Dear Comrade:
As we begin the study of the story of the alphabet and the evolution of
written speech, we discover that primitive man imagined the art of
writing to have had divine origin, to have been handed down from the
powers above.
It is natural for us to personify and envelop in mystery the things that
we do not understand. So these primitive people have attributed the
discovery of the art of writing to the gods and have looked upon the
parchment containing the written word which they cannot understand, as
possessing magical power; but as we come to learn the origin and causes
of things, they are divested of their mystery and become no longer gods
and enslavers of men. We understand the laws that govern their action
and they become our servants. Take lightning for example. Primitive
people personified the lightning or called it the thunder bolts of Jove
or attributed it to an act of divine providence. We have learned the
laws that govern the action of electricity and so this mighty giant is
no longer a god to whom we bow in submission, and who slays us at his
whim. He has become our most faithful servant who travels along the
wires at our behest and obeys our every bidding. So in the early stages,
the art of writing belonged only to the favored few and was made the
means of enslavement of the common people instead of the means of
liberation.
Knowledge has always been power and the ruling classes of the world,
desiring power over the people, have striven to keep knowledge within
their own circle; so the art of writing was known only to the few. The
few books in circulation were laboriously written by hand and
circulated, largely among the clergy, who used it as priests have ever
used their power--from medicine man to Pope,--for the enslavement of the
people and the protection of the privileges of a few. This is aptly
illustrated in the law which was known as "the benefit of clergy" which
was not entirely repealed until the year 1827. Under this statute,
exemption from trial for criminal offenses was given to the clergy and
also to any man who could read. If a person were sentenced to death for
some criminal offense, the bishop of that community might claim him as a
clerk and if, when given a Latin book, he could read a verse or two, the
court would declare "he reads like a clerk" and the offender was only
burned in the hand and then set free.
The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century which made
possible the diffusion of knowledge among the people, was the beginning
of the emancipation of the workers of the world. But while we realize,
perhaps, what this art of writing means to us and by the knowledge of
its growth and development no longer ascribe it to divine origin or
consider it a blessing designed by a supreme being for a favored few,
still most of us know very little of the interesting evolution which
made possible the alphabet which is the basis of our written and spoken
language of to-day. When we realize how through all these long centuries
man has been struggling, striving, evolving, developing, reaching out
toward fuller, freer and richer life, it gives us courage in our
struggle and makes us see ourselves, not as individuals alone, but as
links in a mighty chain clasping hands with that primitive man of the
past, from whom we have inherited the power we now possess, and reaching
forth also to clasp the hands of those who shall come and handing on to
them the things for which we have struggled and added to the inheritance
of the past.
Next week we will have the story of man's first beginning in the art of
writing.
Yours for Education,