New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-02-03

oxfori. Translated by NJ. L. Mcclure, Member
q the MsD Of S EsYPa aDd
Plans. Pr xii, 500. Il. Appleton & Co.
This volume ends. like the first instalmcnt of
novel, at the most interesting point in the history
OF the two nations with which it deals They are
represented as growing up in the valleys. Of the
sreat rivers 10 which they respectively belong,
each developing its own civilization in its own
way. Vast deserts intervene between them. The
sea which will become highway for later races
is TO them an object of dread. Their timid voy-
ages are confined to the rivers and to the COASTS
Bat fortunately the material elements of their
civilization are either within their borders or In
lands nearby. They do not have TO go far Tor
metals. and the luXurant fertility or the Valleys
which they mhabit feeds them bounteously and
encourages the increase OF population. Whie the
neighboring countries are merely infested by va
grant. -fed bands Of wild people. these two
favored regions are covered with multitudes OF
agriculturists and dotted with cities where man.
kind thrves in thousands. No external power Is
strong enough to interfere with their progress.
Attacks from without only serve to compact their
political and social organization, to develop the
national individuality and TO harden 1t into an un-
yielding conservatism. They have everything to
do for themselves. these ancient races. Nobody
has been DefOre tneH 10 cIedr tne srOuiu, 10 Ill
vent their tools to teach them what is good 10
eat, to discover ores for them or to show them
how to extract metals or quarry stone or mould
brick. They are their own teachers. and in the
course OF generations they forget their first strug
giles and agree that all the arts which they have
were impaired to them by god or by some man.
fish out Of the depths of the 1t has not oc-
CURED to them that they may write their own
history; in fact they learn how to do this In
a truly intelligent way Perhaps the very fact that
they never do tell their own story in proper form
IS what gives absorbing interest to modern efforts
10 construct it out of the materials which they
have left like the present ample work Fro
fessor Maspero had the details Of Egyptian learn
ing at his finger-ends before he began his task,
and he seems to have missed nothing, however
reconcile. respecting Chaldaea. The contributions
OF modern investigators. both in Egypt and on the
Euphrates, are scattered in books and pamphlets,
society reports, magazine articles and fugitive
writings Of all kinds. The footnotes TO this vol
ume show what a wilderness must be traversed in
order to gather up all the available facts and the
text shows how close the connection is among
these facts when they are ranged in proper order
Nobody can be absolutely sure about the success
sion of royalties in Egypt. much less in Chaldaea;
but he can restore in his imagination the very life
his ina gination in the matter. because he sees
that human nature much the same then as il
IS now. If ne had lived among these people of a
remote antiquity, even with such traditions as he
has OF another age and another kind Of life he
could still have understood them and could have
done in Thebes or Erech what those did who were
10 the manner born.
There were many points # similarity as well
as contrast in the evolution of culture on the
Euphrates and on the Nile. 1t is an open ques-
ton whether either valley owed the other any
thing at the outset in population or In the arts
Of life. Professor Maspero reviews the theory
that Egypt was settled from Asia, and shows his
own preference for the opinion that the people
who took permanent possession OF the ooantr.
belonged to those white races which have held
the southern shore of the Mediterranean since
prehistoric times These races. he thinks, were
OF African origin. They entered Egypt from
the south or the southwest. and IL they found
an indg~ nous black population. which Is pos
sible either expelled or destroyed it. To this
primitive African white population may have
been added some Asiatc elements. But such
was the character OF the country that it soon
assmatcd them TO its own type, as it has done
with ali who ever lived within its boundaries.
Ethnologically II made its jewellers Libyan. but
in language they all became Semitic. Most of
the grammatical processes. he observes used in
Semitic languages are to be found in a rudi-
mentary condition in Egyptian. Whatever the
DRY may be adopted to the origin OF the peo-
pie. the beginnings of their civilization belong
10 the region Of marshes ard aluvum between
the sea and the firm land. The same can be
said Of the tribes which gradually over5pread
Chaldaea. 1t was in the contest with the sea
and the rivers that the people got their first
lessons in life different from that Of wandering
savages But the Nile was an exceptional river.
It's sources were unknown. Down to COM
paratively recent time the notion OF the Egyp-
tians still prevailed which covered the interior
of Africa with innumerable lakes and started
all its rivers from common source. There
were those who thought that the Nile flowed
down from heaven. or that ii welled up from
streams swallowed up on another continent. or,
at the very least, that its springs were mac
cessble to man. There was such mystery
about the Euphratos and the Tigrs. From the re-
hottest tines their sources seem to have been
known by hearsay, II not by observation, to the
jewellers on .he coast. The Nile was benehcent
even in Its floods. The people learned to let its
waters flow over their lands at the time OF the
tnundation and where they raised dikes and
sunk canals and basins 1t was to let In the
water not to keep 1t out. The Euphrates ana
the Tigris also had their floods. but these were
destructive. They SCARED the soft earth with
ravines and swept the fertile soil onward 10
build now lands along the edge Of the Persian
Gulf The people anticipated the overflow with
dread and their most absorbing task was to re-
strain the rivera within bounds. They became
moro intimate with the earth than their Egyp-
tian contemporaries. They learned how to mould
the clay and to make their houses and the houses
Of their kings and their gods out OF the material
under their feet The Egyptians learned some
thing about brick manufacture but they had
no need 10 depend upon that 1t was easy Tor
them to obtain stone as their huge piles attest.
The Chalcaeans only used 1t As facing ana
by way or ornament In buildings. 1t was TOO