all are primitive or in composite, so that if _Calepines_ Dictionary were to be translated into the _Chinese_, 'twere necessary to have as many distinct radical Characters as there are Words therein to be found, which accounts do seem to insinuate that this Character is the most difficult, and the most perplexed piece of Learning in the World, and depends wholly upon the strength of the Memory, in retaining the form and signification of a perplexed scrawl. But whether they who gave us these Accounts did do it knowingly, is much to be doubted, my own Observations, at least, make me think otherwise. I have not yet been able to procure sufficient helps to inform my self of the whole Art of Writing and Reading the _Chinese_ Character, and I fear the Relations I have hitherto met with concerning it, were written by such as did not well understand it, however from such helps as I had, what I collected or do conjecture, I shall here relate. The best help I had, was the perusal of some Books Printed in _China_, with the pronunciation and signification of the Character in Latin Letters. By these Books then I observed, first, that every one of their Characters, whether consisting of more or fewer strokes or marks, were comprised within a certain square space, which is proportion'd according to the bigness of the size or manner of Writing, they design there to make use of, not that the whole Square is filled with every Character, but that no part of that Character does exceed the limits of that Square, so that tho' the Character have but one stroak, it takes as much room in the line as another that hath 20 or 30 several Marks, so that their Characters are most exactly ranged in Rank and File, not unlike our Numbers in Arithmetick.