767 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Worms 

 Years 



as quickly as he could by any other method 

 of telegraphing, and with absolute accu- 

 racy, secrecy, and perfect identification. . . . 

 Companies have been organized both in Eu- 

 rope and America for the purpose of putting 

 the telautograph into commercial use. 

 ELISHA GRAY Nature's Miracles, vol. iii, ch. 

 19, p. 165. (F. H. & H., 1900.) 



3790. WRITING DIVIDES CIVILIZED 

 MAN FROM BARBARIAN -Makes Accumu- 

 lation of Knowledge Possible. The inven- 

 tion of writing was the great movement by 

 which mankind rose from barbarism to civ- 

 ilization. How vast its effect was may be 

 best measured by looking at the low condi- 

 tion of tribes still living without it, de- 

 pendent on memory for their traditions and 

 rules of life, and unable to amass knowl- 

 edge as we do by keeping records of events, 

 and storing up new observations for the 

 use of future generations. Thus it is no 

 doubt right to draw the line between bar- 

 barian and civilized where the art of wri- 

 ting comes in, for this gives permanence to 

 history, law, and science. TYLOR Anthro- 

 pology, ch. 7, p. 179. (A., 1899.) 



3791. WRITING, EVOLUTION OF 

 At First Imitative The Hieroglyph Chi- 

 nese Picture-writing Its Shorthand Modern 

 Form. From being able to say what he knew, 

 man went on to write what he knew. The 

 evolution of writing went through the same 

 general stages as the evolution of speech. 

 First there was the onomatopoeic writing 

 as it were, the growl-writing the ideograph, 

 the imitation of an actual object. This is 

 the form we find fossil in the Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphic. For a man a man was drawn, for 

 a camel a camel, for a hut a hut. Then 

 intonation was added accents, that is, for 

 extra meaning or extra emphasis. Then to 

 save time the objects were drawn in short- 

 hand a couple of dashes for the limbs and 

 one across, as in the Chinese for man; a 

 square in the same language for a field; 

 two strokes at an obtuse angle, suggesting 

 the roof for a house. To express further 

 qualities, these abbreviated pictures were 

 next compounded in ingenious ways. A man 

 and a field together conveyed the idea of 

 wealth, and because a man with a field was 

 rich, he was supposed to be happy, and the 

 same combination stood, and stands to this 

 day, for contentment. When a roof is drawn 

 and a woman beneath it or the strokes 

 which represent a roof and a woman we 

 have the idea of a woman at home, a woman 

 at peace, and hence the symbol comes to 

 stand for quietness and rest. Chinese wri- 

 ting is picture-writing, with the pictures 

 degenerated into dashes a lingual form of 

 the modern impressionism. DRUMMOND As- 

 cent of Man, ch. 5, p. 182. (J. P., 1900.) 



3792. WRITING EXTENDS MAN'S 

 HORIZON IN SPACE AND TIME Eye- 

 mindedness vs. Ear-mindedness Accurate 

 Thinking Promoted by Permanence of Visible 

 Symbols. Man is an animal who as in- 



dividual can become a species by acquiring 

 the knowledge and power, the experience and 

 wisdom, of his race. But how limited is this 

 power with the illiterate person ! By means 

 of letters one comes to be able to put down 

 his life-experience in written and printed 

 words, and all persons who can read get 

 the power of living over his experience, in- 

 terpreting the signs which are addressed to 

 the eye and not to the ear. Through letters 

 the person becomes eye-minded, and when a 

 person can read without effort he finds him- 

 self in possession of a much more accurate 

 mind than is possible in the case of the il- 

 literate. Ear-mindedness, having to keep 

 up as it does with the spoken word, and 

 having to depend on the memory of what 

 is spoken, cannot critically examine the 

 statements and descriptions, the definitions 

 and deductions, as it can do when it has 

 before it the printed page. In fact, accurate 

 thinking for the most part becomes possible 

 through eye-mindedness and not through ear- 

 mindedness. Then just think of the scope 

 which eye-mindedness attains! It does not 

 depend at all upon the living voice, but it 

 can become participant in the experience of 

 persons at a distance, of all nationalities 

 dwelling in all parts of the world. It is not 

 limited by time. It can make available for 

 its use the writings of all peoples that be- 

 long to the historical era, and, in fact, it 

 can use the experience even of the peoples 

 whose only records are monuments and writ- 

 ten tablets of the prehistoric era. 



Think of the meaning of this for the 

 development of individuality . . . the 

 peculiar index-mark of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury! For individuality grows through the 

 appropriation or assimilation of other Indi- 

 viduality, and while the ear-minded person 

 can command by means of wealth the serv- 

 ices of oral teachers, and gains his instruc- 

 tion through absorbing the lives of his oral 

 teachers, the eye-minded, on the other hand, 

 can command the services of the book, and 

 the book awaits his leisure. All parts of 

 the earth become to him substantially pres- 

 ent like his own village. Not merely or- 

 dinary teachers come to his service, but the 

 wise men of his race await his leisure in the 

 books jwhich he possesses. These facts about 

 ear-mindedness and eye-mindedness seem 

 trite like a twice-told tale, but few persons 

 are in the habit of thinking what a differ- 

 ence it makes with an entire people to 

 pass from ear-mindedness to eye-mindedness 

 through the beneficent influences of the com- 

 mon schools. . . . As an eye-minded peo- 

 ple, with us world gossip has taken the place 

 of village gossip in its hold on our lives. 

 HARRIS The Movement from Individualism 

 to Cosmopolitanism (an Address at the Na- 

 tional Educational Association, Chicago, III., 

 1900; Proceedings of the Association, p. 14). 



3793. YEARS SHORTEN WITH AD- 

 VANCING AGE The Novelty of Youth Has 

 Become Routine. The same space of time 



