These conditions have had their influence on the development of graphic systems. In the simplest combination of a consonant and vowel, as _sa_, _se_, _si_, _so_, _su_, if the combining power is only one way and never another, as _as_, _es_, _is_, _os_, _us_, the number of syllables that can be formed in such a language are few, and the number of signs to express these are consequently limited. But when the combining power is both ways, the number of possible syllables increases with every increase of these combinations of vowels and consonants, and the number of signs correspondingly. The transmission of the Chinese system of writing to the Japanese, which occurred about the third century, B. C., indicates this influence of language structure towards simplicity. The Japanese language is polysyllabic. No syllable contains more than one vowel, with a single preceding consonant. In the adoption by the Japanese of the Chinese characters in the Ka-ta-ka-na syllabary, a certain number of phonograms were selected which would give the sound of the unions of consonants and vowels in the Japanese language. As spoken, this includes five vowels and fifteen consonants. As these combine only in one way there are but seventy-five possible combinations of vowels and consonants in this language. As some of these possible combinations never occur, the use of forty-five of these syllabic signs are all that is necessary to form any word in the Japanese language, with the Ka-ta-ka-na syllabary. In the formation of this syllabary the ideographic characters of the Chinese system were found unnecessary and were rejected. The result has been one of the best syllabaries that has ever been constructed. The Japanese have another syllabary, the Hi-ra-ka-na, derived from a cursive script of the Chinese. This syllabary, however, is more complicated, including with the syllabics a greater number of signs as variants, and homophones, in all nearly three hundred; a marked contrast to the simplicity of the other. It is, however, one among the many instances we have in the evolution of letters, where the simpler way seems so easy and evident, but yet is not recognized. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK CITY [Illustration] TRANSLATION OF INSCRIPTION ON ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TABLET Lines 1 and 2 read in the original from right to left! Below lines 1 and 2 the god Osiris is represented as sitting on his throne, and the inscription of these two lines refers to him. Below lines 8 and 9 we find Amen-neb, the dedicator of the tablet, kneeling, and below line 11 his wife Hûi kneels.