[12] See Peters, "Justice to the Jew."
CHAPTER VI
EGYPT
Literature.—Maspero, Egyptian Archaeology; Wilkinson, The Ancient Egyptians; Stoddard's Lectures; Myers, Ancient History; Routledge, The Modern Wonders of the World; Johonnot, Geographical Reader; Edwards, A Thousand Miles up the Nile; Knox, Egypt and the Holy Land; Ballou, Due West; Clarke, Ten Great Religions; Ebers, Uarda; and Egyptian Princess; Curtis, Nile Notes of a Howadji.
Geography and History.—Egypt consists of a narrow strip of land about six hundred miles long, lying in the northeastern part of Africa. Its geographical importance is due to the river Nile, which flows through it, and which, by its annual overflow, enriches the soil, and makes one of the most productive portions of the globe. For many centuries reservoirs for the storage of water in time of the overflow, and irrigation canals for its later distribution, have secured the country against drought, and thus abundant harvests were always assured "independent of the seasons and the skies." This, with the mild climate and exceedingly rich soil, made food attainable with slight labor, furnishing an abundance, not only for its own population, but making Egypt the granary of the Mediterranean countries. We learn from the Scriptures, of the visits of the sons of Jacob to Egypt to buy corn of Joseph when famine existed in their own land. These conditions, which made living so cheap, were doubtless the main causes of the early settlement of the valley of the Nile, and the rapid increase in its population. In confirmation of the foregoing we have the testimony of Diodorus Siculus, a Greek writer, who visited Egypt nearly two thousand years ago. He tells us that the entire cost to bring up a child to manhood was not more than twenty drachmas (less than four dollars of our money).[13]
Of the antiquity of Egyptian history we have abundant evidence. Swinton says, "Egypt is the country in which we first find a government and political institutions established. Egypt itself may not have been the oldest nation, but Egyptian history is certainly the oldest history. Its monuments, records, and literature surpass in antiquity those of Chaldea and India, the two next oldest nations."[14] The records of the history of Egypt are found in abundance carved on her monuments, tombs, buildings, implements, etc. They were written in hieroglyphics, the meaning of which was unknown until the discovery of the "Rosetta stone," which furnished the key to their interpretation.
The ancient Egyptians excelled in mechanics and arts. It is doubtful whether to-day we know as much of certain sciences as they did four thousand years ago. Their applications of mechanics, engineering, dyeing, and embalming still remain to us "lost arts." The wisdom of the Egyptians was proverbial, and the great scholars of other countries made pilgrimages to Egypt to study philosophy, literature, law, and science.