EVOLUTION AND HUMAN DESTINY 



mals, and which showed few of the characteristics re- 

 garded as most typically human. 



The importance of language in facilitating the grow- 

 ing integration of the human colony can hardly be 

 overemphasized. It is probable that the circumstance 

 of the dawning of language in man was an extremely 

 important factor responsible for making him what he 

 is today. 



Verbal communication alone has its limitations. The 

 number of other ears which any one person can reach 

 are of necessity limited. Accuracy of transmission is not 

 very high, especially over long periods of time. The 

 degree of complexity of information that can be ver- 

 bally transmitted is also inherently limited. As lan- 

 guage itself is largely symbolic, it is not surprising that 

 the first attempts to create visual language should also 

 have been symbolic. These attempts probably date 

 back to approximately that period in pre-history at 

 which language itself reached a fair level of expressive- 

 ness. The development of writing meant that the 

 power of language became greatly enhanced. There- 

 fore, the ability to "remember" from one generation 

 to the next likewise changed from a rather hazy and in- 

 accurate process to one of considerable accuracy. 

 Known history of human society cannot extend much 

 further back than the period during which the art of 

 writing first came into use. Certainly with the advent 

 of writing, the rate at which human knowledge and 



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