BIBLICAL LIBRARIES
facts to be named. The facts in this case are permanent records, records of business, of public events, of thinking on religious or human subjects; records of action and records of thought, in short acts and humane literature. Time was when men made no records and another long time was perhaps when, if he made them, he did not try to keep them beyond an immediate purpose of use. Some 6,000 or so years ago he began to keep them longer, either for refreshing his own remembrance or for the information of his neighbors or descendants. The history of the keeping of these records throws a good deal of light on the state of the civilization of any given period and on the conditions in which new records were produced during that time. These records were kept in small or large groups as the case may be, the groups naturally growing larger as the amount worth keeping grew.
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