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clach, which signifies a stone. Calculus is the diminutive of calr, which is clearly allied to the Greek xa, a flint stone. Cailc is the Gaelic word for chalk, which is reckoned a species of stone fossil, where it is not unusual to find the flint stone.

Our English ancestors used tallies in their numerical computations, before the art of writing came into practice. A tally was a stick notched in conformity to another stick, and the word score, which denotes twenty, gives us to understand, that as the Greeks and Romans made use of small stones or pebbles to mark certain definite numbers, so our Saxon or English ancestors made a score or incision in a piece of wood, to serve as a permanent sign of the number twenty. That the Egyptians made use of small stones or pebbles as signs of certain definite quantities, and that a similar mode of computation was practised by the Greeks, are circumstances which form no conclusive argument in support of the proposition, that the Greeks were servile imitators of the Egyptians, or had received from them the first rudiments of the arithmetical art.

That the Egyptians may have improved the Greeks in the science of numbers, there appears no reason for calling in question. But we refer to the judgment of the learned the observations offered above, to show that the Greeks derived not their names of numbers from the Egyptians; that, on the contrary, those names were the in

vention of the Gael, who were the most ancient inhabitants of the countries, which, in the progress of time, came to be distinguished by the names of Greece and Italy.

PAPER. CARTA.

"THE word paper is formed from the Greek жажνgos, papyrus, the name of an Egyptian plant, "called also λs, whereon the ancients used to "write.

"Various are the materials, on which man"kind in different ages and countries have con"trived to write their sentiments, as on stones, "bricks, the leaves of herbs and trees, and their "rinds or barks; also on tables of wood, wax, "and ivory, to which may be added, plates of "lead, linen rolls, &c." At length the Egyptian papyrus was invented, then parchment, then cotton paper, and lastly, the common or linen paper.*

The era from which is to be dated the invention of the art of preparing the plant papyrus, for the purpose of receiving written characters, is not ascertained. The learned Varro refers it to no

CHALMERS' Dictionary, voce Paper.

earlier age than that of Alexander the Great, after the building of Alexandria. That the plant papyrus was known to the Greeks long prior to the building of Alexandria, is put beyond doubt by the testimony of a variety of ancient authors, particularly of Homer and Hesiod;* but it is an admitted fact, that for 200 years after Alexander's time, skins and the barks of trees were used by the Greeks and Romans, as the properest subjects then known to them for retaining written characters.

The era of the invention of manufacturing the plant papyrus into paper, has been much disputed. Varro's decision of the matter has been called in question by modern authors, relying on the authority of Pliny. This learned author's words are: "Prius tamen quam degrediamur ab Ægyp"to, et papyri natura dicetur, cum chartæ usu maxime humanitas vitæ constet et memoria. "Et hanc Alexandri Magni victoria repertam, auctor est M. Varro condita in Ægypto, Alex"andria. Antea non fuisse chartarum usum, in palmarum foliis primo scriptitatum, deinde quo"rundam arborum libris. Postea publica monumenta plumbeis voluminibus, mox et privata "linteis confici cœpta aut ceris.”†

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Varro informs us, that prior to the time of Alexander the Great, the use of paper was unknown. Varro, it is evident, and after him

* CHALMERS' Dictionary.

PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. xiii. cap. 11.

Pliny, applied the word charta specially to the paper made of the plant papyrus. Before the period when this paper manufacture was invented, we have the authority of Varro, that the Egyptians made use of the leaves of the palm tree, the rinds or barks of certain trees, then of rolls of lead, linen, or wax.

Pliny was of opinion, that Varro's account respecting the period whence ought to be dated the invention of the manufacture of the plant papyrus into charta or paper, was erroneous. "In"gentia quidem," says Pliny, " exempla con"tra Varronis sententiam de chartis reperiuntur.

Namq. Cassius Hemina, vetustissimus auctor "annalium, quarto eorum libro prodidit, Cn. Te"rentium scribam agrum suum in janiculo repas"tinantem, ostendisse arcam, in qua Numa, qui "Romæ regnavit, situs fuisset. In eadem libros ejus repertos, P. Cornelio, L. F. Cethego, M.

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Bebio, Q. F. Pamphilo, coss. ad quos a regno "Numæ colliguntur anni 535, et hos fuisse e "charta. Majore etiamnum miraculo, quod tot "infossi duraverunt annis."

Among a variety of facts mentioned to prove the mistaken opinion of Varro, Pliny writes: "Præterea Mutianus ter consul prodidit nuper se "legisse, cum præsideret Lyciæ, Sarpedonis a Troja "scriptam in quodam templo epistolæ chartam.'

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Melchior Guilandinus, a Prussian physician, wrote a learned commentary on three chapters of Pliny's works relative to this subject, and

shows, from the authority of Greek authors, that the papyrus was known to the Greeks before the time of Alexander the Great, but was not then used as paper.

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The Egyptian paper was so scarce, even at the time of Tiberius, that its use was dispensed with by a decree of the senate.* Factumq. jam "Tiberio principe inopia chartæ, ut e senatu darentur arbitri dispensandi.”

There can be no doubt, then, that when Pliny mentions the word charta, he means the Egyptian paper made of the plant papyrus. That Varro used the word in the same sense is equally certain. The annalist Cassius Hemina gave no information, nor stated any opinion, that the paper books found in Numa's tomb were made of the Egyptian papyrus; nor can the application of the term charta to those books, or to the letters of Sarpedon written from Troy, establish a higher antiquity to the invention of the Egyptian paper than that given to it by Varro.

In what sense the annalist used the word charta, with respect to its substance, is not explained. At what time the Romans became first acquainted with the Egyptian paper, is not ascertained. That, however, both, the Greeks and Romans. were acquainted with different substances, upon which they inscribed written characters, before they had any knowledge of the Egyptian paper,

* PLINY'S Nat. Hist. lib. xiii. c. 13.

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