CHAPTER II. 10 EGYPTIAN OEDIPUS

original: "Philoſophos ſuam philoſophandi rationem..." He clearly teaches that the philosophers learned their way of philosophizing from the columns of Hermes, or Mercury (certainly from no other Hermes than the one we have described); and for this reason, all posterity has acknowledged him, not without merit, as the parent of all literature at all times. See The Pamphilian Obelisk, book 2, chapters 1, 2, and 3, where the statements made thus far are confirmed by authorities of every kind. With these things established as a preface, the difference by which the letters of various nations differ from the Egyptian Priestly script must now be assigned, so that the doubt of many concerning this matter may be removed—those who think that the letters of the Chinese, the Brahmins The "Brachmanes" refers to the people of India and their Sanskrit-based or concept-based scripts as understood by 17th-century Europeans., and the Mexicans are truly hieroglyphic signs.

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CHAPTER II.

Almost all nations have characters that signify concepts.

The Chinese, Brahmins, and Mexicans especially.

The experience of time has made it known to us that there is almost no nation so barbarian, no nation so unrefined, that it does not use its own characters to manifest concepts to one another. However, we are not speaking here of letters and characters established and defined by a certain alphabet, but of significative characters involving the entire concept of a certain thing. And it is established that three nations, above all other peoples of the world, have used these: namely, the Chinese, the Brahmins, and the Mexicans; we shall discuss their letters and characters in this place, beginning our start with the Chinese.

The Hieroglyphic Characters of the Chinese.

When the characters of the Chinese were instituted.

The Chinese, from the connection of their own Annals and times, place the first invention of letters almost three hundred years after the Flood; their first founder and King was a man named Fohi Kircher refers to Fu Xi, the legendary first emperor of China, to whom the invention of writing and the I Ching hexagrams are traditionally attributed.. This is held in the Book of the Succession of Kings. And the first form of the characters is found in the Book on the Method of Forming Chinese Letters, which, while I was writing this, was shared with me by the Reverend Father Michael Boym, a Pole of the Society of JESUS. He had traveled to Rome from the region of the Chinese for the sake of business and is most skilled both in the Chinese language and in all matters pertaining to the customs and habits of the said Kingdom. From him, I received by word of mouth many things regarding the Chinese method of reading and writing; from these, I shall describe only those things which are proper to my purpose. The curious reader will find the remaining things concerning the Kingdom of the Chinese, its government, and the nature of the language described most copiously in the Summary Explanation of Chinese Affairs original: "dilucidatio ſummaria rerum Sinicarum", which was most richly and carefully prepared by the aforementioned Father.

The descendants of Ham seem to have sent colonies into China.

I said that almost three hundred years after the Flood, at nearly the same time when the sons of Noah original: "Noëmi" were ruling the world, they [extended] their empire to the ends of the entire world...