suggesting the idea of density of growth and darkness; 孝 "a child at the
feet of an old man" = "filial piety"; 戈 "a spear" and 手 "to kill,"
suggesting the defensive attitude of individuals in primeval times = 我
"I, me"; 我 "I, my," and 羊 "sheep," suggesting the obligation to respect
another man's flocks = 義 "duty toward one's neighbour"; 大 "large" and 羊
"sheep" = 美 "beautiful"; and 善, "virtuous," also has "sheep" as a
component part,—why we do not very satisfactorily make out, except that
of course the sheep would play an important rôle among early pastoral
tribes. The idea conveyed by what we call the conjunction "and" is
expressed in Chinese by an ideogram, viz. 及, which was originally the
picture of a hand, seizing what might be the tail of the coat of a man
preceding, _scilicet_ following.

The third and greatest step in the art of writing was reached when the
Chinese, who had been trying to make one character do for several
similar-sounding words of different meanings, suddenly bethought
themselves of distinguishing these several similar-sounding words by
adding to the original character employed some other character
indicative of the special sense in which each was to be understood.
Thus, in speech the sound _ting_ meant "the sting of an insect," and was
appropriately pictured by what is now written 丁.

There were, however, other words also expressed by the sound _ting_,
such as "a boil," "the top or tip," "to command," "a nail," "an ingot,"
and "to arrange." These would be distinguished in speech by the tones
and suffixes, as already described; but in writing, if 丁 were used for
all alike, confusion would of necessity arise. To remedy this, it
occurred to some one in very early ages to make 丁, and other similar
pictures of things or ideas, serve as what we now call Phonetics, _i.e._
the part which suggests the sound of the character, and to add in each