The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-02-13
Lecture by lfayard Taylor mt Bran
don, Wednesday Evening.

on "Ancient Egypt" A large audience
were in attendance who were deeply inter
ested in the theme of the discourse and the
manner in which ii was treated. The fol-
lowing is nearly rerJatm report of
THE LECTURE.
In Il lecture by Wendell Phillips, he
gives us an account of certain ancient arts
which were either wholly or temporarily
lost. The moral which he draws at the
close is meant to suppress our Wanting adj
miration of these times in which we live
by showing that many of the most notable
achievements of human genius belong to
the remote forefalheIs of our race. Mr..
Phillips, indeed, might have gone step
farther aud admitted that the matters
which he advocates and the views which
he brings forward in doing so may, with
equal justice, be referred TO the ancients.
He might have stated that the proposition
to admit women TO an equal right in po-
litical affairs was pleasantly discussed by
Aristophanes, that the question of total abb
stinence from wine was promulgated in
Judea, and that The voxed problems of la
Dor have busted the human brain ever since
ii took its place as an element of organized
society Indeed, we must confess that civ
ilization is great deal older than we are
willing TO admit. The material and scien-
tific development of ages shows the direc-
tion which the human intellect has taken.
The past has its dead which it should be
allowed to bury, but these great vital forces
project themselves far into the future, and
while it is Il cemetery in sense, it is also a
deep fruitful soil in which our age strikes
u thousand roots. Before we can estimate
or fathom the nature of its wisdom we
must track each element of civilization to
its source and compute its power and char
acter. select ancient Egypt as an illus
tration, because it is just now furnishing
us with the richest and most glorious re-
cords of mans development. Within the
last few years, since Bunsen wrote his
work on ERypt's place in history. excava-
tioDs have yielded their richest returns, and
the studies of scholars have been rewarded
by the most important discoveries. While
she was only picture of the ancient civ
ilizaion, Egypt was already as grand as
she was mysterious. Already her name
awakened reverence and kindled the i'm
agination, but now. in the light thrown on
the victories of her political system, her
religious faith, her social and domestic life,
her art and architecture, and when they
are brought within the sphere of our posi-
tive knowledge, they seem as colossal and
rigid, and enduring as those statues which
have been seated for ages in front of her
buried temples. The country, in the first
place, may claim to have been specially
fashioned and set apart for the home of a
favored race. No other early tribe in its
struggle with nature ever found the task
made SO easy as i'll Egypt. These were
some of the marvellous bounties awaiting
the early settlers--a climate without storms,
a temperature best adapted for physical
Iultult, IL SUI W ultll ltltlilLts
ITSELF and a great watcry highway through
the heart of her habitable territories. In
the north and in the east she was protected
from invasion by natural barriers, and in
the West ,her desert boundaries gave hel
strength and security. There is nothing
like this condition anywhere else in thu
world, and the possibilities of life are ia
yorably and bountifully provided, ant
everything tends to stimulate the means o.
employment. Invasion soon ceased to bt
possible danger, and for a time the peo
pie obeyed the eternal law of development
without hindrancc or disturbance. 1t i.
safe to observe that they were the first OF
all mankind to reach that condition which
we call civilization. The beginning mus
have been long in advance of any othel
record which remains. and we can only
roughly estimate it from the interesting ex
periments which have been made in recen
years. From Tyre to Thebes, distance
of 400 miles along the Nile, the earth wa
bored into at hundreds of points wher,
there seemed to be no traces of ancen
ruins. Fragments Of pottery and othe
evidences of human habitation were every
where found TO the depth of sixty feet be
low the present surface. The gradual ris,
of the soil from the inundation of the Nil,
has been ascertained to be five inches in til,
century, and If we estimate the depth sug
gcsted and the existence of the earth
which is supposed 10 be ten thousand o
twelve thousand years, we have an indica
ton of the first settlement in Egypt. Til
is much greater stretch of time than w
are generally disposed to consider in rela
ton to human history, but from the record
which we have of such high civilization
there must have been long development
preceding it.
Our knowledge of Egyptian history here
tofore is derived from the account writer
by the Egyptian priest Manifo, three cen
turtles before Christ-a history compile,
from the histories still existing in the oldes
temples. lie gives us an account of thirty
three successive dynasties, with the name
of the kings belonging to them, the lengtl
of their reigns and other matters of inter
est. OF these thirty-three the third count
! ing from the beginning is the first one o
,, which any record has been discovered, I'm
less the famous Sphinx should prove to b
| still older. 1t has heretofore been assume
that the Sphinx was the same age as tn
l. IL. s,l
leau has been discovered which tells tina
the builders of the great pyramid repaire,
the Sphinx, which, therefore, must hav
been old in his day. The latest objects dis
! covered are accompanied by clear. legibl
j inscriptions, showing that they possessed
T written language before even the tradition
/, of its invention begins in other lands. Their
! are two circumstances which account 70
! the preservation of records so ancient tina
$ we naturally doubt the correctness of tn
scholars estimates when we hear then