[Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes]@TWC D-Link book
Leviathan

CHAPTER IV
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OF SPEECH.
Originall Of Speech The Invention of Printing, though ingenious, compared with the invention of Letters, is no great matter.

But who was the first that found the use of Letters, is not known.

He that first brought them into Greece, men say was Cadmus, the sonne of Agenor, King of Phaenicia.

A profitable Invention for continuing the memory of time past, and the conjunction of mankind, dispersed into so many, and distant regions of the Earth; and with all difficult, as proceeding from a watchfull observation of the divers motions of the Tongue, Palat, Lips, and other organs of Speech; whereby to make as many differences of characters, to remember them.
But the most noble and profitable invention of all other, was that of Speech, consisting of Names or Apellations, and their Connexion; whereby men register their Thoughts; recall them when they are past; and also declare them one to another for mutuall utility and conversation; without which, there had been amongst men, neither Common-wealth, nor Society, nor Contract, nor Peace, no more than amongst Lyons, Bears, and Wolves.


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