The Osceola times., 1881-09-24
THE ANTIQUITIES OF EGYPT.
Recent Wonderful Discoveries - Royal
Muniniies Found IN the ThebsIs Guns.
London Times.

The details which our Cairo CORE
spondent furnishes this morning Of the
extraordinary discovery of royal num-
mics and papyri in the cliffs of the
Ihebais add 10 the wonder his first
account excited. No archaeological de-
posits ON the same scale have been dis
inferred since Sir Henry Layard revealed
the glories of Nineveh. In mere guam
tity the antiquities thus suddenly
brought TO light must awaken admira-
ton even in an age which within the
compass OF single lifetime has uncover
ed more material relics of the buried
past than thousand years which pre-
oeded it. The present generation, what
ever 1t may have created or failed to Gre
ate for the instruction of the future, has
been singularly industrious and success.
ful in gathering together the fragments
of its remote ancestors. From Signor
Belzoni to VI. Mariette on unbroken line
of explorers have been compiling the
sepulchral register OF Egyptian grand
eur. Nineyeh and Babylon have, by
the resolute skill and intuition of Sir
/ Henry Layard and the indefatigable
courage and unselfshnes OF Mr. Rassam,
resumed their place in the annals OF
human progress. From the Cyclopean
| fortresses of the aboriginal Pelasgi to
| the monuments of Olympiad victors.
/ Hellenic art has been persuaded by Herr
| Schliemann, Mr.. Newton, Mr.. Wood.
/ Gen. Cesnola and a host of other investi-
| gators TO render up its mysteries of
/ grace and harmony. A new world of
sentiment has been opened up in Etru-
| ria. Ancient Rome is year by year put
/ ting off its grave clothes. Desolate
heaths, blue lakes and rugged caverns
are continually being made to supply
gaps in the social, spiritual and natural
history of man Inquirers inquire
no longer at random. An outline map
is now drawn of the vast field which
man has occupied. Much has been filled
| in; how much remains to fill in is known.
| Researches are pursued on plan
/ though thousands OF miles of geograph-
/ ical space and more thousands of years
separate their several areas. The ad-
vance antiquarianism in these latter
| days are as much faster than in those OF
! GeOitrey, Monmouth, AS the calculations
accomplished by the rules OF arithmetic
are quicker and more accurate than if
affected on the fingers.
Historical science presides over the
! Investigations wherever they are con-
ducted. IL directs where To look for
what, and how each article or particle
unearthed may be turned into clew to
more, which will in time emerge. A
/ Beethoven could weave an enchanting
/ harmony amid the olling of post
/ chaise. A leVerrier could, without
mounting the stairs Of his observatory,
| perceive an unknown planet or predict "a
comet. In the same way the philosopher
| Of comparative history, sitting in his
| professional chair, divides the distance
still to be traversed into its stages which
/ the workers are to measure out for his
editication. Yet each of these delivers
and diggers in the mine of bygone ages
| labois, as if the claim allotted to him
contained all that mankind could care to
| learn. The vast region of history is
| built up of as many distinct sections as
the region of geology. Each pioneer as
he tunnels in his apportioned giound
may hear, now and again, faint echo as
of his own AK from another excavation
with which he has no concern. He may
sometimes. like Cornish miners, in the
pauses of his toll, be conscious of the
roar of the universal ocean of human
history rs he approaches the interval
before his division disappears in the
larger whole. But the vein ne is WORK
ing takes different direction; he loses
the noise of the spade of his cotem-
porary explorer; the dashing of the
waves above sounds remoter; he is in
solitude and silence once more, except
so far as he is himself peopling the one
and rendering the other articulate. This
is the strangeness of the successive or
overlapping strata Of the huge breadths
of antiquity. Every one in turn seems
TO its student, whether he shoulder the
mattock or only con the results, to oc-
cupy the entire world, to be sole ruler
and owner. Assyria, whether imper-
sonated in the palaces of Nineveh or
Babylon, assumes, and TO his students
makes the assumption COED, to hold the
universe and time itself in fee. To the
Psychologist there is nothing but Egypt
TO the furthest bounds of the horizon
Though the centuries of Asyrian domin-
ion are little beside the illimitable ages
arrogated for the mental supremacy OF
Egypt, for a part Of the sphere which
the one covers and the other is seen in
possession, too. Yet each on its own
territory is not merely sovereign, but
exclusively sovereign. Though both CO.
existed and botk reigned, no room for
more than one is visible to the students
of either. The heroes and central
figures of these veiled splendors are not
themselves without a fear, as the cb,
acter of their memorials tcstites H.,
their fame and names might be ? ,r1o,,an
in the lapse of centuries. AZ vrisn con.
querers inscribed their u ,.s On ~
drous bronzed gates and scnI,,nrad
marble. Long lines = + Pharaohs raised
tiielI sioili'.u 's'r as OF proportions so
sieah,l1i picture their exploits in colors
90 InIeilp'e' and so transmitted their
very nesp that neither the mud nor the
NV ne sand Of the desert, nor the
10 ages of insect existence have been
able to subdue this height and and solidi-
, ty, this perennial brightness and clear
ness, this condensation Of immortal
essence. Assyrian and Egyptian mon
archs spent the best energies Of their
lives in preparing against the obscurity
they apprehended for themselves after
death. But their dread never conjured
up the vision of day when the As
syrian Empire would be represented by
few scattered dust hears, and the king
dom of Egypt by the curiosities oI
Christian and Turkish musems
They reckoned the ages Assyria and
Egypt had endured. They looked for
ward into the dim distances Of uncounted
other ages 70 follow. II seemed TO then
that they must grave their names and
deeds very deep for them not to fade
away and be lost in the vista Of innumer
able generations and dynasties like
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