lowed, to make a place for Gibbie, but there was still an interval between them sufficient to afford space to the hope that none of the evils she dreaded would fall upon her to devour her. Flushed, angry, uncomfortable, notwithstanding, her face glowed like a bale-fire to the eyes of her husband, and, I fear, spoiled the prayer — but that did not matter much.
While the two thus involuntarily signalled each other, the boy who had brought discomposure into both pulpit and pew, sat peaceful as a summer morning, with the old man beside him quiet in the reverence of being himself revered. And the minister, while he preached from the words, Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall, for the first time in his life began to feel doubtful whether he might not himself be a humbug. There was not much fear of his falling, however, for he had not yet stood on his feet.
Not a word was said to Gibbie concerning the liberty he had taken : the minister and his wife were in too much dread — not of St. James and the "poor man in vile raiment," for they were harmless enough in themselves, but of Gibbie's pointing finger to back them. Three distinct precautions, however, they took: the pew-opener on that side was spoken to; Mrs. Sclater made Gibbie henceforth go into the pew before her; and she removed the New Testament from the drawingroom.
ANCIENT EGYPT.
I.
The object of these papers is to give the reader who has not made a special study of Egyptology some idea of its general results in reference both to the ancient Egyptians and to the races with which they came in contact. The subjects are the characteristics of the main periods of Egyptian history, the religion and civilization of the people, and the bearing of their records on Hebrew, Greek, and Phœenician history. The vast body of information by which we may now carry up the annals of the civilized world for at least two thousand years before the time of Herodotus is for the most part scattered in works both learned and costly of which no short summary has yet been produced.[1] It will be my endeavor to do my work merely as an interpreter, in order that the great value of materials almost unknown to the generality may be understood, and perhaps some new students added to a body which, in England at least, is now decreasing. In a short series of papers many details must be omitted, but there will be space enough to show that the study of Egyptology touches and illustrates in turn many of the great problems of the story of ancient civilization.
No country has more markedly influenced its inhabitants than Egypt. It is a table-land of rock, through which the Nile has cut a passage, which by its annual overflow it has gradually fertilized. The valley thus formed is but a few miles broad until it widens out into the triangular plain of the Delta. Small as is the deposit of soil — not more than four and a half inches in a century for the last three thousand years — it requires no manuring to produce an annual crop, nor need it ever be left fallow, and the use of artificial irrigation adds a second and third crop. In no country is life easier or the acquisition of wealth from the land more rapid. The oldest Egyptians were agriculturists, who, having gained all they required, felt the natural desire of a settled people to leave some record of their lives for later times. The conditions were wonderfully favorable. The rainless climate preserves for ages what elsewhere perishes in a year. The sides of the valley afford quarries of limestone and sandstone, easily worked and lying close to the gr. At a very remote age the art of making paper from the papyrus reed, then abundant, was discovered, and black and red ink was manufactured.eat water-way for transport, and at the first cataract the Nile is obstructed by rocks of the fine red granite which the ancients called syenite All these materials were in full use as early as the time of the king who built the Great Pyramid, in the earliest period of Egyptian monumental history.
But who were the Egyptians? in other words, what is their place among the races of man? Their neighbors were the yellow Shemite Syrians, the fair Libyans, and the negroes. In the interesting pictures of the four races of man in the Tombs of the Kings b.c. cir. 1350–1100) the Egyptians portray these three races and themselves "mankind" as a fourth. Like all such subjects in ancient Egyptian art, these are eminently characteristic, and the most ele-
- ↑ In the "Records of the Past," the student unacquainted with the original Egyptian, Assyrian, and other Eastern texts, will find translations of the most important of these documents. Yet the necessary introduction to the study of the documents is wanting, and the critical apparatus is far too scanty.
