RECORDED SPEECH.
A striking illustration of the influence which the genius of different languages has exerted on the destiny of nations and their position in the scale of civilization has been the effect which the structure of idioms has had on the discovery and development of the art of writing. We need not emphasize what a powerful lever this art has been in lifting nations from savagery to civilization. It is not too much to say that civilization in its higher sense is impossible without it. History has no existence, and the brightest examples and noblest actions are soon lost in oblivion, except by the intervention of this " art preservative of arts." Yet such are the extreme difficulties which languages of the incorporating and isolating classes (see p. 52) present to the application of a phonetic alpha bet, that it is the opinion of most linguists that had all tongues come under these classes the alphabet, as we understand it, could never have been devised.
Most nations, indeed, not on the very lowest planes of savagery, have devised some means of recording ideas for temporary and immediate ends. There have also been several independent discoveries in different parts of the world of what, using the term in a broad sense, we may call "writ ing," including in this term any method which conveys ideas by the sense of sight.
Various Systems of forms of writing conic under one of two categories: (1) the thought is either conveyed directly, or (2) it is con veyed by evoking in the memory the sound of the spoken word express ing the thought. This leads to the fundamental distinction of " thought writing" and " sound-writing. " A. oldest and simplest form of all writing is a picture. It is independent of language and is understood by all men. An Indian once called at a settler's house in Western Pennsylvania and asked for food. The settler drove him away with abuse. In a few min utes the Indian returned with a shingle on which he had rudely drawn in charcoal an Indian driving his tomahawk into the brain of a white man, the latter being distinguished by his clothes. The meaning of the mis sive was significant enough, and the son of the forest promptly obtained his repast.
a method may be called " writing with pic tures." True " picture-writing " is something much more complicated.
In it there is no attempt to represent in line and color the transaction as it did or might take place, but the figures are symbols only of the ideas for which they stand. While the meaning of the picture is intelligible at once to any one who is acquainted with the circumstances to which it relates, this is not the case with the elements of picture-writing. They must be learned, and the connection of the symbol with the idea under stood, before its meaning becomes obvious. To take a few examples from the American tribes, we may instance the sinuous horizontal line among the Mexicans, which meant water. It was intended to suggest the rip pling surface of a stream or pond. The picture of an arrow-head meant "warrior;" of a particular headdress, "noble," because only the noble classes were permitted to wear it; with the Algoukins, a square stood for the earth, because they believed it to be a vast square plain; a circle sig nified a divinity, apparently because it is complete in itself; a zigzag line was rain, because it is often accompanied by lightning, which has that form, etc. It will be seen from these few examples that the connec tion between the symbol and the idea is often so remote that it requires a close knowledge of the customs and beliefs of the nation in order to discover it (see pl. 53, fig. 9).
Picture-writing of this general character was in common use among most of the tribes of North America, and rose to considerable perfection among the nations of Mexico and Central America. It can also distinctly be traced in the oldest inscriptions of China and the valley of the Nile. Its separate figures are called "ideograms," and they have never been entirely superseded by any other system. During the Middle Ages they constituted the foundation of the heraldic art, and to this day the Arabic numerals, many marine signals, and various conventional signs used in commerce attest the recognized superiority of ideograms for certain pur poses. Indeed, the numerous efforts made to invent a universal written language, one which, like the numerals, will be intelligible to all nations, all agree iu contemplating a system of picture- or thought-writing as the ideally perfect one.