BY L. L. HAMLINE. those who have but a slight acquaintance with antiquity. ORIGIN OF LETTERS. Literature is very ancient. It commenced with alphabetical writing, but at what period is unknown. Whether written language was always in use, and whether it was a human invention or a divine donation, have been debated by the most learned of Christian ages. Dr. Clarke deems the decalogue the earliest written production. He thinks that the writing mentioned in the seventeenth chapter of Exodus signifies "a monumental declaration of Joshua's victory by some symbolical representation." He denies that the wisdom of the Egyptians, in which Moses was educated, been no need of God's act and assistance in writing the two Tables of the Law. He adds, "there are no vestiges of letters subsisting among other nations till after the delivery of the law at Mount Sinai; and as then God is said to have written the decalogue with his own finger; and as after this time writing is always mentioned whenever a suitable occasion offers, I conclude that God first taught the use of alphabetical char THE reader is reminded that this periodical is intended as a provocation to female genius. At present it scarcely aspires to be a guide, because guidance is less needed than impulse. Of what use were the pillar of fire to the Israelites while groaning in Egyptian bondage? In concert with other influences, the Repository is laboring to draw woman into higher spheres of mental action and enjoyment. It assumes that she has a Canaan to possess, towards which she has scarcely 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 her to pass through the terrestrial paradise to the celestial to take the temple of science, in her way to the heavenly temple. To effect this, it urges literature on her attention, addressing its 'topics to her as a juror, because if she err in her verdict, no weighty interests are periled, while the discussion renders her familiar with, and in some degree intelligent of its themes. This is said to be hazardous, because it solicits her at-acters to man." tention to that which presents few attractions to female Eminent Christian fathers, such as Clement of Alextaste. If so, we will venture to hope that a conviction andria, and Eusebius the historian, were of the same of duty and the expectation of utility will secure her opinion; and with them agree several able scholars of attention until taste is reformed. Then will literature modern times. But others have dissented. A learned be to her a source of exquisite gratification. A proba- German professor states that "twenty-two hundred tion of resolute reading will certainly create a relish years before Christ, the Hebrew tongue was so far culfor letters. tivated, as to have become a written language, as is These remarks were suggested by the following inci-clear from the document in the twenty-third chapter of dent. Just as the words "PRIMITIVE LITERATURE" 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 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. *Jahn. 162 PRIMITIVE LITERATURE. cipally or solely from that source. He was a fine rhet- 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 to designate precisely either the time or the place. They say, farther, that Cadmus introduced letters from Phoenicia into Greece, if we may credit the Parisian Chronicle, B. C. 1519, that is, forty-five years after the death of Moses. Anticlides asserts, and attempts to prove, that letters were invented in Egypt fifteen years before Phoroneus, the most ancient king of Greece; that is, four hundred and nine years after the deluge, and in the one hundred and seventeenth year of Abraham. On this it may be remarked that they might have been introduced into Egypt at this time, but they had been previously invented by the Phoenicians. Epigenes, who, in the estimation of Pliny, is weighty authority, informs us that observations, made upon the 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 any language fixing and extending itself, men must of March is called Adar in the Chaldaic dialect; and have been previously gathered together in considerable at the time mentioned, namely, the eighty-ninth year numbers; society must have been already far advanced; of Abraham, the sun, during the whole month of and yet, on the other hand, there seems to have been March, was in the sign of the zodiac called Aries, or an absolute necessity for speech, previous to the formathe Ram. The word Adar means the same with Aries. tion of society. So that, either how society could form But, as letters would be unquestionably first used for itself, previously to language, or how words could rise the purposes of general intercourse, they must have into a language, previously to society formed, seem to been known long before they were employed to trans-be points attended with equal difficulty." mit the motions of the stars." In reply to these Gentile authorities it is enough to say that they give no satisfactory account of the origin 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. "Difficulty" indeed; and a difficulty which the Christian philosopher should never fall into. The hypothesis of such a state of society may be allowable 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 tural to think, that God taught our first parents only evening of the first Sabbath." The Sabians have a such language as suited their present occasions; leavbook, which, according to their traditions, was written ing them, as he did in other things, to enlarge and imby the patriarch of mankind. It is represented to be prove it as their future necessities should require. Conof a singular character, as we should expect if Adam sequently, those first rudiments of speech must have was its author. It is written in Chaldee. Were this been poor and narrow; and we are at full liberty to testimony conclusive, it would prove that the opinion inquire in what manner and by what steps, language of Plato and the Rabbinical doctrine are nearly ortho-advanced to the state in which we now find it.” dox. Dr. Blair's views of the rise and progress of language are familiar to many of my readers, whose im Contrarywise, language having a divine original, it was at first a perfect system, but was impaired by the 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 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. opinions, the middle may be the true ground. Pictures 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 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. "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 employ-not wont to employ miracles unnecessarily, which he ing 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. 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 intercourse with the Hebrews. But it is warranted by the fact that men are doubtless 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. 164 PRIMITIVE LITERATURE. and the Hebrew to so great a distinction. There is || ficient, if such changes only were effected, as to render strong presumption in favor of the Hebrew. Until the speech of different companies or different tribes the building of the tower of Babel, the original lan- unintelligible to one another, that their mutual co-opeguage was preserved. The confusion of tongues in-ration in the mad attempt in which they had all enflicted on the builders, originated the many languages gaged might be no longer practicable." of mankind. But it should be considered that this But granting that this was the language of parapunishment fell only upon the guilty. And is it pro-dise, we should be aware that it was not anciently bable that it involved all mankind? Certainly not; for called Hebrew. Among the heathens it was known it is incredible that all were guilty. Among the lineal as the Phoenician, Syriac, or Judaic. How it came to descendants of Noah was Heber, who was probably be called Hebrew is not certainly known-perhaps from innocent, and who of course retained the language Heber, in whose family it was preserved. The ancient of his ancestors. And from him descended Abra- Hebrew alphabet being lost by the Jews is retained in ham, the father of the faithful, in whom and in his the Samaritan pentateuch. What are now called Hebrew posterity, the primitive language was preserved. Hebrew letters are not such. They are properly the If so, the decalogue was given in that language, which Chaldean. But this has no particular bearing on the would afterwards be guarded from material corruption.above question. For their occasional captivities would not blot from the minds of a people tenacious as the Jews were of national customs, the knowledge of a language in which their history, laws, and religion were recorded. Thus there is historical presumption that the Hebrew was the primitive tongue. Again, we must not suppose that the Hebrew tongue is now what it was originally. It is not the primitive language in its purity. There are words in the Old Testament whose originals do not belong to the Hebrew. Indeed, portions of it are in Chaldee. We can only say, at last, granting all that has been urged, that there is more of the language of Eden retained in the Hebrew than any where else. To this we may add a philological presumption. I mean that the genius of the language indicates its seniority. Its simplicity, force, and fertility, are such Some have insisted that inasmuch as Hebrew was as might be expected in a divine tongue. Its proper the language of paradise, and was communicated from names possess a significancy which enabled Adam to God, we are warranted to conclude that it is the landistinguish the peculiar characteristics of each living guage of heaven. A learned professor used to urge creature. Comparing it with other languages, it seems his pupils to diligence, by assuring them that they were to bear to many of them a maternal relation. It is an acquiring the dialect of angels. Another in one of affluent source of roots to its cognates. True, the the most respectable universities, told an indolent youth Arabic and other oriental tongues partially reciprocate who failed in his Hebrew recitations, that if he did not this favor. They seem at least to contain the roots study harder he might expect to be "a mute in heaven." of some Hebrew words. But it is believed by the The writer was once acquainted with an estimable best scholars that these Arabic and other roots were lady, whose manners, as often happens to genius, were originally Hebrew, which not being preserved in the sprinkled with innocent eccentricities, and who applied Old Testament, (the scanty surviving depository of herself successfully to the acquisition of Hebrew with Hebrew words,) were lost to the mother tongue, and the avowed design of being "prepared to talk and sing found their way into other languages, where they now in paradise." Her ardor was somewhat dampened by appear indigenous, while to their native soil they are the suggestion, that probably our Savior as often as any become exotics. Still it is indisputable that the Arabic way used a certain modification or dialect of the Greek. borrows more-ten to one-from the Hebrew, than the It were desirable for both men and women to be Hebrew does from it. If radical dependences, then, acquainted with this beautiful (so it has been called) are to decide this question, Hebrew is the primitive language. But it should be studied with a reasonable tongue. Add to these considerations the well known aim. The pains of acquiring it will be rewarded, if it fact, that the most ancient literature of the world is in should happen not to be the language of heaven. Hebrew, and it strengthens the evidence of its priority. Whether it is, God has not seen fit to assure us, and Many of the ablest critics incline to this view."secret things belong unto the Lord." One thing we Though Dr. Clarke admits (what others have urged in know-God understands all languages and dialects, favor of the Chinese language) that the original tongue and will not fail to notice every expression, profane and was composed of monosyllables, yet he says the He- devout, that may fall from human lips. Of the sounds brew, stripped of its points, prefixes, suffixes, and post-or characters of language he takes small account; but fixes, would nearly answer this character. But Dr. Clarke does not argue the question-he merely glances at it. Calmet deems it highly probable that the Hebrew language survived the confusion of tongues in Heber and his descendants. Mr. Watson says: "It is unnecessary to suppose, that the primitive language was completely obliterated, and entire new modes of speech at once introduced. It was quite suf the breathings of purity in any tongue attract his Original. ORCHARD LAKE. BY R. SAPP. "Warriors, hear! Be wise, be brave- Drive the invading legions back." READER, turn to the map of our lovely sea-girded Michigan, and observe, in the county of Oakland, in the northeastern part of our state, a cluster of small lakes. You would think, from the represented unhealthiness of some parts of our state, that, here, the people were shaking to death by that wasting scourge, the ague. But you are mistaken. Here nature has executed some of her most lovely penciling, and here the young ladies have as red cheeks as among the Green Mountains of Vermont, where the rose blooms at thirty. These lakes afford as pure water as the most beautiful of the chrystal rills issuing from the bases of our interior mountains, and present as fine a sub-marine appearance as some parts of the Northern Ocean. In addition to this, they afford some of the finest sport in the world. They are filled with a variety and abundance of the most delicious fish, the taking of which is sufficient to divert the mind, and release a man from the severest attack of that troublesome disease called the "blues." Well, for a short description. Spring comes and the ice breaks up. Every body, in the neighborhood of the lakes, who loves sport and fish, is in a bustle for preparation, in order to take a share. The boats and canoes are manned; the spears, with more prongs than Neptune's trident, are collected, handled, and long cords tied to the ends of them; a quantity of the best bark, afforded by the neighboring trees, is gathered for fires. And what then? All wait, except a few impatient ones, until the crescent of the moon, and in addition to this, an extremely murky night, sufficient to make terror stand on tiptoe upon a man's head, when in those deeply shaded places, in the midst of the tall trees near the water's brink. Fires are kindled in the "jacks," fastened to the bows of the canoes, which give a sufficient glare to blind the fish and guide the spearman's eye; all push off, with oars muffled, and the sport is commenced. You will sometimes see a dozen lights at one time, glaring in the distance, and hear twenty voices of exultation as the finest fish are brought into the boat. But, unluckily, once in awhile, as the boat takes a quick turn, just as the spear has been plunged at a fish, you hear a still louder plunge and quite a "splish-splash," as an unfortunate fellow takes a backward leap into the cool element below. That to which I would especially invoke the reader's attention, is the lake named in the caption. This is more picturesque than others. It is called "Orchard Lake," from the fact, that near the centre is an island embracing an area of about fifty acres of land, well groved with different kinds of shrubbery; and near the centre of this island stand a number of aged appletrees, planted, perhaps, a century since by the hand of some Indian. Here is a place fit for retirement, after the mind has been closely applied to sacred meditation, and the body prostrated by toil for days and weeks, or after talking about the words of life and the way to heaven. Here you are regaled by some of the purest zephyrs that ever sung their gentle peans over the bosom of any water. But what renders it enchanted ground to the antiquary, is its having been the residence of the celebrated Pontiac, an Indian chief. At three successive periods in the history of the Indian race, they have bent all their energies to arrest the progress of the whites. Each of these periods has produced a chief able to control the elements brought into requisition for this purpose. It was the fortune of Pontiac to direct the wild unwieldy foe at the second of these periods. And this island was the place where his deeply laid plans were matured; and here many a chief of tried courage received his orders and his inspiration from the warrior who stood and towered above them. It is often noted by those accustomed to mark the affairs of the world, that great events and revolutions in nations produce actors adequate to the mighty conflicts brought upon the stage, who, from their position, shine above the remainder of their race. This is equally true of Indians and Europeans. In the year 1760, through the fortunes of war, the French power in the Canadas and the western country passed into the hands of the British. This was by no means agreeable to the Indians. It is a matter worthy of note that the French have always succeeded with the Indians better than either the English or Americans. The English found it, in this instance, to be one thing to conquer the French and possess their posts, and another to gain the favor of their Indian allies. Pontiac became aware of the downfall of his French allies, and on the approach of a detachment of English troops up the river to take possession of the post at Detroit, intercepted and demanded of them their object, which was explained by Major Rogers, the commandant. Pontiac professed friendship, and proper belts were mutually exchanged, but with the evident design, on his part, of allaying suspicion until preparations could be made to strike an effectual blow for the destruction of the new power. His influence over the neighboring tribes was extensive, and he succeeded in uniting with him all the tribes in the Peninsula, and engaged some from the western frontiers and northern lakes, to make a simultaneous rush, and destroy all the posts from Du Quesne and Niagara to Chicago. To effect his scheme, every |