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06674_Field_TCUM T239.txt
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1996-04-10
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break tribal unity, as the Old Testament declares (“And Satan
rose up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel”).
Phonetic letters and numbers were the first means of
fragmenting and detribalizing man.
Throughout Western history we have traditionally and
rightly regarded letters as the source of civilization, and looked
to our literatures as the hallmark of civilized attainment. Yet all
along, there has been with us a shadow of number, the
language of science. In isolation, number is as mysterious as
writing. Seen as an extension of our physical bodies, it becomes
quite intelligible. Just as writing is an extension and separation
of our most neutral and objective sense, the sense of sight,
number is an extension and separation of our most intimate
and interrelating activity, our sense of touch.