he class which Cadmus introduced into Greece,
and the one almost universally adopted among all the European nations
at the present day. It is called Phonetic, from a Greek word denoting
_sound_, because the characters which are used do not denote directly
the thing itself which is signified, but the sounds made in speaking
the word which signifies it. Take, for instance, the two modes of
representing a conflict between two contending armies, one by the
symbolic delineation of two swords crossed, and the other by the
phonetic delineation of the letters of the word battle. They are both
inscriptions. The beginning of the first represents the handle of the
sword, a part, as it were, of the thing signified. The beginning of
the second, the letter _b_, represents the pressing of the lips
together, by which we commence pronouncing the word. Thus the one mode
is _symbolical_, and the other _phonetic_.

On considering the two methods, as exemplified in this simple
instance, we shall observe that what has already been pointed out as
characteristic of the two modes is here seen to be true. The idea is
conveyed in the symbolical mode by one character, while by the
phonetic it requires no less than six. This seems at first view to
indicate a great advantage possessed by the symbolical system. But on
reflection this advantage is found entirely to disappear. For the
symbolical character, though it is only one, will answer for only the
single idea which it denotes. Neither itself nor any of its elements
will aid us in forming a symbol for any other idea; and as the ideas,
objects, and relations which it is necessary to be able to express, in
order to make free and full communications in any language, are from
fifty to a hundred thousand,--the step which we have taken, though
very simple in itself, is the beginning of a course which must lead to
the most endless intricacy and complication. Whereas in the six
phonetic characters of the word battle, we have elements which can be
used again and again, in the expression of thousands of other ideas.
In fact, as the phonetic characters which are found necessary in most
languages are only about twenty-four, we have in that single word
accomplished one quarter of the whole task, so far as the delineation
of characters is concerned, that is necessary for expressing by
writing any possible combination of ideas which human language can
convey.

At what time and in what manner the transition was