CHAPTER IV.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN RESUMED.
AS to the antiquity of Egyptian art, civilization and political power, there are two main questions:
1. How much time, after Noah, is required?
2. How much can be allowed in harmony with the most reliable authorities of Hebrew chronology?
1. Under the head of time required, it is in place to note the circumstances which favored the very rapid growth of Egyptian civilization and also of the numerical and political power of Egypt.
(a) Mizraim, the father of Egypt, who gave his name to the kingdom, was a grandson of Noah and the father of seven sons (Gen. 10: 1, 6, 13, 14). Consequently he started early and strong.
(b) The fertility of the Nile valley was prodigious; it was capable, therefore, of sustaining an immense population, and so would attract other people besides the lineal descendants of Mizraim. Every thing was propitious for the early and rapid peopling of their country.
(c) Fixed residence, coupled with cheap bread and abundance of it, put the Egyptian on vantage-ground above any other ancient nation for the early culture of art and for rapid growth in all that made Egypt great.
(d) It is a capital mistake to assume that the arts and sciences were originated in Egypt after the flood, and that therefore a very long time must be allowed for their growth and development up from utter barbarism. For there was surely no insignificant amount of art and science among the builders of Noah’s ark. The yet earlier history of the race names “the father of all such as handle the harp and organ,” and also “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron” (Gen. 4: 21, 22).