The San Francisco call., 1905-08-06
WITH THE OLD
WORLD AUTHORS
German Draws a Comparison
Between Old Testament
and Egyptian Mythology
TOLSTOI'S WANING LIFE
Great Russian Is Wrapped
in Profound Melancholy
as He Nears the Grave
TOLSTOI'S WANING LIFE
Special Dispatch to The Call.


LONDON, Aug. SIS a large part of
the Old Testament merely a rehash of
ancient Egyptian myths? All theologi-
cal Germany is stirred up at present
! over a book which Herr Voelter, a
German professor, has just published
to demonstrate that this is the case.
In Egypt and the Bible" as he calls
his work, the professor draws some
really surprising parallels between
what he terms "the alleged history of
the forefathers of the Jews" and the
most ancient legends current in the
land of the Pharaohs. In these latter,
he declares, are to be found exact
coun terparts of Abraham, Isaac. Esau,
Jacob, Joseph, Moses and other Old
Testament characters.
According to Voelter, Abraham repre-
sents the Egyptian sun god Mum, whose
wife, Nunet, has, like Sarah. child OF
promise in her old age through whom
the future world is to be blessed: isaac
is Tallemus, the god of spring, and Re
becca, who covers herself with veil, Is
Tslar, the evening star, the daughter OF
the morn god. Rebecca's father, lSethuel,
the professor goes on, corresponds almost
exactly to the Egyptian Sui Abraham :
three -wiVes-Sarah, Hagar and Keturafl-
recall the three wives of the Egyptian
Hagar and Isis the resemblance is par
ticularly striking, and he afffrms further
that the history of Joseph is practically
that of Osiris, who was at enmity with
, his brethren. He also was imprisoned in
a pit and from prison cell mounted the
steps of a throne.
A pathetic account of Count Leo
Tolstoi is given by Yurievsky, the Rus
sian writer, who has just returned from
! a VISIT to the novelist.
"Tolstoi's condition." he says, "is one
of profound melancholy, for he is fail
| ing in mind and body. He has only
one enthusiasm left, the simple life; he
still insists on doing a certain amount
of rough manual work every day and
in the spring even tried to plow his
! own fields"
Yurievsky adds that Tolstoi considers
| four ffths of his life as wasted. but
doubts even that his present expert
ence would help him to anything bet
| ter were he young again. The war
! he still pronounces IAN infamy against
/ humanity" but steadily refuses to join
/ the liberals in their campaign against
IL.
OF course 1t was a foregone conclu-
| sion that the ancient uuarto edition of
Richard IIF'-sold very recently at
| Sotheby's-would fall into American
| hands. And. while regretting the loss
| to England of still another rare vol
! ume, collectors here feel that the
! United States is the place for the pre-
! cious Quarto because of its association
| with the Penns. The record -brea kin z
! prices given for it is the surprising
! thing. No such sum as $3.50 ever has
! been paid for work, or even a collec-
tion of works, by Shakespeare. Four
years ago the 1923 first folio of all the
plays established a record by realizing
$500 and when last year, a first quarto
of Henry W. fetched S5175, experts
generally declared that this was the
highest possible market valuation for
a single play.
Moreover, this copy of Richard III
discovered SO accidentally. is by no means
in good condition. OF it's 46 printed
leaves, half are scorched a the top cor
ners and many are badly stained. 1t was
a comparative certainty, however, that
no other copy of the edition ever would
come into an auction room, for only two
other specimens are known to exist and
one of these in the British Museum
and the other in the Bodlean Library at
Oxford The present work was, of
course. the property of Admiral Sir Will
liam Penn, father of the founder of Penn
sylvania, and his name appears in five
places in the volume. 1t is supposed
that his Quaker son forgot to include the
work in his baggage when he sailed for
the New World in 1852.