Strange as it seems then, all forms of written language, of painting,of sculpture, have a common root in those rude drawings on skins and cavern-wallsby which savages commemorated notable deeds of their chiefs, and which, duringsocial progress, developed into the politico-religious decorations of ancienttemples and palaces. Little resemblance as they now have, the bust that standson the console, the landscape that hangs against the wall, and the copy of The Times lying upon the table, are remotely akin. The brazen faceof the knocker which the postman has just lifted, is related not only tothe woodcuts of the Illustrated London News which he is delivering,but to the characters of the billet-doux which accompanies it. Between thepainted window the prayer-book on which its light falls, and the adjacentmonument, there is consanguinity. The effigies on our coins, the signs overshops, the figures that fill every ledger, the coat-of-arms outside the carriage-panel,and the placards inside the omnibus, are, in common with dolls, blue-books,and paper-hangings, lineally descended from the sculpture-paintings and picture-writingsin which the Egyptians represented and recorded the triumphs and worshipof their god-kings. Perhaps no example can be given which more vividly illustratesthe multiplicity and heterogeneity of the products that in course of timemay arise by successive differentiations from a common stock.
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