Page:The Quimby Manuscripts.djvu/259

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THE WORLD OF THE SENSES
255

Now, necessity is the mother of invention, and it became necessary for man to introduce something to counteract the wild beast. Hence it was natural for man to give his fellowman a sign of their danger, for men like all other animals would go together in herds or parties. This state must lead to language, so that language came about for the safety of the race. Now the sense of smell was the foundation of language and as language was made to apply to some sensation, it must take time to introduce it, for the odor must be so defined that a person perceiving a thing named could describe it. . . .

As language was introduced the sense of smell became more blunt till like other instincts it gave way to another standard. As imitation was developed the practice of thinking increased, so that thinking came to be as much of a sense as smelling. The action of forming thought into things or ideas became a sense, the power or sense of imitation brought up the sense of motion so that man's thought when put into an idea would seem to have life. All the above was spiritual and it could not be seen by the natural man or beast. So the spiritual man would imitate his idea in some way so that it could be seen and felt by the natural man. Thus invention in the spiritual world was shadowed forth in the natural world. As this invention was received, the spiritual senses were not relied on for the safety of man. Warfare was kept up till man could invent castles or places to defend himself against the wild beast. At last there must be laws or regulations introduced to feed those who could not fight. The ones who stayed at home would be the weaker portion of the race, including the females, the aged and children. So laws or regulations must be adopted for their support and safety and penalties attached to the disobedience of these laws. The officers of the laws would be taken from the most aspiring and cunning part of the tribes. This placed the leaders above the masses, so competition sprang up, which increased the leaders' perceptive faculties to invent all sorts of stories to keep the people quiet. As language was what they all wanted, those who could teach it would be looked upon as superior to the rest. Phenomena would then as now take place and the wise would be called on to explain; this introduced astrology and priestcraft. Then all sorts of invention would spring up to keep the people in submission when they grumbled at their leaders,