A Written Record of Achievements 



It Is only reasonable to Inquire what will the genera- 

 tions of man living In the year 7,000 A. D. be using as an 

 enduring substance upon which to record their achievements 

 for future generations? 



The ancient peoples preserved a record of their dally 

 actions and achievements on stone, clay tablets and paper 

 by Inscribing thereon certain characters which form words 

 which are used to convey the Idea or thought of the person 

 who made them. A further Investigation disclosed that 

 these words are not the same as the words we now use; that 

 most of the words we now use can be broken up Into parts 

 and these parts traced back to some other parent language 

 from which they have been borrowed; and these parts may, 

 In turn, be traced back to the grandparent language, or 

 languages until our researches are lost In the darkness 

 beyond the horizon of history. We, therefore, see that the 

 words of our language have mostly come from older forms 

 and that there have been many changes In both spelling and 

 meaning before their present forms were developed. 



A further Investigation discloses that in remote times no 

 abstract characters existed with which man could form 

 words to express his thought, but Instead, he used drawings 

 and pictures as a means of expressing his ideas and of 

 recording his achievements. These are the oldest forms 

 of writing. 



The general law of development Is that thought tends 

 from the concrete to the abstract. These pictures or sym- 

 bols denote the object or idea as a whole which tells its own 

 story. These pictures are, of necessity, limited in scope and 

 are usually condensed means of expression. They could not 



[57] 



