermitting spring of doubtful pleasures; it is an ever flowing fountain. To the careful student, whose mind is disciplined to think, no object of nature, no event of life is destitute of interest. Wielded by such an one, the power of thought becomes potent as the rod in the hand of Moses; with it he strikes the barren rock in the wilderness, and forthwith issues a chrystal stream, fertilizing the desert of life, and calling forth beauty and gladness from barrenness and desolation. All events, all places, all times, are full of meaning, full of interest, full of joy. He has learned the language in which nature holds converse with God. His enraptured ear drinks in the harmony of the universal hymn of praise. The music of the spheres' is no longer an idle dream of philosophers; for he has acquired a new sense by which he hears and appreciates it. The ocean's roar, the streamlet's ripple, the dashing torrent, and the babbling brook, 'the deep mouthed thunder,' the sighing breeze, the whirlwind and the zephyr; all utter a MEETING OF MISSIONARIES.-An interesting meeting of the voice and speak a language intelligible to him. Nor is he ever alone. At home or abroad, in every land, in every seas- Broadway Tabernacle. There were three of the foreign misBoard of Foreign Missionaries was held last evening in the on, in the crowded mart or solitary waste, amidst the tempestsionaries present-the Rev. Mr. Meigs from Ceylon-the Rev of human passions, or in the repose of peace, in the darkness of midnight or the glare of day, there is no solitude to him. All things teem with life. The objects of creation, that to others are but inert matter, form an animated society in which he delights to dwell. With earth and sea and air, and the hosts of heaven, the greater and the lesser lights, he claims a broth-exhibited a Bible in the Sandwich Island language, manufacerhood."

We rejoice to find that the Springfield High School is at last in the full tide of prosperity, as we deem it must be under the direction of a mind like Mr. Robbins'.

She has delivered up her trusts, and gone to her reward. Rich and honored as she was among men, how unenviable was her state without a good conscience! Who would not prefer the fortunes of Mrs. Graham or the Dairyman's Daughter, to the wealth, luxuries, cares, and probable end of this poor Countess of Branitska!

The following notice will interest our readers:

Mr. Bingham from the Sandwich Islands-and Dr. Grant from the Nestorians. Interesting addresses were made by each of these devoted ministers of the cross in reference to the peculiar state of things at their different stations. Mr. Bingham

tured by the natives themselves. He read from this volume
parts of the fifth chapter of Matthew. The native language
struck every one as being sweet, musical and expressive. It
abounds in those vowel sounds which give great harmony to
the language. Mr. B. also exhibited a book of engraving and
marks of superior intelligence and workmanship.
a quarto periodical, both the work of the natives and bearing

nant of the ten lost tribes of Israel, and that they had the Gospel preached to them by Thomas, Bartholomew, James, and others. Dr. Grant made a farewell address to his friends last night, touching and eloquent. He returns to the Nestorians, and intends to devote the remainder of his life to their welfare.

THE RE-PUBLICATION in America of the London, Edinburgh, Foreign, and Westminster Reviews, is an enterprise of great moment to the American public. We are under obligations to Dr. Grant exhibited a manuscript Bible written upon parchthe publishers for the London Review. In the March number is a Review of Tytler's History of Scotland, Vol. vii, which the Nestorians in the Syriac language, and the work is execument. It was written more than seven hundred years since by discusses at length the character of the unfortunate Queented in great perfection. Dr. Grant made an eloquent address Mary. Various facts are arrayed to implicate the Queen on the one hand, and to vindicate her on the other, in regard to to a numerous and intelligent audience, in which he expressed the death of Lord Darnley. The reviewer adopts the theory his well satisfied convictions that the Nestorians are the remof her innocence. He gives the following principal reasons for this opinion. First, the integrity of Mary's early life, especially during her residence in France. Second, her conduct during her captivity. Third, the opinion of Darnley's mother, the Countess of Lennox. Fourth, Mary's complaints to Archbishop Beautoun against Darnley. Fifth, he insists that several of the arguments employed against Mary by her adversaries recoil upon themselves. Sixth, because Darnley's murderers evidently intended to make the impression that his death was violent, and thus proclaim to the world that he was murdered. Whereas, if Mary desired and sought his death, every possible reason existed to have him murdered without suspicion, which was perfectly within her power. Seventh, the dying confession of Bothwell, who expired in great agony and remorse, confessing the murder of Darnley, but declaring that the Queen was innocent in every respect.

"Some men," says the reviewer, "might be suspected, while revealing their own guilt, of seeking to shelter the guilt of their accomplices; but no such chivalrous motive can be believed of the selfish and reckless Bothwell, and we can only ascribe to him that penitence which, in the hour of death, can pierce even the most hardened hearts."

LITHOGRAPHY.-It is said that Mr. Hullmandel has done much to improve lithography-a new mode of producing pictorial effects on the lithographic stone, by tints washed with a brush, like sepia drawing, which yield impressions so perfectly resembling original sketches, that the difference is not discernible. The painters, we are told, will now have at their comniand a means of multiplying their own works, which their habitual practice renders available without altering their style of handling; for this mode of lithography, or rather painting on stone, is just as if the sketch were made on stone instead of on paper. Their tints are wonderfully varied and delicate.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.-A number of communications are on hand, some of which will appear in the next number. The "Address" is a respectable production. But it is so strictly valedictory that it would not interest our readers generally. If it discussed any principle we would publish it. What has a local or circumstantial interest, is unsuitable for our pages.

THE LADIES' REPOSITORY.

CINCINNATI, JUNE, 1841.

Original.

PRIMITIVE LITERATURE.

BY L. L. HAMLINE.

those who have but a slight acquaintance with antiquity.

ORIGIN OF LETTERS.

Literature is ancient. It commenced with very alphabetical writing, but at what period is unknown. THE reader is reminded that this periodical is in- Whether written language was always in use, and tended as a provocation to female genius. At present whether it was a human invention or a divine donait scarcely aspires to be a guide, because guidance is tion, have been debated by the most learned of Chrisless needed than impulse. Of what use were the pillar tian ages. Dr. Clarke deems the decalogue the earliest of fire to the Israelites while groaning in Egyptian written production. He thinks that the writing menbondage? In concert with other influences, the Repos-tioned in the seventeenth chapter of Exodus signifies itory is laboring to draw woman into higher spheres of "a monumental declaration of Joshua's victory by some mental action and enjoyment. It assumes that she has symbolical representation." He denies that the wisa Canaan to possess, towards which she has scarcely dom of the Egyptians, in which Moses was educated, started that the fields of literature are a land of prom-embraced alphabetical writing; otherwise, there had ise, where she is offered an inheritance. It persuades been no need of God's act and assistance in writing her to pass through the terrestrial paradise to the celes- the two Tables of the Law. He adds, "there are no tial to take the temple of science, in her way to the vestiges of letters subsisting among other nations till heavenly temple. To effect this, it urges literature on after the delivery of the law at Mount Sinai; and as her attention, addressing its topics to her as a juror, then God is said to have written the decalogue with because if she err in her verdict, no weighty interests his own finger; and as after this time writing is always are periled, while the discussion renders her familiar mentioned whenever a suitable occasion offers, I conwith, and in some degree intelligent of its themes.clude that God first taught the use of alphabetical charThis is said to be hazardous, because it solicits her attention to that which presents few attractions to female taste. If so, we will venture to hope that a conviction of duty and the expectation of utility will secure her attention until taste is reformed. Then will literature be to her a source of exquisite gratification. A probation of resolute reading will certainly create a relish

for letters.

These remarks were suggested by the following incident. Just as the words "PRIMITIVE LITERATURE"

acters to man."

Eminent Christian fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius the historian, were of the same opinion; and with them agree several able scholars of modern times. But others have dissented. A learned German professor states that "twenty-two hundred years before Christ, the Hebrew tongue was so far cultivated, as to have become a written language, as is clear from the document in the twenty-third chapter of Genesis, written in the age of Abraham."* In the chapter referred to there is no allusion to a contract in writing. But it is stated that the field of Ephron "was made sure to Abraham in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of the city." This does not indicate a conveyance by writing, but rather a preparation to maintain newly acquired possessions by the testimony of many living witnesses, and by far-famed tradition. Thus were the ancients wont to transact important affairs, making a heap of stones or plucking off a shoe, the token of a public covenant.

were placed at the head of the sheet, a friend at my elbow exclaimed, "What! primitive literature for ladies!" as though it were a disorderly proceeding. But where is the error? It is a curious theme; and ladies have curiosity. It bears on the philosophy of mind; and ladies have minds. It is often a subject of conversation, and ladies can converse. True, the female reader may not be called formally to discuss this or similar themes; but to-morrow may find her in a circle where she will hear it discussed, and should she not be prepared to receive instruction from the argument? She may be assured that it would detract Mr. Watson is of the opinion that alphabetical wrinothing from her charms. Gentlemen take no partic-ting was in use long before the existence of the decaular satisfaction in the stupid simplicity with which an logue. In proof of it he refers, with Jahn, to the untaught woman listens to a conversation on literary twenty-third chapter of Genesis. If the fact were as subjects. The Chinese proverb is, "To renounce sci-he supposes, the reference is unsatisfactory. He adduence is the virtue of woman." Thanks to Providence,ces, however, many other and stronger reasons, which we have no such maxim. Unromantic, therefore, as are persuasive, but not conclusive. He saysis the theme, some will bestow upon it an hour's atten"In regard to alphabetic writing, all the ancient writion. It shall not be treated scholastically. The object shall be to present it in a shape which will interest Vol. I.-21

* Jahn.

162

PRIMITIVE LITERATURE.

ters attribute the invention of it to some very early age, || pressions on this subject may have been derived prinand some country of the east; but they do not pretend cipally or solely from that source. He was a fine rhetto designate precisely either the time or the place. orician; but he was a careless philosopher, and a deThey say, farther, that Cadmus introduced letters from fective divine. His views of the origin of society are Phoenicia into Greece, if we may credit the Parisian || fanciful, and the same may be said of some other emiChronicle, B. C. 1519, that is, forty-five years after the nent writers on that subject. Their speculations are death of Moses. Anticlides asserts, and attempts to like the dreams of childhood. Dr. Blair's remarks on prove, that letters were invented in Egypt fifteen years the progress of language are interesting, but they before Phoroneus, the most ancient king of Greece; should be well weighed before they are adopted. "Carthat is, four hundred and nine years after the deluge, ry your thoughts back," he says, "to the first dawn of and in the one hundred and seventeenth year of Abra- language among men. Reflect upon the feeble beginham. On this it may be remarked that they might nings from which it must have arisen, and upon the have been introduced into Egypt at this time, but they many and great obstacles which it must have encounhad been previously invented by the Phoenicians. tered in its progress, and you will find reason for the Epigenes, who, in the estimation of Pliny, is weighty highest astonishment, on viewing the height which it authority, informs us that observations, made upon the has now attained." heavenly bodies for seven hundred and twenty years at "Think of the circumstances of mankind when lanBabylon, were written down upon baked tiles; but guages began to be formed. They were a wandering Berosus and Critodemus, also referred to by Pliny, scattered race; no society among them except families; make the number of years four hundred and eighty. and the family society, too, very imperfect, as their Pliny from these statements draws the conclusion that method of living by hunting or pasturage must have the use of letters, as he expresses it, must have been separated them frequently from one another. In this eternal, that is, beyond all records. Simplicius, who situation, when so much divided, and their intercourse lived in the fifth century, states, on the authority of so rare, how could any one set of sounds or words, be Porphyry, an acute historian, that Callisthenes, the generally agreed on as the signs of their ideas? Supcompanion of Alexander, found at Babylon a record posing that a few, whom chance or necessity threw toof observations on the heavenly bodies for one thous-gether, agreed by some means upon certain signs, yet and nine hundred and three years. Of course the by what authority could these be propagated among record must have been begun B. C. 2234, that is, the other tribes or families, so as to spread and grow up eighty-ninth year of Abraham. This statement re-into a language? One would think, that in order to ceives some confirmation from the fact that the month of March is called Adar in the Chaldaic dialect; and at the time mentioned, namely, the eighty-ninth year of Abraham, the sun, during the whole month of March, was in the sign of the zodiac called Aries, or the Ram. The word Adar means the same with Aries. But, as letters would be unquestionably first used for the purposes of general intercourse, they must have been known long before they were employed to trans-be points attended with equal difficulty." mit the motions of the stars."

any language fixing and extending itself, men must have been previously gathered together in considerable numbers; society must have been already far advanced; and yet, on the other hand, there seems to have been an absolute necessity for speech, previous to the formation of society. So that, either how society could form itself, previously to language, or how words could rise into a language, previously to society formed, seem to

"Difficulty" indeed; and a difficulty which the In reply to these Gentile authorities it is enough to Christian philosopher should never fall into. The say that they give no satisfactory account of the ori-hypothesis of such a state of society may be allowable gin of letters, and in their chronology they are utterly at variance. The question must be referred to the Jewish Scriptures. If they are silent, there is no other oracle.

for the sake of argument, but it is singular that any one accrediting the Scriptures, should contemplate it as the possible state of mankind. The second error is worse than the first.

Some will have it that writing was in use from the But supposing language to have a divine original, creation, believing, of course, that it was of divine ori-we cannot, however, suppose, that a perfect system of gin. They seem to agree substantially with the Jew-it was all at once given to man. It is much more naish Rabbins who say that "letters were created on the evening of the first Sabbath." The Sabians have a book, which, according to their traditions, was written by the patriarch of mankind. It is represented to be of a singular character, as we should expect if Adam was its author. It is written in Chaldee. Were this testimony conclusive, it would prove that the opinion of Plato and the Rabbinical doctrine are nearly ortho-advanced to the state in which we now find it." dox. Contrarywise, language having a divine original, it

tural to think, that God taught our first parents only such language as suited their present occasions; leaving them, as he did in other things, to enlarge and improve it as their future necessities should require. Consequently, those first rudiments of speech must have been poor and narrow; and we are at full liberty to inquire in what manner and by what steps, language

Dr. Blair's views of the rise and progress of lan- was at first a perfect system, but was impaired by the guage are familiar to many of my readers, whose im- fall, and thenceforth deterioriated, through the injury

PRIMITIVE LITERATURE.

163

inflicted on all the human faculties. No doubt, in the || seem unreasonable. But amidst so many and opposite lips of Adam, language had a significancy and beauty || opinions, the middle may be the true ground. Pictures which it has never since possessed.

With regard to written language, the Doctor professes to unfold the whole process by which it advanced from the hieroglyphic to the alphabetic form; and the very impulses, and their causes, which impelled men to the invention.

"At length, in different nations, men became sensible of the imperfection, the ambiguity, and the tediousness of each of these methods of communication with one another. They began to consider, that by employing signs which would stand not directly for things, but for the words which they used in speech for naming these things, a considerable advantage would be gained. For they reflected farther, that though the number of words in every language be, indeed, very great, yet the number of articulate sounds, which are used in composing these words, is comparatively small. The same simple sounds are continually recurring and repeated; and are combined together, in various ways, for forming all the variety of words which we utter. They bethought themselves, therefore, of inventing signs, not for each word by itself, but for each of those simple sounds which we employ in forming our words; and, by joining together a few of those signs, they saw that it would be practicable to || express, in writing, the whole combinations of sounds which our words require."

On glancing at these paragraphs, one is ready to conclude that Dr. Blair obtained his impressions concerning both the origin of society and the rise and progress of language, not from the word of God, but from writers like Horace, who represents men as issuing from the earth, (probably like locusts,) and crawling by degrees, through some tendency of nature to improvement, into the perfect form of conscious, intelligent, and refined humanity.

and hieroglyphics may have answered the limited wants of mankind for the first two thousand five hundred years. In their constant use, slow but considerable approaches may have been made towards the adoption of the alphabetic system, till at last the commandments, written by the finger of God, perfected a style of language which was previously in the rudest state. That God wrote the decalogue, or in other words produced it miraculously, is indisputable; and he was not wont to employ miracles unnecessarily, which he seems to have done, if Moses was at that time a scribe. Moreover, vocal language (and how much more alphabetical) is unnatural to man. He acquires it with labor and patience, and cannot learn it at all but by imitation. This is evident from the condition of the deaf. They are always mutes, whose tones are neither significant nor uniform, but unmeaning and repulsively harsh above those of the brutes. These facts lend support to our theory.

The conclusion in the mind of the writer is, that picture writing and hieroglyphics were in use up to the times of Moses; and that God himself, by the giving of the law, communicated the art of alphabetical writing, which art was speedily introduced amongst the Israelites, and from them, under various modifications, spread extensively among the nations. Those who would examine this subject for themselves, are referred to Calmet, Shuckford, Jahn, Clarke, and Watson. There are other elaborate treatises, but probably few of our readers can have access to them.

THE LANGUAGE OF EDEN.

"What was the first language-the language of paradise?" has been asked a thousand times. It would be gratifying to know. Not that it would be desirable, as some have suggested, to procure its universal adoption, as the world's vernacular. Such an But to return. The divine origin of letters is infer-event would be almost as great a misfortune as the red from their antiquity, from the similarity of various original confusion of tongues is generally thought to alphabets, and from the ignorance of letters which pre-have been. This assertion may surprise the reader. vailed among barbarous nations, that had no inter-But it is warranted by the fact that men are doubtless course with the Hebrews.

more intelligent for the multitude of existing languages. It is true, as has often been suggested, that acquiring a new language is almost like gaining a new sense, or like entering and surveying a new world. It is not to be regretted, therefore, on the whole, that the world is not, and has not always been of one speech, as before the dispersion. Human genius is revealed under as many varying shades as there are productions in a single dialect; but in as many generic forms as there are lan

Dr. Goode thinks that writing is a human invention, of very early date-that at the giving of the decalogue Moses and the Israelites, as well as the Egyptians and some other nations, were familiar with it. He says that Moses was so far from arrogating the invention to himself, that he uniformly refers to alphabetic writing as a common art, appealing expressly to existing records, such as tablets and volumes, and to the more durable art of engraving, as applied to alphabetic char-guages. The loss to mankind, then, would be great, if acters. He refers to Exodus xvii, 14, and xxviii, 36. He also claims the book of Job as one of the most ancient productions of Moses, and in its 19th chapter finds corroborating language. This needs no other answer than to remind the reader that the very question in debate is here taken for granted, namely, that the This question, like the former, has been learnedly writing there spoken of was alphabetical. Dr. Clarke discussed. Various writers have supported the claims and many others say no. And this answer does not of the Teutonic, the Chaldee, the Chinese, the Arabic,

all languages except one were buried in oblivion. Yet our curiosity would be exceedingly gratified could we certainly know what were the very tones of paradise. This we never can ascertain with the certainty of science; but we are not left to naked conjecture.