recourse to the world of dreams. The mechanical spirit of 
movable types in precise lines, thus, could not have been given 
a more faithful reflection than by Descartes. We have earlier 
cited his new consumer idea of philosophy, exhorting his reader 
to go through his work “in its entirety like a novel without 
forcing the attention unduly upon it or stopping at difficulties.” 
The notion of moving steadily along on single planes of 
narrative awareness is totally alien to the nature of language 
and of consciousness. But it is highly consistent with the 
nature of the printed word. Going closely with this lineal 
denudation of language is the associated impression of 
mechanical repetition and recurrence which came to weigh ever 
more heavily on the Renaissance mind:

     Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, 
     So do our minutes hasten to their end;