There is no end to the entertainment which he may enjoy in the Garden of the Past; and, coming back, happy and breathless, to his home in the Present, is it to be supposed that he, who is bursting with what he has seen and done, will desire to record in heavy and stately language the adventures he has experienced in that irresponsible playground? He who writes the history of the Past in pompous phrases has never left the Present.
If, in revolt against his urban inaction, a man desires to kick his heels in the freedom of other lands, he need not travel to Monte Carlo or to Paris, there to shock the astonished natives by behaving himself in a manner not permitted in the city of his birth: he may, instead, seat himself by his fireside and, book in hand, may transport his cumbrous form to countries and periods which will view his eccentricities without amazement. Who will there question his sanity if he dress himself in seaweed and flounder about the floor, pretending to be a fish? Did not the Society of Inimitable Livers thus amuse themselves in the royal palace of Alexandria? Or who will accuse him of intemperance if he take his place amongst the guests at a feast in Memphis, and dance a jig for the applause of Pharaoh? Has not Pharaoh himself said, as Harkhuf tells us, “My Majesty desires to see this man dance more than the treasure of Sinai, more than the gifts of Pount”?
If he be in search of joke and jest, can he do better than read the tales of mankind’s youth? By his fireside, and exerting no muscle in the search for a merry atmosphere, he may see the worthy Antigonus, now grown old, walking the paved street of his city to pay a visit to his son Demetrius who lies ill in yonder house. He may watch the stern old man, as he is about to enter the door, met by a beautiful damsel who is coming out through it. Antigonus passes her without a sign, and entering the sickroom sits himself down by his son’s bed and feels his pulse. “The fever has just left me,” he may hear the young man say. “Yes,” replies his father, looking straight before him, “I met it going out at the door.” Or again, with no effort of the ears or eyes, he may see Marcus Appius rise in his place in a court at Rome and open his final speech for the defence with the words “I have been desired by my client to employ on his behalf industry, eloquence and fidelity ...”; and he may hear the caustic Cicero respond in an undertone “And how have you had the heart not to accede to any one of his requests?”
If he be in search of love, there in the Past he will find it; for the bygone ages contain in themselves all the love of every man and woman who has ever lived. If he be concerned in the pursuit of beauty, there will he behold it; for all the loveliness that the sun and moon have looked upon are now become part of the Past. But, above all, if he be in quest of his childhood, of the high hopes and the beating pulse of youth, there in the playground of the Past he will find them.
In recent years there has been a very considerable tendency amongst jaded people to revive within themselves the pleasures of their childhood by an ardent, though often somewhat forced, emulation of the habits of infancy. The charm of the grown man or woman who can play joyously with children, and can enter enthusiastically into their amusements, has been perceived, and an attempt has been made to acquire this faculty. To play with children, however, requires the employment of a rare talent, of a difficult art; and there are many who, though loving the society of the young, feel aware after a while of the loss of a real interest in their pretences. It is no longer a pleasure, nay it is an agony, to fall headlong upon the lawn in the manner of a slain warrior; it is with a distressing effort of body and mind that we may now crawl under the bed and believe ourselves thus to have penetrated into an Oriental castle.
To those who desire to retain their childhood’s atmosphere yet are conscious of these difficulties, a study of the days when the world was young comes as the supplying of a long-felt want. We who in our individual lives realise with sorrow how very far we have travelled from the schoolroom and the nursery, need not struggle vainly to revive interest in our own forgotten games; we may hasten instead to the world’s childhood, there whole-heartedly to romp and wrestle, laugh and cry, make-believe and frolic, with the men and women of the Past. We shall not find ourselves too clumsy to play with their toys, nor too big to crawl into their houses, for their toys are real armies and kingdoms, and their houses real palaces of marble.
The writing of the history of the Past—I do not mean the collection of the data upon which the narrative is based—must no longer be regarded as the particular field of the very serious: rather let the deeds of To-day claim the dignified treatment of weighty men; for the Present and not the Past is the antiquated age, the age hung with cobwebs, the age that is as old as the hills. The story which the historian has to tell should be made to glow in the imagination, to be young and virile and full of the element of life; for of all men the student of the Past is the most closely in touch with Youth.
INDEX
[A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [J], [K], [M], [N], [P], [R], [S], [T], [U], [W], [Y], [Z]
Akhmim, [246-8]
Akhnaton, [20], [86], [153-173], [184-9], [239]
Alabaster, quarries, [235-44]
Amenhotepsase, [118]
Amenophis II., [157]
Amenophis III., [155-60], [168], [175-6]
Amon-Ra, [47-68], [159-72], [178]
Amorites, [169]
Anena, [13]
Ani, [130]
Archæology, study of, [3-45], [84-108]
Asceticism, [117-8]
Ashmolean Museum, [35]
Athenæus, [130]
Aton, [159-78], [183], [196]
Atum of Heliopolis, [159]
Ay, [181], [189]
Ayrton, Mr., [191]
[Bacon], [328]
Bast, [129]
Bedel, [51], [55]
Breasted, Prof., [52], [166], [278]
Browne, Sir Thomas, [92]
Brugsch, Emil, [137]
Bubastis, [129-30]
Burke, Edmund, [89]
[Cambyses], [92]
Carnarvon, Lord, [101], [137], [142]
Carnarvon Tablet, [87]
Carter, Howard, [14], [101], [137], [185]
Charlemagne, [138]
Charles II., [44]
Coleridge, [32], [45]
Cromer, Lord, [87]
[Dalison], Max, [191]
Dancing, [126-9]
Davis, Theodore M., [142-3], [153], [190-1]
Dead, excavation of, [84-108]
Death, [43-5], [278-80]
Dion, [130]
Drinking, [129-32]
Dryden, John, [19]
Dwarfs, [222]
[Earle], Thomas, [35]
Egyptian Government grants for archæological work, [102]
Egyptians, ancient, temperament of, [109-35]
Egyptology, study of, [3-45], [84-108]
Elephantine, [216-31]
Erman, Prof., [278]
Excavation, [84-108], [136-52]
[Fairyland], [283-303]
Feast of lamps, [119]
Folk-tales, [123-4]
Futurism, [70-6]
[Gardiner], Alan, [288]
German treatment of French and Belgian antiquities, [69-83]
Golenischeff, M., [46]
Gordon, General, [207]
Grenfell, Lord, [205]
[Hakewill], George, [328]
Hathor, [129]
Herhor, [47], [52], [60], [119]
Herkhuf, [221-8], [333]
Hetebe, [66-7]
Hicks Pasha, [207]
History, teachings of, [75-9], [328-36]
Horemheb, [13], [174-97]
Hunting, [132]
Hyksos Wars, [87]
[Imhotep], [113]
[Jesus] Christ, [91]
Jones, Harold, [191]
Josephus, [133]
Juvenal, [208]
[Kandake], Queen, [201], [232]
Khaemhet, [13]
Korôsko, [207]
[Macaulay], [330]
Mariette, [99]
Marinetti, [70]
Maspero, Sir Gaston, [306], [318], [320]
Mengebet, [49], [53], [56]
Merira, [168]
Montalembert, [73]
Morgan, M. de, [137]
Mummies, excavation of, [84-108], [116]
Museums, [10-16]
Music, [125-6]
Mutnezem, [182-3]
[Names], [123]
Neferhotep, [113], [196]
Nefertiti, [161]
Nesubanebded, [47], [49], [52], [58], [60]
Nubia, Lower, [198-234]
[Paheri], [131]
Pascal, [328]
Patonemheb, [184]
Pepy II., [222-3]
Petrie, Prof. Flinders, [138], [141], [312]
Petronius, [201], [232]
Philodemus, [39]
Pigmies, [222]
[Roosevelt], Theodore, [18]
[Sabna], [223-8]
Schiaparelli, Prof., [146]
Second Advent, [91]
Seeley, [88]
Senusert III., [140]
Sethe, Prof., [258]
Setna, Prince, [124]
Shêkh-el-beled, [99]
Shelley, [214]
Smenkhkara, [189]
Smith, Prof. G. Elliot, [89], [156-7]
Smith, Joseph Lindon, [143]
Snefferu, [119]
“Song of the Harper,” [87]
Songs, [114-6]
Stanley, Dean, [19]
Strabo, [130]
[Tabubna], [124]
Taine, [88]
Theban thieves, [304-27]
Thieves, [304-27]
Thucydides, [88]
Thutmosis III., [120], [142], [157], [175]
Thutmosis IV., [157]
Tiy, Queen, [12], [143], [155-172], [175]
Tombs, excavation of, [84-108], [111]
Toshkeh, [205]
Tuau, [142]
Tutankhamon, [101], [137], [171-2], [180], [189-90]
[Uba]-ana, [118]
[Wady] Sabu’a, Temple of, [200]
Wady Salamûni, [245-61]
Wenamon, [47-68], [119]
Wine-drinking, [130-2]
Worcester, Earl of, [44]
[Yamani], Nikola, [317-20]
Yuaa, [142], [145], [157]
[Zakar]-Baal, [52], [54], [57-65]
Zazamankh, [119]