Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 432

408 our

§ 74.

human

race.

the earth at once.

THE SPECIAL PRINCIPIUM

The whole human It

[I^i^'-

race does not live

HI

upon

appears on earth in a succession of

generations, one of which comes and the other passes away.

the means, therefore, are wanting to perpetuate the thought of one generation for the others, then thinking becomes aphoristic, and the unity of the human consciousness in our whole race is not established. Tradition might lend some aid so long as those thoughts are few and bear a littlecomplicated character, and the restricted form of poetry might offer assistance so long as those thoughts preferred but in the course of centuries no the form of images question of unity for our human consciousness could have been permanent, if Aristotle had had to entrust his word If

;

memory,

or Plato his thesaurus of ideas to memoriter Thus, writing alone has created the possibility of collecting human thought, of congealing it, of handing it down from age to age, and of maintaining the unity of our to

poetry.

human

consciousness in the continuity of the generations.

now, the special revelation from God is not destined for the one generation to which a certain part of the revelation was given, but for the world, and hence for the generations of all ages until the end is come, it is evident that it was necessary for this special revelation to take the form of writOnly by this written form could it be a revelation to ing. our race as a ivhole. In connection with this stands the second characteristic which we mentioned; viz. writing is catholic, i.e. universal, in the sense that, bound by neither place nor nation it overcomes the limitation of the local. Even the most stentorian voice does not carry a single spoken word beyond the distance of one kilometer, and a more extended expression of thought cannot reach across one-tenth part of this but so soon as the word has been committed to writing, no distance can resist or break its power. The written word travels around the world. He who speaks, may communicate his thoughts he who writes, to ten milto ten thousand persons at most In the mystery of writing lies, thus, the lions and more. wonderful power of overcoming at the same time the two If,

;

;

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