But the farther researches extend, the more it is proved that the civilization of man was accomplished very many thousands of years ago. The similarity of customs and arts between nations so widely divergent that they could not have copied from each other, would seem to point to older stocks from which much may have been derived in common. Who can say whether the continent submerged beneath the Indian Ocean, and of which Madagascar is a fragment, may not have contained civilizations older than any that history records?

In the old Egyptian Chronicle, the reigns of Cronus and the other twelve deities who governed, probably through hierarchies, occupy 3984 years. These are followed by thirty dynasties of kings, making with the others 36,525 years. According to Herodotus, from Menes, the first Theban king, to the invasion of Cambyses, there were 341 generations of kings in a period of 11,340 years. According to Manetho, from Menes to the Persian invasion was

about 5000 years. The pyramids to the north of Memphis were erected more than 4100 years ago, and within 300 years after the Biblical deluge. Many dates can be absolutely proved from astronomical records. When Joseph was carried as a slave into Egypt in the reign of Userseten I., whose accession was 1740 B.C., we know from the invaluable statements of the Bible and from native sources that Egypt was then a great and civilized country. And when the Jews were expelled in the fourth year of the reign of Thothmes III., or, as Lord Prudhoe thinks, in the reign of Pthamenoph, the Egyptians were approaching the zenith of their grandeur, which was reached under the sway of Rameses II. But in the days of the Patriarchs they were as perfectly civilized as at any later period. Sir J. Gardiner Wilkinson says: "They had the same arts, the same manners and customs, the same architecture, and were in the same advanced state of refinement as in the reign of Rameses II.; and no very remarkable changes took place, even in ever-varying taste, between the accession of the first Userseten and the death of that conqueror" (Rameses II.), "who was the last mon

arch of the 18th dynasty. What high antiquity does this assign to civilization! The most remote point to which we can see opens with a nation possessing all the arts of civilized life already matured."

The habits and customs of Greece and Rome are familiar to very many. But their civilization was to an exceedingly large extent derived from Egypt. Indeed, she may be said to have been the mother of almost all European knowledge. Pythagoras, after travelling in Egypt, opened a school in Magna Græcia during the reign of Tarquin the Proud. Hecatæus and Herodotus also spent much time there investigating, and acquiring knowledge. The priests laughed at Hecatæus for claiming descent from a deity as his sixteenth ancestor, and showed him the statues of 345 high priests, each of whom they said "was a man, the son of a man. For although in their poetic allegories, like the story of Osiris, or the Garden of Eden, they spoke of the gods having ruled in the world, yet they never believed or taught that they had actually dwelt on earth. This fable, which has been universally asserted through the vanity of all peoples, was emphatically denied by them. Their religious institutions were largely borrowed by the Jews, and were thus disseminated throughout every Christian country. Egypt taught Greece architecture, philosophy, astronomy, geometry, and numerous sciences and useful arts, which were subsequently handed on to Rome. Jupiter was an infant when her gods were hoary-headed with the ashes of a vast antiquity. And the coarseness of the early Greek mind accepted these gods as the untaught commonalty of Egypt received them, in gross ignorance of the great philosophical abstractions which they symbolized, and added to them habits and customs as depraved as their own. Even the Pharaohs were not permitted to learn the highest mysteries of their religion-to enter into "the Holy of Holies"-unless they had long graduated as priests, and only then by virtue of their office on their reaching the throne. We shall, therefore, select this most interesting people to illustrate our subject in ancient times, because it would be obviously impossible, in one paper, to deal with all.

When Joseph was carried captive into Egypt by the Arab traders whose camels were laden with "spices, balm, and myrrh," the rustic Hebrew found himself in the heart of a rich and populous country filled with great cities adorned with magnificent buildings-a country governed by ancient and equitable laws --having a venerable church wealthily endowed, and an enlightened priesthood containing numerous colleges and schools, and teeming with the products of the known world. Linen, glass, ornaments of silver and gold, and beautiful examples of cabinet work and objects of art and refinement, were of home manufacture. Various gymnastic exercises, and the games of draughts, ball, mora, and other well-known modern amusements, were common at the same period. The army and navy were well equipped and drilled, and furnished with powerful machines and deadly weapons. Sculptors, painters, and scribes abounded, and three modes of writing were practised. Musical instruments were numerous, and consisted of cymbals, trumpets, drums, harps, guitars, lyres, flutes, pipes, and others. There were bands of music as with us. Yet Troy was not built until about three and a half centuries after. Two hundred years elapsed before Athens was founded, and a thousand before Romulus laid the foundations of Rome: eight hundred before Hercules was born, and twelve hundred twelve hundred before Pythagoras wandered into Egypt and drank from the fountains of ancient learning.

Many of the facts to which we refer were often better known in their day than current events in our newspapers are to us. For, as we learn from the walls of Karnak, the grottoes on the east bank of the Nile, the monuments, tombs, temples, and public buildings, there were on every hand spirited paintings, or hieroglyphs inscribed to the depth of two inches, descriptive of their battles, triumphs, religious ceremonies, and social habits and customs. The untutored slave who passed along could read as he ran the pictorial witnesses of his adopted country's greatness, and the learned could explain the indelible writing on the polished granite. And although slavery was a settled institu

tion, as it always has been in developing civilization, yet the streets were gay and bright with color, songs, and dances. Wandering minstrels sang and played, mountebanks tumbled, jugglers tricked, and dancing girls went through their graceful movements for the pleasure of the public and their own profit. The shops were filled with wares, poultry and other food, exposed for sale beneath awnings. All historians agree that they were a light-hearted, happy people, given to raillery and wit, of subtle and sarcastic intellect, and somewhat turbulent when their privileges were threatened.

Under this people the position of woman at these remote times was superior to that in any Eastern country, ancient or modern. Although polygamy was allowed by law to all except the priests, monogamy was generally practised, but they admitted slaves as concubines. These lived in the house, "ranked next to the wives and children of their lord, and are supposed to have enjoyed a share of his property at his demise." It was not reputable to divorce a wife without sufficient reason. Her consent and her parents' were required before taking a second with her. Often marriage contracts stipulated that no other wife should be received. Women held high offices in the temples. Wives and other women were allowed great liberty. They could go abroad unrestrained, and wives could accompany their husbands in visits and entertainments, but sometimes they sat apart from the men on the other side of the room. They were expected to attend the public festivals, when 700,000 men, women and children often came together. Josephus says that "when it was the custom for women to go to the public solemnity the wife of Potiphar, having pleaded ill health, in order to be allowed to stay at home, was excused from attending," and made use of the opportunity given by her husband's absence to talk with Joseph. Ladies were permitted to drink wine in small cups. In the frescoes they are occasionally caricatured as having taken too much. But in the early days of Rome no woman might drink wine, nor any man under thirty, except at the sacrifices. Afterward the

Roman women were allowed to use it medicinally. Although the Egyptian concubines often waited on the chief wife and performed other domestic offices, no distinction was made between their children and those of the wife or of any other woman: all enjoyed equal rights of inheritance. This people regarded the child as owing its existence to its father, and the mother as simply a nurse, and they rightly considered it unjust that a father should show preference for either of his children in the division of his property. Legitimate and illegitimate shared alike. Under this and other such equitable laws and customs, Egypt weathered the political storms of thousands of years, and when she fell it was by the hand of a ruthless and insatiable conqueror, who seized or destroyed her objects of art and deported the artists and artisans.

Strict obedience of children was always insisted on. They might not sit in the presence of their fathers, nor eat with them except under rare circumstances. Even the king's sons waited on their father as fan-bearers or followed his chariot on foot. Respect for age was inculcated, and every young man had to give place to his elders and to rise on their approach. Reverence for their parents and ancestors was maintained after their death, and so strong was it for all generations that it became a custom for money-lenders to include the borrower's deceased parent in the mortgage, as this was considered the safest security for repayment. Not to have redeemed the dead would have been accounted infamous, and the defaulting borrower could neither be buried nor bury his children. Plato, remarking on the strictness of their education, says: "They knew that children ought to be early accustomed to such gestures, looks, and motions as are decent and proper, and not to be suffered either to hear or to learn any verses and songs than those which are calculated to inspire them with virtue; and they consequently took care that every dance and ode introduced at their feasts or sacrifices should be subject to certain regulations." Diodorus says: "The children of the priests are taught two different kinds of writing, what is called the sacred, and the more

general; and they pay great attention to geometry and arithmetic." The study of astronomy was compulsory in their schools, and music was generally taught, although not deemed a necessary accomplishment. Plato spent thirteen years in Egypt, and in his Second Book of Laws he makes the Athenian guest say: "The plan we have been laying down for the education of youth was known long ago to the Egyptians-that nothing but beautiful forms and fine music should be permitted to enter into the assemblies of young people. Having settled what those forms and what that music should be, they exhibited them in their temples; nor was it allowable for painters or other imitative artists to innovate or invent any forms different from what were established; nor lawful either in painting, statuary, or any branches of music, to make any alteration upon examination; therefore, you will find that the pictures and statues made ten thousand years ago are in no particular better or worse than what they now make." Bruce in his Travels remarked of the harps on a tomb at Thebes: "They overturn all the accounts hitherto given of the earliest state of music and musical instruments in the East; and are altogether in their form, ornaments, and compass an incontestable proof, stronger than a thousand Greek quotations, that geometry, drawing, mechanics, and music were at the greatest perfection when this instrument was made, and that the period from which we date the invention of these arts was only the beginning of the era of their restoration." Mr. W. Chappell observed of the Egyptian flute: "It was a custom of the Egyptians, in the early dynasties of the empire, to deposit a musical pipe by the side of the body of a deceased person, and, together with the pipe, a long straw of barley. The pipes were played upon by short pieces of barley straw. . . . These straws give us a new insight into the Egyptian doctrine of the transmigration of souls."

It was an early maxim of this people that the king could do no wrong. Although we consider their monarchs absolute, their power was restricted by custom and minute usage. Every act of their public life was governed strictly

by precedent. The occupation of each hour of the day was elaborately set forth, and could not be departed from. As the ecclesiastical head of the empire, the king was supposed to communicate the choicest gifts of the gods to his subjects, and he who benefited his people was never forgotten. No honors and no expense were sufficient for his memory. "For of all people," says Diodorus, "the Egyptians retain the highest sense of a favor conferred upon them, and deem it the greatest charm of life to make a suitable return for benefits they have received; and honor done to one who cannot possibly know it, in return for a past benefit, carries along with it a testimony of sincerity so totally devoid of the least color of dissimulation, that every one must admire the sentiments which dictate its performance." The national mourning for a king lasted seventy-two days (for a private person seventy), during which time all the comforts and luxuries of life were voluntarily denied themselves. These in cluded bread, meat, wheat, wine, and all delicate foods and drinks. They neither bathed nor anointed themselves, nor indulged in any pleasure. In this way the monarch sought the good of his people, and the people cheerfully ac cepted his will as law. For when he died he was solemnly judged. Any one could lay an accusation against him. And if it could be proved that he had governed ill or oppressed his subjects, he was condemned by popular vote, and denied the customary honors.

Their cardinal virtue was Truth or Justice. The goddess Ma represent ed both. Every one of the thirty judges wore a golden chain in court around his neck, from which her image was suspended. Justice was gratuitously administered. The rich had thus no advantage over the poor. No oratory was permitted on either side. No barristers or solicitors "made the worse appear the better part." All plaints were handed to the court in writing. The defence was made in like manner. Witnesses, if any, were examined by the judges, who decided the case by touching the successful litigant with the image of Truth.

Falsehood was a punishable offence, but perjury was the blackest of crimes,

and could only be expiated by death. To calumniate the dead was severely visited, and a false accuser was condemned to the same punishment due to the offence which he maintained.

For the prevention and detection of crime, every one had, at stated times, to present himself before the magistrate of his district and give a full account of himself, particularly as to how he earned his livelihood. A false statement to conceal crime was a capital offence. But their criminal punishments were, on the whole, mild as regarded life, as we also know from what befell Joseph. The lex talionis, which suited the fierce temper of the Jews, was not acquired from the milder Egyptians. Their laws were chiefly exercised for the reclamation of the criminal and for the public good, rather than from vindictive motives. The wilful murder of a slave was punished with death just as that of a freeman. The Greeks and Romans could murder their slaves with impunity. It was also a capital offence to witness a murder without trying to prevent it. He who was present without interfering when any one assaulted another, was held an accomplice punishable to the extent of the assault. Every one witnessing a robbery without arresting the thief or laying an information, received a fixed number of stripes, and was kept without food for three full days. Infants were never exposed, nor had a father, as in Rome, any right over the life of his child. In the case of child-murder, which seldom occurred, the corpse was fastened around the neck of the parent for three days and nights under a public guard. But the parricide was "lacerated with sharpened reeds, and after being thrown on thorns, was burned to death."

In the case of a woman sentenced to death while in a state of pregnancy, her punishment was postponed until after the birth of her child. This law was adopted by the Athenians.

A woman who committed adultery was deprived of her nose. The man received a thousand blows. But he who violated a free woman was mutilated so that he could never repeat the offence. In minor breaches of the law they always resorted to the bastinado, whether soldiers or civilians. The