The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-10-20
THE WISDOM OF THE EGYP.
eaI TIANS.

X 49,
We moderns are accustomed to pooh
|pcoh-a good deal at people so unfortu-
nate as to live before this nineteenth Gen.
tury-but just think what some of these
remote people and times did manage to
find out, and accomplish for themselves.
There was Egypt, oldest and wisest OF
the nations; what record for her is de-
ciphered, these last fifty years of her past
What did the old Egyptian know
about the oldest of the arts, about farm.
| ing He kne" how to manage his great
river, the source of moisture and fertility
in that climate, SO as to turn the desert
beyond its banks into garden, and make
Egypt storehouse and granary for the
surrounding natiors. He built reservoirs
so huge as to retain sufficient waters from
the overlooking river, to feed it when it
subsided--a lake four hundred and fifty
miles around and three hundred feet deep
and this fitted up with skillful system
of foodgates, dams and locks. These
were water works on stupendous scale
truly.
As to what he knew about building
who has hot heard of his pyramids? those
vast masses, some OF which were old in
the time of Abraham, and yet built with
such faithfulness and skill, that the ma.
sorry is still perfect. He knew how to
quarry and move huge blocks of stone,
ninety feet in length, and then cover them
with accurate and beautiful chiseling.
The whole land was full of these won.
derful statues, obelisks, tombs and tenn.
Piles. g @sap 3gl. .as-9 ll
About manufacturing-he knew how
to weave linen so fine that each separate
thread was composed of three hundred
and sixty-fve small threads twisted to-
gether. He knew how to dye it in pur-
pie, and blue. and scarlet, and how to en-
broider it. He knew how to get iron and
copper from mines at Sinai, and how to
make useful tools of them when obtained.
But what did he know about scie nee ?
He understood geometry, well enough, at
least, for land surveying. He understood
the rotundity of the earth, the suns cen
trail place in the solar system, the obliq-
uity of the elliptic. He could foreteIl
eclipses, the positions of the planets, the
true length of the year They had found
out a method of notation--two of them,
indeed-the decimal and the duodecimal.
As for chemistry, its very name (from
Chemi, which means Egypt tells. us
where it was first studied. No wonder
that the Egyptians got the. reputation,
among their more ignorant neighbors,
Of being magicians As for books, the
old Egyptians made paper. and wrote on
it, and we have now papyrus rolls made
in the time of the early Pharaohs; but
he went on further to turn his buildings,
his obelisks, even his coffius, into books,
by inscribing them with histories aud hi
ographies; by representing on them
through paintings and sculpture, all his
occupations and beliefs, bis hopes and
fears.
One asks in wonder where he got all
this knowledge. Ancient Greece went
to him for it, just as the American goes
to Germany. We can trace Che germs at
least of our science and art to nations re-
moved from us by ages; but whom did
the Egyptians learn from? Were these
sons OF Ham the first to develop to such
marvellous degree the arts of life? Did
they find out by original observation what
has been tra nsmitted to US? And through
what remote antiquity were they slowly
accumulating the experience, which quail
flied themsto establish such stable lnsti-
tutions such settled traditions, such at
tainments in science and art
No one can tell. At a point beyond
our farthest traditions her records show
her to us rich, powerful, cultivated, skill
full OF the long ages before. she was
able to record her changes. time hasalong
obl;terated all traces The world has
long forgotten all about her, till the re-
searches of the last half century brought
to light her long buried life Strange
enough it is to be brought face to face
with the monuments ola civilization COM
pared to which all European history is
but of yesterday was, old in the
days of Abraham-and to fad there 50
much in common with our own.-Gernsan-
tolon Chronicle. ...
. s-