First and Last Things by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . THE SYNTHESIS. THE SYNTHESIS. It seems to me that the whole living creation may be regarded as walking in its sleep, as walking in the sleep of instinct and individualized illusion, and that now out of it all rises man, beginning to perceive his larger self, his universal brotherhood and a collective synthetic purpose to increase Power and realize Beauty... I write this down. It is the form of my belief, and that unanalyzable something called Beauty is the light that falls upon that form. It is only by such images, it is only by the use of what are practically parables, that I can in any way express these things in my mind. These two things, I say, are the two aspects of my belief; one is the form and the other the light. The former places me as it were in a scheme, the latter illuminates and inspires me. I am a member in that great being, and my function is, I take it, to develop my capacity for beauty and convey the perception of it to my fellows, to gather and store experience and increase the racial consciousness. I hazard no whys nor wherefores. That is how I see things; that is how the universe, in response to my demand for a synthesizing aspect, presents itself to me. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2009). First and Last Things: A Confession of Faith and Rule of Life. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4225/4225-h/4225-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Encyclopedia Me 

Read My Stories

THE SYNTHESIS

A Short History of the World, by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . EGYPT, BABYLON AND ASSYRIA EGYPT, BABYLON AND ASSYRIA The Egyptians had never submitted very willingly to the rule of their Semitic shepherd kings and about 1600 A.D. a vigorous patriotic movement expelled these foreigners. Followed a new phase or revival for Egypt, a period known to Egyptologists as the New Empire. Egypt, which had not been closely consolidated before the Hyksos invasion, was now a united country; and the phase of subjugation and insurrection left her full of military spirit. The Pharaohs became aggressive conquerors. They had now acquired the war horse and the war chariot, which the Hyksos had brought to them. Under Thothmes III and Amenophis III Egypt had extended her rule into Asia as far as the Euphrates. We are entering now upon a thousand years of warfare between the once quite separated civilizations of Mesopotamia and the Nile. At first Egypt was ascendant. The great dynasties, the Seventeenth Dynasty, which included Thothmes III and Amenophis III and IV and a great queen Hatasu, and the Nineteenth, when Rameses II, supposed by some to have been the Pharaoh of Moses, reigned for sixty-seven years, raised Egypt to high levels of prosperity. In between there were phases of depression for Egypt, conquest by the Syrians and later conquest by the Ethiopians from the South. In Mesopotamia Babylon ruled, then the Hittites and the Syrians of Damascus rose to a transitory predominance; at one time the Syrians conquered Egypt; the fortunes of the Assyrians of Nineveh ebbed and flowed; sometimes the city was a conquered city; sometimes the Assyrians ruled in Babylon and assailed Egypt. Our space is too limited here to tell of the comings and goings of the armies of the Egyptians and of the various Semitic powers of Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia. They were armies now provided with vast droves of war chariots, for the horse—still used only for war and glory—had spread by this time into the old civilizations from Central Asia. TEMPLE AT ABU SIMBEL Showing the statues of Rameses II at entrance Great conquerors appear in the dim light of that distant time and pass, Tushratta, King of Mitanni, who captured Nineveh, Tiglath Pileser I of Assyria who conquered Babylon. At last the Assyrians became the greatest military power of the time. Tiglath Pileser III conquered Babylon in 745 B.C. and founded what historians call the New Assyrian Empire. Iron had also come now into civilization out of the north; the Hittites, the precursors of the Armenians, had it first and communicated its use to the Assyrians, and an Assyrian usurper, Sargon II, armed his troops with it. Assyria became the first power to expound the doctrine of blood and iron. Sargon’s son Sennacherib led an army to the borders of Egypt, and was defeated not by military strength but by the plague. Sennacherib’s grandson Assurbanipal (who is also known in history by his Greek name of Sardanapalus) did actually conquer Egypt in 670 B.C. But Egypt was already a conquered country then under an Ethiopian dynasty. Sardanapalus simply replaced one conqueror by another. AVENUE OF SPHINXES Leading from the Nile to the great Temple of Karnak Photo: D. McLeish If one had a series of political maps of this long period of history, this interval of ten centuries, we should have Egypt expanding and contracting like an amœba under a microscope, and we should see these various Semitic states of the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Hittites and the Syrians coming and going, eating each other up and disgorging each other again. To the west of Asia Minor there would be little Ægean states like Lydia, whose capital was Sardis, and Caria. But after about 1200 B.C. and perhaps earlier, a new set of names would come into the map of the ancient world from the north-east and from the north- west. These would be the names of certain barbaric tribes, armed with iron weapons and using horse-chariots, who were becoming a great affliction to the Ægean and Semitic civilizations on the northern borders. They all spoke variants of what once must have been the same language, Aryan. THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK Photo: D. McLeish Round the north-east of the Black and Caspian Seas were coming the Medes and Persians. Confused with these in the records of the time were Scythians and Samatians. From north-east or north-west came the Armenians, from the north- west of the sea-barrier through the Balkan peninsula came Cimmerians, Phrygians and the Hellenic tribes whom now we call the Greeks. They were raiders and robbers and plunderers of cities, these Ayrans, east and west alike. They were all kindred and similar peoples, hardy herdsmen who had taken to plunder. In the east they were still only borderers and raiders, but in the west they were taking cities and driving out the civilized Ægean populations. The Ægean peoples were so pressed that they were seeking new homes in lands beyond the Aryan range. Some were seeking a settlement in the delta of the Nile and being repulsed by the Egyptians; some, the Etruscans, seem to have sailed from Asia Minor to found a state in the forest wildernesses of middle Italy; some built themselves cities upon the south- east coasts of the Mediterranean and became later that people known in history as the Philistines. Of these Aryans who came thus rudely upon the scene of the ancient civilizations we will tell more fully in a later section. Here we note simply all this stir and emigration amidst the area of the ancient civilizations, that was set up by the swirl of the gradual and continuous advance of these Aryan barbarians out of the northern forests and wildernesses between 1600 and 600 B.C. And in a section to follow we must tell also of a little Semitic people, the Hebrews, in the hills behind the Phœnician and Philistine coasts, who began to be of significance in the world towards the end of this period. They produced a literature of very great importance in subsequent history, a collection of books, histories, poems, books of wisdom and prophetic works, the Hebrew Bible. In Mesopotamia and Egypt the coming of the Aryans did not cause fundamental changes until after 600 B.C. The flight of the Ægeans before the Greeks and even the destruction of Cnossos must have seemed a very remote disturbance to both the citizens of Egypt and of Babylon. Dynasties came and went in these cradle states of civilization, but the main tenor of human life went on, with a slow increase in refinement and complexity age by age. In Egypt the accumulated monuments of more ancient times—the pyramids were already in their third thousand of years and a show for visitors just as they are to- day—were supplemented by fresh and splendid buildings, more particularly in the time of the seventeenth and nineteenth dynasties. The great temples at Karnak and Luxor date from this time. All the chief monuments of Nineveh, the great temples, the winged bulls with human heads, the reliefs of kings and chariots and lion hunts, were done in these centuries between 1600 and 600 B.C., and this period also covers most of the splendours of Babylon. FRIEZE SHOWING EGYPTIAN FEMALE SLAVES CARRYING LUXURIOUS FOODS Photo: Jacques Boyer Both from Mesopotamia and Egypt we now have abundant public records, business accounts, stories, poetry and private correspondence. We know that life, for prosperous and influential people in such cities as Babylon and the Egyptian Thebes, was already almost as refined and as luxurious as that of comfortable and prosperous people to-day. Such people lived an orderly and ceremonious life in beautiful and beautifully furnished and decorated houses, wore richly decorated clothing and lovely jewels; they had feasts and festivals, entertained one another with music and dancing, were waited upon by highly trained servants, were cared for by doctors and dentists. They did not travel very much or very far, but boating excursions were a common summer pleasure both on the Nile and on the Euphrates. The beast of burthen was the ass; the horse was still used only in chariots for war and upon occasions of state. The mule was still novel and the camel, though it was known in Mesopotamia, had not been brought into Egypt. And there were few utensils of iron; copper and bronze remained the prevailing metals. Fine linen and cotton fabrics were known as well as wool. But there was no silk yet. Glass was known and beautifully coloured, but glass things were usually small. There was no clear glass and no optical use of glass. People had gold stoppings in their teeth but no spectacles on their noses. One odd contrast between the life of old Thebes or Babylon and modern life was the absence of coined money. Most trade was still done by barter. Babylon was financially far ahead of Egypt. Gold and silver were used for exchange and kept in ingots; and there were bankers, before coinage, who stamped their names and the weight on these lumps of precious metal. A merchant or traveller would carry precious stones to sell to pay for his necessities. Most servants and workers were slaves who were paid not money but in kind. As money came in slavery declined. A modern visitor to these crowning cities of the ancient world would have missed two very important articles of diet; there were no hens and no eggs. A French cook would have found small joy in Babylon. These things came from the East somewhere about the time of the last Assyrian empire. Religion like everything else had undergone great refinement. Human sacrifice for instance had long since disappeared; animals or bread dummies had been substituted for the victim. (But the Phœnicians and especially the citizens of Carthage, their greatest settlement in Africa, were accused, later of immolating human beings.) When a great chief had died in the ancient days it had been customary to sacrifice his wives and slaves and break spear and bow at his tomb so that he should not go unattended and unarmed in the spirit world. In Egypt there survived of this dark tradition the pleasant custom of burying small models of house and shop and servants and cattle with the dead, models that give us to-day the liveliest realization of the safe and cultivated life of these ancient people, three thousand years and more ago. THE TEMPLE OF HORUS AT EDFU Such was the ancient world before the coming of the Aryans out of the northern forests and plains. In India and China there were parallel developments. In the great valleys of both these regions agricultural city states of brownish peoples were growing up, but in India they do not seem to have advanced or coalesced so rapidly as the city states of Mesopotamia or Egypt. They were nearer the level of the ancient Sumerians or of the Maya civilization of America. Chinese history has still to be modernized by Chinese scholars and cleared of much legendary matter. Probably China at this time was in advance of India. Contemporary with the seventeenth dynasty in Egypt, there was a dynasty of emperors in China, the Shang dynasty, priest emperors over a loose-knit empire of subordinate kings. The chief duty of these early emperors was to perform the seasonal sacrifices. Beautiful bronze vessels from the time of the Shang dynasty still exist, and their beauty and workmanship compel us to recognize that many centuries of civilization must have preceded their manufacture. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2011). A Short History of the World. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11870/11870-h/11870-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

EGYPT, BABYLON AND ASSYRIA

The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . WRITING here WRITING § 1 Picture writing In the five preceding chapters (XIII to XVII) we have sketched in broad outline the development of the chief human communities from the primitive beginnings of the heliolithic culture to the great historical kingdoms and empires in the sixth century B.C. We must now study a little more closely the general process of social change, the growth of human ideas, and the elaboration of human relationships that were going on during these ages between 10,000 B.C. and 500 B.C. What we have done so far is to draw the map and name the chief kings and empires, to define the relations in time and space of Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Phœnicia, Cnossos, and the like; we come now to the real business of history, which is to get down below these outer forms to the thoughts and lives of individual men. By far the most important thing that was going on during those fifty or sixty centuries of social development was the invention of writing and its gradual progress to importance in human affairs. It was a new instrument for the human mind, an enormous enlargement of its range of action, a new means of continuity. We have seen how in later Palæolithic and early Neolithic times the elaboration of articulate speech gave men a mental handhold for consecutive thought and a vast enlargement of their powers of co-operation. For a time this new acquirement seems to have overshadowed their earlier achievement of drawing, and possibly it checked the use of gesture. But drawing presently {v1-224} reappeared again, for record, for signs, for the joy of drawing. Before real writing came picture-writing, such as is still practised by the Amerindians, the Bushmen, and savage and barbaric people in all parts of the world. It is essentially a drawing of things and acts, helped out by heraldic indications of proper names, and by strokes and dots to represent days and distances and such-like quantitative ideas. Quite kindred to such picture-writing is the pictograph that one finds still in use to-day in international railway time-tables upon the continent of Europe, where a little black sign of a cup indicates a stand-up buffet for light refreshments; a crossed knife and fork, a restaurant; a little steamboat, a transfer to a steamboat; and a postilion’s horn, a diligence. Similar signs are used in the well-known Michelin guides for automobilists in Europe, to show a post-office (envelope) or a telephone (telephone receiver). The quality of hotels is shown by an inn with one, two, three, or four gables, and so forth. Similarly, the roads of Europe are marked with wayside signs representing a gate, to indicate a level crossing ahead, a sinuous bend for a dangerous curve, and the like. From such pictographic signs to the first elements of Chinese writing is not a very long stretch. In Chinese writing there are still traceable a number of pictographs. Most are now difficult to recognize. A mouth was originally written as a mouth-shaped hole and is now, for convenience of brushwork, squared; a child, originally a recognizable little mannikin, is now a hasty wriggle and a cross; the sun, originally a large circle with a dot in the centre, has been converted, for the sake of convenience of combination, into a crossed oblong, which is easier to make with a brush. By combining these pictographs, a second order of ideas is expressed. For example, the pictograph for mouth combined with pictograph for vapour expressed “words.” From such combinations one passes to what are called ideograms: the sign for “words” and the sign for “tongue” combine to make “speech”; the sign for “roof” and the sign for “pig” make “home”—for in the early domestic economy of China the pig was as important as it used to be in Ireland. But, {v1-225} as we have already noted earlier, the Chinese language consists of a comparatively few elementary monosyllabic sounds, which are all used in a great variety of meanings, and the Chinese soon discovered that a number of these pictographs and ideographs could be used also to express other ideas, not so conveniently pictured, but having the same sound. Characters so used are called phonograms. For example, the sound fang meant not only “boat,” but “a place,” “spinning,” “fragrant,” “inquire,” and several other meanings according to the context. But while a boat is easy to draw most of the other meanings are undrawable. How can one draw “fragrant” or “inquire”? The Chinese, therefore, took the same sign for all these meanings of fang, but added to each of them another distinctive sign, the determinative, to show what sort of fang was intended. A “place” was indicated by the same sign as for “boat” (fang) and the determinative sign for “earth”; “spinning” by the sign for fang and the sign for {v1-226} “silk”; “inquire” by the sign for fang and the sign for “words,” and so on. One may perhaps make this development of pictographs, ideographs, and phonograms a little clearer by taking an analogous case in English. Suppose we were making up a sort of picture-writing in English, then it would be very natural to use a square with a slanting line to suggest a lid, for the word and thing box. That would be a pictograph. But now suppose we had a round sign for money, and suppose we put this sign inside the box sign, that would do for “cash-box” or “treasury.” That would be an ideogram. But the word “box” is used for other things than boxes. There is the box shrub which gives us boxwood. It would be hard to draw a recognizable box-tree distinct from other trees, but it is quite easy to put our sign “box,” and add our sign for shrub as a determinative to determine that it is that sort of box and not a common box that we want to express. And then there is “box,” the verb, meaning to fight with fists. Here, again, we need a determinative; we might add the two crossed swords, a sign which is used very often upon maps to denote a battle. A box at a theatre needs yet another determinative, and so we go on, through a long series of phonograms. Now it is manifest that here in the Chinese writing is a very peculiar and complex system of sign-writing. A very great number of characters have to be learnt and the mind habituated to their use. The power it possesses to carry ideas and discussion is still ungauged by western standards, but we may doubt whether with this instrument it will ever be possible to establish such a wide, common mentality as the simpler and swifter alphabets of the western civilizations permit. In China it created a special reading-class, the mandarins, who were also the ruling and official class. Their necessary concentration upon words and classical forms, rather than upon ideas and realities, seems, in spite of her comparative peacefulness and the very high individual intellectual quality of her people, to have greatly hampered the social and economic development of China. Probably it is the complexity of her speech and writing, more than any other imaginable cause, that has made China to-day politically, socially, and {v1-227} individually a vast pool of backward people rather than the foremost power in the whole world. Specimens of American Indian picture-writing (after Schoolcraft ...) No. 1, painted on a rock on the shore of Lake Superior, records an expedition across the lake, in which five canoes took part. The upright strokes in each indicate the number of the crew, and the bird represents a chief, “The Kingfisher.” The three circles (suns) under the arch (of heaven) indicate that the voyage lasted three days, and the tortoise, a symbol of land, denotes a safe arrival. No. 2 is a petition sent to the United States Congress by a group of Indian tribes, asking for fishing rights in certain small lakes. The tribes are represented by their totems, martens, bear, manfish, and catfish, led by the crane. Lines running from the heart and eye of each animal to the heart and eye of the crane denote that they are all of one mind; and a line runs from the eye of the crane to the lakes, shown in the crude little “map” in the lower left-hand corner. § 2 Syllable writing But while the Chinese mind thus made for itself an instrument which is probably too elaborate in structure, too laborious in use, and too inflexible in its form to meet the modern need for simple, swift, exact, and lucid communications, the growing civilizations of the west were working out the problem of a written record upon rather different and, on the whole, more advantageous lines. They did not seek to improve their script to make it swift and easy, but circumstances conspired to make it so. The Sumerian picture-writing, which had to be done upon clay and with little styles, which made curved marks with difficulty and inaccurately, rapidly degenerated by a conventionalized dabbing down of wedged-shaped marks (cuneiform = wedge-shaped) into almost unrecognizable hints of the shapes intended. It helped the Sumerians greatly to learn to write, that they had to draw so badly. They got very soon to the Chinese pictographs, ideographs, and phonograms, and beyond them. Most people know a sort of puzzle called a rebus. It is a way of representing words by pictures, not of the things the words represent, but by the pictures of other things having a similar sound. For example, two gates and a head is a rebus for Gates-head; a little streamlet (beck), a crowned monarch, and a ham, Beckingham. The Sumerian language was a language well adapted to this sort of representation. It was apparently a language of often quite vast polysyllables, made up of very distinct inalterable syllables; and many of the syllables taken separately were the names of concrete things. So that this cuneiform writing developed very readily into a syllabic way of writing, in which each sign conveys a syllable just as each act in a {v1-228} charade conveys a syllable. When presently the Semites conquered Sumeria, they adapted the syllabic system to their own speech, and so this writing became entirely a sign-for-a-sound writing. It was so used by the Assyrians and by the Chaldeans. But it was not a letter-writing, it was a syllable-writing. This cuneiform script prevailed for long ages over Assyria, Babylonia, and the Near East generally; there are vestiges of it in some of the letters of our alphabet to-day. § 3 Alphabet writing But, meanwhile, in Egypt and upon the Mediterranean coast another system of writing grew up. Its beginnings are probably to be found in the priestly picture-writing (hieroglyphics) of the Egyptians, which also in the usual way became partly a sound-sign system. As we see it on the Egyptian monuments, the hieroglyphic writing consists of decorative but stiff and elaborate forms, but for such purpose as letter-writing and the keeping of recipes and the like, the Egyptian priests used a much simplified and flowing form of these characters, the hieratic script. Side by side with this hieratic script rose another, probably also derivative from the hieroglyphs, a script now lost to us, which was taken over by various non-Egyptian peoples in the Mediterranean, the Phœnicians, Libyans, Lydians, Cretans, and Celt-Iberians, and used for business purposes. Possibly a few letters were borrowed from the later cuneiform. In the hands of these foreigners this writing was, so to speak, cut off from its roots; it lost all but a few traces of its early pictorial character. It ceased to be pictographic or ideographic; it became simply a pure sound-sign system, an alphabet. There were a number of such alphabets in the Mediterranean differing widely from each other. It may be noted that the Phœnician alphabet (and perhaps others) omitted vowels. Possibly they pronounced their consonants very hard and had rather {v1-229} indeterminate vowels, as is said to be still the case with tribes of South Arabia. Quite probably, too, the Phœnicians used their alphabet at first not so much for writing as for single initial letters in their business accounts and tallies. One of these Mediterranean alphabets reached the Greeks, long after the time of the Iliad, who presently set to work to make it express the clear and beautiful sounds of their own highly developed Aryan speech. It consisted at first of consonants, and the Greeks added the vowels. They began to write for record, to help and fix their bardic tradition.... § 4 The place of writing in human life So it was by a series of very natural steps that writing grew out of the life of man. At first and for long ages it was the interest and the secret of only a few people in a special class, a mere accessory to the record of pictures. But there were certain very manifest advantages, quite apart from the increased expressiveness of mood and qualification, to be gained by making writing a little less plain than straightforward pictures, and in conventionalizing and codifying it. One of these was that so messages might be sent understandable by the sender and receiver, but not plain to the uninitiated. Another was that so one might put down various matters and help one’s memory and the memory of one’s friends, without giving away too much to the common herd. Among some of the earliest Egyptian writings, for example, are medical recipes and magic formulæ. Accounts, letters, recipes, name lists, itineraries; these were the earliest of written documents. Then, as the art of writing and reading spread, came that odd desire, that pathetic desire so common among human beings, to astonish some strange and remote person by writing down something striking, some secret one knew, some strange thought, or even one’s name, so that long after one had gone one’s way, it might strike upon the sight and mind of another reader. Even in Sumeria men scratched on walls, and all that remains to us of the ancient world, its rocks, its buildings, is plastered thickly with the names and the boasting of those foremost among human advertisers, its kings. Perhaps half the early inscriptions in that ancient world are of this nature, if, that is, we group with the {v1-230} name-writing and boasting the epitaphs, which were probably in many cases prearranged by the deceased. For long the desire for crude self-assertion of the name-scrawling sort and the love of secret understandings kept writing within a narrow scope; but that other, more truly social desire in men, the desire to tell, was also at work. The profounder possibilities of writing, the possibilities of a vast extension and definition and settlement of knowledge and tradition, only grew apparent after long ages. But it will be interesting at this point and in this connection to recapitulate certain elemental facts about life, upon which we laid stress in our earlier chapters, because they illuminate not only the huge value of writing in the whole field of man’s history, but also the rôle it is likely to play in his future. 1. Life had at first, it must be remembered, only a discontinuous repetition of consciousness, as the old died and the young were born. Such a creature as a reptile has in its brain a capacity for experience, but when the individual dies, its experience dies with it. Most of its motives are purely instinctive, and all the mental life that it has is the result of heredity (birth inheritance). 2. But ordinary mammals have added to pure instinct tradition, a tradition of experience imparted by the imitated example of the mother, and in the case of such mentally developed animals as dogs, cats, or apes, by a sort of mute precept also. For example, the mother cat chastises her young for misbehaviour. So do mother apes and baboons. 3. Primitive man added to his powers of transmitting experience, representative art and speech. Pictorial and sculptured record and verbal tradition began. Verbal tradition was developed to its highest possibility by the bards. They did much to make language what it is to the world to-day. 4. With the invention of writing, which developed out of pictorial record, human tradition was able to become fuller and much more exact. Verbal tradition, which had hitherto changed from age to age, began to be fixed. Men separated by hundreds of miles could now communicate their thoughts. An increasing number of human beings began to share a common written knowledge {v1-231} and a common sense of a past and a future. Human thinking became a larger operation in which hundreds of minds in different places and in different ages could react upon one another; it became a process constantly more continuous and sustained.... 5. For hundreds of generations the full power of writing was not revealed to the world, because for a long time the idea of multiplying writings by taking prints of a first copy did not become effective. The only way of multiplying writings was by copying one copy at a time, and this made books costly and rare. Moreover, the tendency to keep things secret, to make a cult and mystery of them, and so to gain an advantage over the generality of men, has always been very strong in men’s minds. It is only nowadays that the great masses of mankind are learning to read, and reaching out towards the treasures of knowledge and thought already stored in books. Nevertheless, from the first writings onward a new sort of tradition, an enduring and immortal tradition, began in the minds of men. Life, through mankind, grew thereafter more and more distinctly conscious of itself and its world. It is a thin streak of intellectual growth we trace in history, at first in a world of tumultuous ignorance and forgetfulness; it is like a mere line of light coming through the chink of an opening door into a darkened room; but slowly it widens, it grows. At last came a time in the history of Europe when the door, at the push of the printer, began to open more rapidly. Knowledge flared up, and as it flared it ceased to be the privilege of a favoured minority. For us now that door swings wider, and the light behind grows brighter. Misty it is still, glowing through clouds of dust and reek. The door is not half open; the light is but a light new lit. Our world to-day is only in the beginning of knowledge. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (2014). The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45368/45368-h/45368-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

WRITING

THE PURPLE PILEUS

The Metroid franchise has seen new life in recent years, partially thanks to the recent release of Dread and the anticipation for Metroid Prime 4. It’s not the most widespread series from ’s collection, but it has millions of fans eager for more stories surrounding the bounty hunter Samus Aran. With how much each game has influenced the series, it’s interesting to note which Metroid games are considered to be the best in terms of sales and popularity. Nintendo All sales information was taken from . VGSales The 10 Best Metroid Games of All Time Ranked by Copies Sold 10. Metroid: Other M
9. Metroid Prime: Hunters
8. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
6. Super Metroid
5. Metroid Fusion
4. Metroid II: Return of Samus
3. Metroid
2. Metroid Prime Metroid Dread 10. Metroid: Other M — ~800,000 Copies Sold Metroid: Other M attempted to bridge the gap between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. It put a greater focus on story and action than other games, letting players explore the relationships between Samus and Adam. Unfortunately, this relationship soured the experience for many fans, restricting the bounty hunter’s options during gameplay and making her seem too passive and cowardly in cutscenes. The unique style of combat is still something to praise, but Other M is far from the first recommendation fans would give to those that haven’t tried the franchise before. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 9. Metroid Prime: Hunters — ~1.08 Million Copies Sold Despite being a spinoff of a spinoff, Metroid Prime: Hunters stands pretty well on its own. It featured the first-person gameplay of Prime at a technically impressive level on the DS while introducing new characters like Sylux. It even brought multiplayer to the franchise in a way no future or past game would ever match. If the rumors around Prime 4 are to be believed, it’s possible that Hunters might have even greater influence on the series in the near future. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 8. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes — ~1.1 Million Copies Sold Metroid Prime 2 offered its own unique style, letting players explore different dimensions of a strange new world. It also lets players battle against Dark Samus for the first time, giving them a taste of a doppelganger battle outside of Fusion’s 2D style. It never managed to reach the same notability or success that its predecessor — and eventual successor — ended up receiving. But it’s still a fine addition to the catalog of first-person Metroid titles, especially for anyone that gets their hands on the Prime Trilogy. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption — ~1.41 Million Copies Sold “Corruption” is the theme of Metroid Prime 3, introducing allies-turned-enemies throughout the game and forcing Samus to endure the pain of an alien virus. This is one of the most action-packed games of the franchise, letting players traverse different worlds as they fight against other bounty hunters and put an end to the ambitions of Dark Samus once and for all. One can only wonder what will come of Corruption’s influences when Prime 4 eventually releases, but this is certainly a title that won’t be forgotten anytime soon. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 6. Super Metroid — ~1.42 Million Copies Sold Arguably the greatest Metroid game of all time, Super Metroid is beloved by pretty much every Metroid fan out there. It’s the basis for pretty much every 2D game after it, giving players hundreds of options for exploration — including sequence breaking. It also let players face off against iconic foes like Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain in compelling new ways, providing an experience that would stay with them for decades to come. While it can be tricky for a modern player to get into, it’s still not hard to see why Super Metroid has been such a popular title for so long. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 5. Metroid Fusion — ~1.6 Million Copies Sold Metroid Fusion was, for a time, the final episode in Samus Aran’s journey. After a freak accident involving the deadly X parasites, she was given Metroid DNA to enhance her abilities. This leads to an exploration aboard a space station infested with the aforementioned parasites, forcing her to evade and defeat plenty of nightmarish foes. It hasn’t been able to enjoy as many re-releases as Super Metroid, but Fusion is still a fine journey for those that wished to see where Samus would go next. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 4. Metroid II: Return of Samus — ~1.72 Million Copies Sold Metroid II is a bit of an odd title. It stripped the gameplay of the first Metroid down to allow the Game Boy a chance to handle it while also giving players a new objective: eliminate every Metroid they find. It was the second game of the entire series while also being the first to appear on a handheld console, so its overall success isn’t very shocking. Still, anyone interested in the series would be better off checking out its remake, Samus Returns, instead. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 3. Metroid — ~2.73 Million Copies Sold The original Metroid introduced the concept of a large, open-ended map for players to explore. It might not have been the first game ever to use that concept, but it’s one of the most notable for spawning such a massive franchise afterwards. It’s certainly primitive compared to the previous items on this list, but it’s hard to deny the many influences it had on the series. Most fans would benefit more from checking out its own remake, Zero Mission, but the classic NES title is still worth a second look for anyone that wants to really see where it all began. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 2. Metroid Prime — ~2.84 Million Copies Sold Perhaps part of why the Prime games are so well-regarded is because, for a time, the first one had sold better than every other Metroid title out there. Metroid Prime allowed players to explore a massive world from the view of Samus herself, letting them truly feel like they were discovering ancient ruins and defeating powerful foes. Once more, exploration lets fans visit areas early and take full advantage of new abilities, making the journey through Prime feel extremely robust. If it wasn’t for the most recent game, Prime might have continued to overshadow the main series in terms of sales. on or Buy the game Amazon eBay 1. Metroid Dread — ~3 Million Copies Sold Metroid Dread, the latest game in the franchise, is a dream come true for millions. It gave fans a closer look at the backstory surrounding both Samus Aran and the Chozo while refining gameplay and exploration more than ever before. Following some free updates, it even has tougher difficulty selections and a boss rush mode! While it lacks some series staples like a Ridley battle or some of the more iconic music tracks from previous games, there’s no question that Dread is — and deserves to be — the best-selling Metroid game yet. on or Buy the game Amazon the Nintendo eShop Final Thoughts The Metroid series hasn’t been this popular since two decades ago, and it seems like the franchise will only continue to grow. If Prime 4 is successful, then who knows how much exploration and depth players will be able to enjoy in the future? With more Metroid games seeming like a greater possibility than ever, it’s clear that fans should continue to show their love. Your support has not gone unheard!

The writer has included referral links in this story.

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When working with other people and multiple editors/IDEs, it is common to have different editor settings, losing consistency in formatting styles of the code. For example: Using tabs/spaces and different sizes of indentation, making your code harder to read; Using different encoding between files, causing hard to find bugs at runtime (showing invalid characters) and breaking automated tests. In this post I'll show how to maintain a standard for everyone who works in the code, no matter the editor used, and in a next post I'll show how to enforce these (and other) rules on build and in the continuous integration pipeline. Enter the EditorConfig file The EditorConfig file is used by editors and IDEs to define editor preferences for the project. Without it, IDEs and editors will use their general configuration, causing divergences in the files edited on them. Many editors and IDEs support the EditorConfig file , and others . Here are some: by default have plugins to support it Visual Studio (Built-in); JetBrains Rider (Built-in); GitHub (Built-in); VS Code (Plugin); Vim (Plugin); Emacs (Plugin); Sublime (Plugin); It has a default name of and is an INI file where sections are filename filters, for instance: .editorconfig for files; [*.cs] .cs for javascript files inside the folder and subdirectories; [scripts/**.js] scripts for the file only. [{package.json}] package.json More details here The EditorConfig can be put in any directory and be overridden by EditorConfig files in child directories, but for better visibility, they should be in the same directory as the .NET solution file. Adding an EditorConfig to your project To include an EditorConfig to your project, just create a file named in the same directory of your solution file ( ) with the content below. .editorconfig .sln # Top-most EditorConfig file.
root = true

# Section for C# files
# All rules below apply only to .cs files
[*.cs]

#### Core EditorConfig Options ####

# Indentation and spacing
indent_style = space
indent_size = 4

# New line preferences
end_of_line = crlf
insert_final_newline = false
trim_trailing_whitespace = true

# Charset preference
charset = utf-8 This file set these rules: : No editorconfig file in parent directories will be read; root : Indentation should use space; indent_style : Indentation should use 4 space characters; indent_size : Lines should end with CR+LF characters; end_of_line : Do not automatically insert empty lines at the end of the files; insert_final_newline : Empty lines should have no space characters; trim_trailing_whitespace : Files should be encoded with UTF-8 format. charset More details . here ⚠️ and change it back to CRLF on checkouts. Then, the settings can be safely set to CRLF. GIT for Windows suggests this configuration by default at installation. Details on how to configure are . GIT can change the line ends to LF on pushes to the repository end_of_line here ⚠️ , according to the Unicode standard. . UTF-8 with BOM is not required nor recommended More here ℹ️ specific to the .NET environment. In a next post, I'll show how to configure these rules. In .NET, the EditorConfig file can also be used to define analyzers rules and severities Appling the new formatting rules to code When we change the formatting rules for an existing project, the changes are not applied automatically. We need to manually trigger an auto-format. Visual Studio First, we have to include the fixer to a Code Cleanup profile. Format document 1 - Navigate to . Analyze > Code Cleanup > Configure Code Cleanup 2 - Include the fixer for the profile you wish to run on save. Format document 3 - On the menu, select . Analyze > Code Cleanup > Run Code Cleanup (Yout Profile) on Solution ⚠️ . You have to use the dotnet-format or another tool for that. Visual Studio's format document doesn't change the file encoding VS Code VS Code doesn't have a feature to format all files at once. You have to use the extension. Format Files 1 - Install the . Format Files extension 2 - Navigate to or press . View > Command Palette Ctrl+Shift+P 3 - Select the or option. Start Format Files: Workspace Start Format Files: From Glob JetBrains Rider Select or press . Code > Reformat Code Ctrl+Alt+Enter Format on save When we create an EditorConfig file, the supported editors will also use the configurations for their auto-format features. Here I show how to enable the auto-format on file save in some editors. Format on save in Visual Studio Visual Studio 2022 doesn't have a format on save feature, but it can run a Code Cleanup on save. This way we can configure a Code Cleanup profile to run a and use it on save. Format document ℹ️ For Visual Studio 2019, there is an that enables the same feature. extension 1 - Configure your Code Cleanup profile to run the fixer, as shown in the previous section of this post. Format document 2 - Navigate to . Tools > Options > Text Editor > Code Cleanup 3 - Check the option and select the Code Cleanup profile to run on save. Run Code Cleanup profile on Save Now Visual Studio will format your files on every save. Format on save in VS Code 1 - Navigate to . File > Preferences > Settings 2 - Navigate to or search for . Text Editor > Formatting editor.formatOnSave 3 - Check the option. Editor: Format On Save Format on save in JetBrains Rider 1 - Navigate to . File > Settings > Tools > Actions on Save 2 - Check the option. Reformat and Cleanup Code 3 - Select the profile. Reformat Code References and Links https://editorconfig.org/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/bringing-code-cleanup-on-save-to-visual-studio-2022-17-1-preview-2/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/create-portable-custom-editor-options?view=vs-2022 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/dotnet-format Liked this post? I post extra content in my personal blog. to see. Click here Also published . here

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How to Set up a Formatting Standard in Your Code Editor (And Why You Should!)

Imagine backers funding your project immediately you launch your Kickstarter campaign. That would be amazing, right? You would likely reach and surpass your funding goal before the deadline. Unfortunately, crowdfunding platforms are not like social media platforms. They don't have a crowd of backers just waiting to fund your startup. So, you have to find the backers yourself to raise the funds you need for your project. One of the best ways to do this is to build a community of email subscribers. In this post, you’ll learn how to build your Kickstarter email list with a lead magnet funnel. But, first… Why Do You Need An Email List For Your Kickstarter Project? You need an email list for your Kickstarter project because the chances of people finding and funding your project organically is slim. Search Kickstarter (or any crowdfunding platform) right now, and you'll find thousands of people seeking funding for their projects. The platform simply doesn’t have enough backers to fund each project. And, those that may be interested in your project may not find your Kickstarter campaign. So, if you don’t want to launch crickets, you need to build a community of people who are likely to fund your Kickstarter project. An email list is one way to build that community. Here are the benefits of having a Kickstarter email list To validate your project idea Email subscribers can provide feedback on your project, which you can use to improve or scrap your idea. To secure early pledges The potential funders in your email list will be invested in your project and start donating as soon as you launch, which will help build momentum for your campaign. To attract more funders The early pledges from funders on your email list will work like testimonials and encourage others to donate. You may even get featured on Kickstarter’s front page, giving you more visibility. Now that you know why you need an email list, the question is… How do you build your Kickstarter email list fast? The answer is a lead magnet funnel. The fastest way to build your Kickstarter email list is to use a valuable lead magnet to entice potential funders and convince them to subscribe to your email list. So, What Is A Lead Magnet Funnel? A lead magnet funnel is a sales funnel that starts with using freebies to generate leads. It involves offering a lead magnet freebie to capture leads’ email addresses, and then converting them with email marketing. Here’s how it’ll work with your Kickstarter project. You offer prospective backers something valuable for free, such as a guide, tool, or webinar. In exchange, they’ll give you their email address. Then, you can start sending them engaging emails about your project. So, when you launch your product (to them), they’ll be willing to back your project. There are three steps to building your Kickstarter email list with a lead magnet funnel. Create an actionable lead magnet freebie Set up an opt-in page to offer your lead magnet Launch an engaging email marketing campaign Continue reading to learn the details. Steps To Create A Lead Magnet Funnel For Your Kickstarter Email List Here is the 1-2-3 step to build your Kickstarter email list with a lead magnet funnel. Step #1 - Create an actionable lead magnet freebie There are so many shitty lead magnets out there that people are now skeptical about giving their email addresses in exchange for freebies. So, just any freebie won’t do. You have to offer an actionable lead magnet to capture potential backers. Create something useful that would help potential backers solve a problem or get a quick win. Say you’re seeking funding for a personal finance tracking app. You can create a lead magnet PDF titled, “Secret Strategies To Stay On Track Financially.” However, a more attractive lead magnet would be a fillable PDF titled, “Personal Finance PDF Planner To Stay On Track Financially.” First of all, it’s more closely related to the product you want to build. And, it’s more useful because it’s fillable and clickable. Potential backers who download it can type their financial plans in it and click the goals they achieve. You can offer different types of lead magnets, including ebook guides, pdf templates, webinars, and free courses. Here are steps to create a lead magnet pdf for your Kickstarter project: Brainstorm an idea that provides value to potential backers Give it a magnetic title that attracts their attention Craft an introduction that connects with their struggles Add actionable content that gives them a quick win Close with a CTA that sends them to your Kickstarter page If you'd like to create a lead magnet pdf, click here to read the practical guide on how to do it. Step #2 - Set up an opt-in page to offer your lead magnet After creating an actionable lead magnet, the next step is to offer it to potential backers. And to do that, you’ll need an opt-in page. An opt-in page is a landing page where you offer the lead magnet. That is, where you convince potential backers to submit their email addresses in exchange for your freebie. People won’t download your lead magnet simply because it’s free. So your opt-in page can’t just say, “download our free ebook on how to stay on track financially.” You need to create a compelling opt-in page that will make potential backers desire your freebie.  One way to do this is to share what’s in the lead magnet and how it’ll benefit them. You can use landing page builders like or the landing page features of email marketing tools like to set up your opt-in page. Unbounce ConvertKit Lastly, you need to share the link to your lead magnet opt-in page. Potential backers have to see the page to be convinced to submit their email addresses. You can share your lead magnet on social media, guest posts, groups, forums, and the project website. Here are tips to set up a compelling opt-in page Write a benefit-driven headline that piques curiosity Add supporting copy that describes what they’ll get Include an image of the lead magnet or a video pitch Use an actionable CTA like “download free guide” Ask for only their name and email address in your form Step #3 - Launch an engaging email marketing campaign Building an email list for your Kickstarter project isn’t just for seeking funding for your project. Put yourself in a potential backer’s shoes. You submit your email address in exchange for a valuable PDF financial planner. And the next thing you know, you’re being asked to fund a personal finance app. You’ll likely hit the unsubscribe button. So, don’t send emails begging for funding immediately after capturing potential backers’ email addresses. Instead, send engaging emails that will generate interest in your idea. Talk about the problems your project will solve and ask their opinion. Share exclusive behind the scene information or photos, and so on. So, when you're ready to launch, they'll be committed to your journey and willing to back your project. Hence, it’s important to start building your email list weeks before your launch date. This will give you enough time to engage with the potential backers on your list. Here are tips to launch an engaging email marketing campaign Write subject lines that will compel backers to open and read your email Use copywriting formulas such as AIDA to write an engaging body copy. Ask for their opinion and offer more freebies and secret bonuses. Include a strong CTA that sends them to your Kickstarter page. Bottom Line: Use A Lead Magnet Freebie To Build Your Kickstarter Email List People don’t just wake up and think, “I should go back a startup project on Kickstarter.” You need an email list of people who are likely to fund your project when you launch. And, a lead magnet funnel is the fastest way to capture these potential backers. With the steps explained in this guide, you can build your Kickstarter email list with a lead magnet and have a successful crowdfunding campaign.

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