It is very seldom, if ever it happens in human affairs, that effects are produced by a single cause, and the same cause does not always produce similar effects. The road of conjecture is dark and intricate, and when I presume to offer mine, it is always with due diffidence, and I am far from wishing to have them considered as axioms.
Pierre du Ponceau, A Dissertation on the Nature and Character of the Chinese System of Writing












