evident, however, as the variety of the symbols multiplied, and the number of people increased. One of the strongest evidences, that the designing of these symbols was contemporary with the earliest days of the Chinese as a people, is deduced from the fact that they are all monosyllabic; the radical words in all languages are mostly of this character, but in nearly all others, the single sounds soon coalesce and combine, while in Chinese this has been prevented by the nature of the written language. There is not, so far as the nature of the case goes, any reason why the sounds of Chinese characters should all be monosyllabic, any more than the Arabic numerals. But not only was the increase of inhabitants, as we suppose, a reason for making the symbols phonetic, the need of reducing the labor of learning the ever growing list, and the difficulty of distinguishing between species of the same genus and things of the same sort, was a still stronger motive. This was done by the combination of a leading type with some other well understood character, chosen quite arbitrarily, but possessing the _same sound_ as the new object to be represented. Thus, supposing a new fish called _pih_ was to be represented by a character; by taking the symbol for _fish_ and joining it to any well known character pronounced _pih_, no matter what was its meaning, the compound symbol clearly expressed, to those who understood its elementary parts, the _fish pih_. But neither does this compound contain any more clue to its sound to those unacquainted with the component elements, than its marks and hooks do of its meaning to those who have never learned them. When once the form and meaning of the primitive symbols have been learned, however, the meaning and sounds of the compound ones can, in many cases, be inferred to a greater or less degree; but so varied has been the principle of combination, that no dependence can be placed upon such etymologies for the meaning. In the various mutations the written language has undergone, the sound is not now so certain as it was probably at first; but in the majority of characters, it can be inferred with a considerable degree of certainty, though the idea is exhibited so indefinitely as to afford almost no assistance in guessing at it. A dictionary is indispensable in ascertaining the meaning, and almost as necessary to learn the sound of all Chinese characters. The meaning can be explained without any greater trouble than in other languages, but the sounds of characters can only be given by quoting other characters of the same sound, which the scholar is supposed to know, if he knows enough to use the dictionary.