CHAPTER IV.

/Ethnic Characters/ 123

Various stages of social groups and essential characters of human societies: Progress.--Conditions of Progress: Innovating initiative, and tradition--Classification of “states of civilisation.”

I.--/Linguistic Characters/.--_Methods of exchanging ideas within a short distance_--Gesture and speech--Divisions of language according to structure--Jargons--_Communications at a relatively remote distance_: optic and acoustic signals--_Transmission of ideas at any distance and time whatever_--Handwriting--Mnemotechnic objects--Pictography--Ideography--Alphabets--Direction of the lines of handwriting.