The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1908-08-20
old Egypt.

e.
Paper Read Before the ChautauQua Circle.
A COUPLE of thousand years or
~ more would be q considerable
~ item, venture, to any member
of this community. Yet we
could all enjoy placid peacefulness 1t
20 centuries were of no more moment
to US than to horde of standard histo
rians.
have heard persons who would
confidentially tell a member of the Ma
comic order that they were Masons,
when they were not, and have seen
and heard small boys deny absolutely
any intimacy with the jam pot or car
boy, when even their ears were mori-
bund with the forbidden commodity,
but never has there passed to my no
tice such reckless abandon, such way
ward WEAKNESS from and of piety in |
the matter of q few thousand years, |
as appears to dominate a number OF |
old and new historians. One savant,
for instance, can with apparent logic
and ease carry us back in the past four
teen or fifteen thousand years, while
another, perhaps one of his contempo-
raries, almost coEvinces us that the
farthest milestone backward has not
receded over forty centuries. How
ever, the opinion which seems to pre-
vail today is that the oldest civiliza-
tion within the scope Of human knoWl-
edge belongs to Egypt. All other
civilized nations can with comparative
ease be traced from their first barbar-
ism to their ultimate transformation
as in the case of Chaldea or Assyria,
but when the first curtain was drawn
from the dead ages Egypt was rich,
powerful and highly civilized nation.
All efforts to penetrate the obscurity
of her more distant past have been
futile, and we can only surmise that
she had endured thru long chain OF
unknown centuries to occupy the COM
manding position first revealed thru
misty historical retrospection.
Herudotus endeavored to maintain
that she had been in prominent exist
ence over 1900 years before his time.
Diodorus, a later Greek historian,
disputes the claim and places the date
of Egyptian beginning some 4,8OO years
: b. c., while Menetho, a native son OF
Egypt and one of her priestly caste.
establishs the year 5,702 B. c., as the
Grst.
After much elimination and retrench'
ment such wizards as Rawlinson, Bun
sen and Wilkinson have decided on
the year 2,7OO B. G, as the date
for posterity's reliance. ] am not pre-
pared or inclined to enter into any dis
cussion concerning the merits or de
feet of any given chronology, and fo
convenience l have taken the yea
200 B. c., as the prime start.
Menes was the first king, and grea
king he was, too, we are led to under
stand. Enterprising, Industrious, be
nevolent and sagacious. In fact i
the grandest days of kingdom cOul'
have gone back sud fashioned al
ideal pattern of kingly personificatior
1t could not have chosen better ez
ample than old Menes, unless it wa
Charles Stuart the Ist.
Egypt and old Egypt in particuia
lay along either bank of the Nile rive
up stream about 525 miles, and tn
average width of the principal domai
was barely fifteen miles for it's entiI
length. Into this territory was crowde
some Eve or six, possibly seven millio
people. Encumbered with this al
parent over population she was sti
the granary of the ancient world, II
her rich alluvlal soil bore a. great "
riety of cereals, while the date pal
was spontaneous article of food ar
thrived abundantly. .
Near the angle of the three moutl
of the Nile which empty into Il
Mediterranean lay ancient Memphi
Here dwelt Menes, and here he co
ceived the plans for vast industri
schemes which contributed greatly
his country's betterment. He conque
ed lower Egypt, drained her va
marshes, fortified her against CONT
gent overflows with dykes and on t
reclaimed tract built the city ju
mentioned. Within its confines