The first class-distinction sprang from the physical superiority of one savage over his fellows. He whose powerful frame and commanding eye enabled him best to cope with the beasts of field and forest became chief of the tribe. He held the first place by virtue of his brawny arm, and the less athletic, and more timid, became his subjects. But he was not long without rivals. His first rival was the dwarf, or hunchback, who, struggling to overcome the misfortune of his deformity, in the seclusion of his mud hut, invented the stone hatchet and stone-pointed arrow-head. His next rival was the puny, pale-faced youth who converted pantomimic signs and rude gestures into a language of sounds, and so armed communities with the power of combination for mutual protection. Those who soonest mastered the first alphabet took high rank in the social circle, while those who could still only make themselves understood by grimaces and gestures fell to the grade of ciphers in the body politic, and came to be looked upon as dunces in society. Thereafter the women, who had previously been won as wives by personal prowess, were more equally parcelled out. The savage who had invented the bow and the arrow was exempted from the toils of the chase, and from the general contention at the courting season; a wife was assigned to him, and his tent was supplied with game in the hope that he would invent some other useful thing. Thus mind began to assert its empire over matter, the division of labor commenced, and a class-distinction was formed. Doubtless the youth who invented language cultivated superstition among the ignorant, and so, increasing his already considerable influence, secured the first social rank. Hence the castes of India and Egypt, consisting, in their order, of the priesthood, the army, the mercantile class, and, at the bottom of the scale, the servile laborer.
Of the long period of social progress from a state of savagery to the proud civilization of historic Egypt the record is faint and fragmentary. Ages passed, during which men struggled, and died, and left no sign—neither hieroglyphic character, monument, nor buried city. Through what mental alchemy was the savage chief transformed, in the course of hundreds of generations, into the learned, accomplished, and astute Egyptian priest, from whose courtly lips Herodotus received the chronicles of the Egyptian kings and the romantic story of the residence in Egypt of Helen of Troy?[73] How were the members of the savage tribe converted, one into an obedient soldier, another into an adroit, self-seeking merchant, and another into a cringing slave? These are secrets of antiquity, destined, doubtless, to remain forever unrevealed. We do know, however, that the civilization of Egypt, like all other civilizations, was the product of training or education; and the nature of the education may be inferred from the character and fate of the civilization.
[73] “Herodotus, ‘Euterpe,’” II., §§ 112-116. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882.
Of the Egyptian system of education selfishness was the basis. Given chains and slavery for the lowest class and there were force and rapacity in the highest class.[74] Before the free-born savage was reduced to slavery and made to toil under the lash, whole hecatombs of lives were sacrificed. Before the mind of the savage was degraded to the baseness of slavery, his body, hacked and hewn, bent submissively to the scourge. For the Egyptian boy there was, doubtless, a “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” which taught him that he must “look to the main chance;” that “in the race of life the devil takes the hindmost;” and that “self-preservation is the first law of nature.” Thus trained he entered the ranks of the priesthood, one of his brothers took a commission in the army, and the others embarked in mercantile life. For the servile class there was no education beyond their several occupations. Each man was compelled to follow the trade of his father, to marry within his own class, to die as he was born.
[74] “The Martyrdom of Man,” p. 18. By Winwood Reade. New York: Charles P. Somerby, 1876.
Ruled by the priests, and the army, Egypt grew rich. Her commerce, conducted by means of caravans, embraced the whole civilized world and included all its products. She became a great military and naval power, her armies overrunning Asia, and her fleets sweeping the Indian Ocean. Her victorious campaigns opened new markets to her commerce, and through these channels wealth poured into the empire. In the track of the wheels of the Egyptian war-chariots the Egyptian merchant quickly followed. At the point of the arrows of her archers she offered her linen goods to conquered peoples, as England, at the point of the bayonet, subsequently offered her cotton goods to prostrate India.
In Egypt all the learning of the time was concentrated. It was the university of Greece. Every intellectual Greek made a voyage to Egypt; it was regarded as a part of education, as a pilgrimage to the cradle-land of their mythology.[E15] The possession of great wealth led to habits of luxury. The house of the Egyptian gentleman was a palace adorned with the triumphs of art, and devoted to pleasure. Its walls, its floors, and its furniture reflected the skill, not to say genius, of slaves—for all the manual labor of Egypt was performed by slaves. At the end of the fashionable dinner, given in the palace by its rich master, a mummy, richly painted and gilded, was presented to each guest in turn by a servant, who said, “Look on this; drink and enjoy thyself, for such as it is now so thou shalt be when thou art dead.”[75]
[75] “Herodotus, ‘Euterpe,’” II., p. 78. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882.
One day when the priests were sacrificing in the temples, and the chief officers of the army were dining with a contractor for army supplies, a band of mountaineers rushed out of the recesses of Persia and swept like a wind across the plains. They were dressed in leather; they had never tasted fruit nor wine; they had never seen a market; they knew not how to buy or sell. They were taught three things—to ride on horseback, to hurl the javelin, and to speak the truth.[76] All Asia was covered with blood and flames. The allied kingdoms fell at once, and India and Egypt were soon afterwards added to the Persian empire.
[76] “Herodotus, ‘Clio,’” I., §§ 71, 136, 153. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882.