DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0254
BAS-1'.ELIEF SLAB FROM THE TOMB OF A ROYAL SCRIBE OF THE SECOND DYNASTY,
IN THE ASHMOI.EAN MUSEUM, OXFORD.
VII.
THE HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF THE ANCIENT
EGYPTIANS.
A celebrated definition of the genus homo classifies man
as " a cooking animal." It is not a bad definition. Cooking
implies the knowledge and use of fire; and not even the most
intelligent of monkeys has yet been known to evoke sparks
from a stick and a block. I should prefer, however, to de-
fine man as " a writing animal;" for writing implies lan-
guage as its starting-point, and literature as its goal. Given
the first barbarian attempt at transmitting intelligence by
means of signs scratched on rocks or graven on the bark of
trees, it is but a step—a long step, I admit—from the drift-
man to Shakespeare.
The infancy of writing has much in common with the in-
fancy of language. Of the actual beginnings of language
IN THE ASHMOI.EAN MUSEUM, OXFORD.
VII.
THE HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING OF THE ANCIENT
EGYPTIANS.
A celebrated definition of the genus homo classifies man
as " a cooking animal." It is not a bad definition. Cooking
implies the knowledge and use of fire; and not even the most
intelligent of monkeys has yet been known to evoke sparks
from a stick and a block. I should prefer, however, to de-
fine man as " a writing animal;" for writing implies lan-
guage as its starting-point, and literature as its goal. Given
the first barbarian attempt at transmitting intelligence by
means of signs scratched on rocks or graven on the bark of
trees, it is but a step—a long step, I admit—from the drift-
man to Shakespeare.
The infancy of writing has much in common with the in-
fancy of language. Of the actual beginnings of language