Leading Articles im the Reviews. 



345 



THE ORIGIN OF WRITING. 



liN the first August number of the Nouvellc Revue 

 h an article, by M. G. Courty, on the Origin of 

 Writing. 



tup; .\ncient tr.\dition. 



It has long been a tradition that the Phoenicians 

 transmitted to us the art of writing which they had 

 learnt from the Egyptians, but if tiie theory of 

 iM. Courty that writing had its origin in the neolithic 

 petroglvphs of Seine-et-Oise is accepted, that ancient 

 tradition must fall to the ground. The writer explains 

 how even in prehistoric times man felt the instinctive 

 need of picturing and recording events, and from the 

 picture to the sign was but a short step. The early 

 inscriptions from representing pictures advanced to 

 the representation of ideas, and then of^ sounds or 

 words. All this evolution was going on simultaneously 

 ill over the world, so that, in a sense, writing was 

 born just as much in Chaldea, Egypt. China, America, 

 xs in Europe. .\t Tiahuanaco, in Bolivia, the writer 

 made some archaeological re.searches in 1905-4, and 

 discovered a number of lapidary inscriptions, such as 

 are to be found in Yucatan and elsewhere. These 

 inscriptions form the motives of ornament used in 

 architecture, but the writing being of a conventional 

 figurative character, it has not so far been possible 

 to di-iipher it. 



PICTURE-WRITING IN EUROPE. 



In igoi, however, the writer had made a more 

 interesting discovery in Seine-et-Oise — the discovery of 

 a written language dating back to the neolithic period. 

 While he was in se.irch of signs engra\ed on the 

 rocks, he came across a number of cuneiform lines, 

 arranged without any apparent order. \'et he was 

 soon convinced that he had to do with a variety of 

 petroglyph-. not traced by accident. He realised that 

 the line.i had been made by long and patient rubliing, 

 and that they had nothing in common with the fanciful 

 inscriptions which might be executed by shepherds 

 and others. He was not long in finding the instru- 

 ments whicii had been used, small fragments of sand- 

 stone showing; a bevelled polished surface caused by 

 the action of tracing the inscriptions in the rock. 

 Comparing these petroglvphs with others, he came to 

 the conilu^iim that they were the work of a people 

 or a tribe, and that the rnarks represented not symbols 

 but figurati\c writing. 



A NEW THEORV. 



A< to ihcir interpretation, possibly there existed 

 once an oral tradition in regard to them. Every 

 ^ign. the writer felt sure, corresponded to some reality, 

 .1 living being or an object, and by examining other 

 recognisal)lc petroglyphs he hoped to find some clue 

 to the mr)ri- enigmatic inscriptions of Seine-et-Oise. 

 lie has examined and compared a number of dolmens 

 in Ireland, France, and elsewhere in Europe, the 

 inscriptions of which are analogous tf) those of Seine- 

 cl-0is2, and has come to the conclusion ib,'' O.i . unei- 



form petroglyphs of Great Britain and Seine-et-Oise 

 constitute a transition between the paleolithic and 

 the neolithic ages. The evolution of written language 

 has been practically the same all over the globe, but 

 if we can conceixe that writing obeys the law of 

 evolution and that conventional signs result from the 

 transformation of pictures, wc must admit that 

 European pictography has given birth to our system 

 of writing. 



A NOVEL OF PHILADELPHIA. 



Mr. James .Milne, who recently visted America, 

 was fortunate enough to be able to spend a day with 

 Mr. Owen Wister at Philadelphia. In the Book Monthly 

 for August he records his impressions of the novelist. 



Mr. Wister's family has been associated with Phila- 

 delphia almost since Philadelphia began, writes Mr. 

 Milne. His ne.xt story is to be about the Philadelphia 

 of to-daj- — its affairs, its administration, its people. 

 Not only does he know the citN' historically, but he has 

 done great service to its municipal reform movement. 

 He and his band of reformers determined that the 

 corrupt political gang in possession of the municipality 

 should be turned out at whatever cost it might involve. 

 /\fter many arduous years it was accomplished, and in 

 the book the story of how it was done will probablv 

 be told. 



No man, no city, can go forward wiihjut self-reliance (says 

 Mr. Wister), but when self-reliance degenerates into an in- 

 growing self-complacence, then yoii cease to go forward, and go 

 backw.ard ; with closed eyes Philadelphia has been inveterately 

 reciting the glories of her past, while Western cities that have 

 no past have been attending to the present and the future. . . . 



The case of the (Juaker city is the case of Columbia's whole 

 system of cities, .States and Nation. To democracy are we 

 committed. . . . Does the theory of democmcy exact more 

 from human nature than human nature has to give? Upon the 

 virtue of ourselves and our children it depends whether Colum- 

 bia has hitched licr wagon to a fixed or falling star. . . . Let 

 it be printed in italics that our political system of chopping 

 responsibility until it is hashed so fine that nothing is any one 

 person's whole business is the sure way to breed that inefficiency 

 of which wc have become a byword. 



TuF, Report of the Fourth Congress of the Inter- 

 national Musical Society, which was held in London 

 last summer, has now been issued by Messrs. Novello. 

 under the editorship of Mr. Charles .Maclean, It con- 

 tains an exhaustive account of the proceedings, includ- 

 ing .Mr. Halfour's Presidential .Address, and a large 

 number of papers, in English, French, German, or 

 Italian, by the most eminent musicians of our day on 

 all sorts of subjects connected with music, tedinical ;ind 

 scientific, historical, etc, " There are valuable contri- 

 butions on the (olk-song of dilTerent nations, and 

 papers on Church .Music, .Mtisical Instruments, Musical 

 Mibliography, etc. 'i"he Congress is to be congratulated 

 on its remarkable success in a country which is com- 

 monly supposed to be unmusical. (With Index. 



4-S pairs.) 



