The Beginnings of LibrariesRichardson, Ernest Cushing
History
The Beginnings of Libraries
Richardson, Ernest Cushing
Libraries -- History -- To 400
These inward or memory libraries may be distinguished into two chief
kinds. As a matter of fact there are almost as many different kinds of
inward books as there are outward books, but as the two chief ways of
expression are voice and gesture, so the records of oral speech and
gesture language, received by eye, ear, or touch, and inwardly recorded,
are the chief kinds of memory books. These are quite distinct as to
their processes of reception and record, and very possibly occupy
different areas of the brain. These differences may in part be realized
from common observation, but one must take pains to guard against the
assumption that the inward record is a photograph. It is entirely
possible that the brain record of the sound “man” differs as much from a
picture of a man as the thread of a phonographic record does. The same
is true as to the inward record of a picture word or alphabetical
handwritten word. The inward record may no more be a microscopic picture
than the stenographic sign is. Nevertheless it is not hard to realize
that there is somehow within a series of recorded impressions which may
be called images, some of which recall sounds and others objects or
gestures. The inward language may or may not have to do with sounds.
Modern pantomime and the sign language of deaf-mutes and Indians are
languages, and it is entirely possible to store in one’s mind an exact
series of signs telling a story in gesture language, just as it is
possible to store the symbols for sounds or oral speech.
One of the most interesting chapters in the antiquities of ancient
nations and of modern savage tribes is the story of liturgical rites,
sacred dances, symbolic processions, and the like. Savage dances e.g.
sometimes rehearse events of the hunt or war or domestic scenes. In many
of these cases what may be called historic events are represented and
the whole ceremony is a rehearsal of these events, although wholly in
gesture expression, with gesture or object symbols and without speech.
It is the recital of visually memorized records in visual symbols, but
the records are just as truly definite accounts of events, or records,
or books if you like, as if they were oral words remembered and
expressed by voice or in writing. In religious dances and dramatic
religious ceremonies, the traditional representations were of ideas
rather than events—the nature of the world and man, the future world and
the means of attaining this,—and these formed groups and sequences of
transmitted ideas quite as definite to the initiated as if expressed
orally or in writing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account