The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-08-28
WORLD LITERATURE.
Its Foundations Laid by Ancient Egyptians
Who Wrote for the Future


who Wrote for the Future.
Let us look first of all at the Eovn-
tians, who seem to me to possess the
consciousness of the most distant. and
almost unreasonable past They did
not adorn their temples with inscrip-
tons for their own pleasure only. They
had a clear idea of the past and of the
future OF the world in which they lived;
and SO as they cherished the recollec-
tons OF the past, they wished them
selves to be remembered by unknown
generations in times to come The
biographical inscriptions of Aahmes,
Captain OF marines of the eighteenth
dynasty, is addressed, Cosmopolitan
says, ''to the whole human race, "(t'et-a
en-ten ret neb, loquor vobis hominbus
omnibus.) Amonument in the Louvre
CA. $40 says: Il speak to you who
shall come million of years after my
death. " These are the inscriptions of
private persons. Kings, naturally, are
still more anxious that posterity and
the world at large should be informed
of their deeds. Thus Sishak l., the
conqueror of Judah, prays in one of
his inscriptions at Silsillis: "My
gracious Lord, Anon, grant that my
words may live for hundreds of thou
sands of years."
The great Harris Papyrus, which re-
cords the donation of Rameses Ill. to
the temples of Egypt, together, with
some important political events, was
written to exhibit to ''the gods, to men
nov living and to unborn generations
hGmemet, the many good works and
valorous deeds which he did upon earth,
as great King of Egypt" Whatever
other motives, high or low, may have
Influenced the authors of these hierogly-
phic inscriptions, one of them was GER
tainly their love or fear of humanity,
their dim conviction that they belonged
to race which would 90 on forever
filling the earth, and to which they were
bound by some kind of moral respon-
sibility. They wrote for the world,
and it is in that sense that | call their
writings the first germs of world
literature. And as in Egypt, so it was
in Babylon, Nineveh and Persia. When
the jewellers on the Euphrates and
Tigris had learned that nothing seemed
to endure, that fire and water would des-
troy wood aid stone, even silver and
gold, they took clay and baked it, and
hid the cylinders, covered with cunei-
form writing, in the foundations of
their temples SO that even after the
destruction o. these temples and palaces
future generations might read the story
of the past And there in their safe
hiding places these cylinders have been
found again after three thousand years,
unframed by water, unscathed by fire,
and fulfillingthe very purpose for which
they were intended, carrying tous the
living message which the ancient rulers
of Chald@a wished that we, their dis
tantdecendants, should receive. Often
these inscriptions end with impreca-
tions against those who should dare to
iniure or efface them. At Khorsabad,
at the very interior of the construction,
was found a large stone chest, which
inclosed several inscribed plates in
various materials-one tablet of gold,
one of silver, others of copper, lead
and tin; sixth text was engraved on
alabaster, and the seventh document
was written on the chest itself. They
all commemorate the foundation of a
city by famous King, commonly called
Sargon, and they end with an impreca-
| ton:
"Whoever alters the work of my
hand, destroys my constructions, pulls
down the walls which l have raised
may Asshur, Kinib Raman and the
great gods who dwell there, pluck his
name and seed from the land, and let
him sit bound at the feet of his Zoe. -
MAJ Muller, IN Contemporary ReUieU.