in the sixteenth century
A.D., various Oriental nations had attained at least five or six
thousand years earlier. In Egypt at the time of the pyramid-builders,
and in Babylonia at the same epoch, the people had developed systems of
writing that enabled them not merely to present a limited range of ideas
pictorially, but to express in full elaboration and with finer shades of
meaning all the ideas that pertain to highly cultured existence. The
man of that time made records of military achievements, recorded the
transactions of every-day business life, and gave expression to his
moral and spiritual aspirations in a way strangely comparable to the
manner of our own time. He had perfected highly elaborate systems of
writing.

EGYPTIAN WRITING

Of the two ancient systems of writing just referred to as being in
vogue at the so-called dawnings of history, the more picturesque and
suggestive was the hieroglyphic system of the Egyptians. This is a
curiously conglomerate system of writing, made up in part of symbols
reminiscent of the crudest stages of picture-writing, in part of symbols
having the phonetic value of syllables, and in part of true alphabetical
letters. In a word, the Egyptian writing represents in itself the
elements of the various stages through which the art of writing has
developed.(4) We must conceive 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 conceived 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