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