I saw a man, who bore in his hands the same instruments as our modern
smith's, presenting a vase, which appeared to be made of iron, amidst
the acclamations of an assembled multitude engaged in triumphal
procession before the altars dignified by the name of Apollo at Delphi;
and I saw in the same place men who carried rolls of papyrus in their
hands and wrote upon them with reeds containing ink made from the soot
of wood mixed with a solution of glue. 'See,' the genius said, 'an
immense change produced in the condition of society by the two arts of
which you here see the origin; the one, that of rendering iron
malleable, which is owing to a single individual, an obscure Greek; the
other, that of making thought permanent in written characters, an art
which has gradually arisen from the hieroglyphics which you may observe
on yonder pyramids.'--SIR H. DAVY. _Consolations in Travel._