DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALPHABET 



that new features were from time to time added to it, 

 while the old features, curiously enough, were not 

 given up. 



Here, for example, in the midst of unintelligible lines 

 and pot-hooks, are various pictures that are instantly 

 recognizable as representations of hawks, lions, ibises, 

 and the like. It can hardly be questioned that when 

 these pictures were first used calligraphically they 

 were meant to represent the idea of a bird or animal. 

 In other words, the first stage of picture-writing did 

 not go beyond the mere representation of an eagle by 

 the picture of an eagle. But this, obviously, would 

 confine the presentation of ideas within very narrow 

 limits. In due course some inventive genius con- 

 ceived the thought of symbolizing a picture. To 

 him the outline of an eagle might represent not merely 

 an actual bird, but the thought of strength, of courage, 

 or of swift progress. Such a use of symbols obviously 

 extends the range of utility of a nascent art of writing. 

 Then in due course some wonderful psychologist or 

 perhaps the joint efforts of many generations of 

 psychologists made the astounding discovery that 

 the human voice, which seems to flow on in an un- 

 broken stream of endlessly varied modulations and 

 intonations, may really be analyzed into a comparative- 

 ly limited number of component sounds into a few 

 hundreds of syllables. That wonderful idea conceived, 

 it was only a matter of time until it would occur to 

 some other enterprising genius that by selecting an 

 arbitrary symbol to represent each one of these 

 elementary sounds it would be possible to make a 

 written record of the words of human speech which 



