I have noted above the resemblance of the Egyptian Instructions to the Jewish didactic books (Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrypha); this will be obvious to all readers. Compare, e.g., the opening of Ptah-hotep (§B) with the opening of Proverbs. It is not necessary to point out all the parallels in detail.
I come, lastly, to speak of other translations.[[19]] The first into any language was that of the Rev. D. I. Heath, Vicar of Brading, Isle of Wight. This version, which first appeared in 1856, was ruined by the translator's theory that the Prisse Papyrus contained references to the Exodus, and was written by the 'Shepherd-King,' Aphobis. How he obtained that name from Ptah-hotep, how he read the Exodus into his book, or how he got three-fourths of his translation, it is not possible to say. Written in a style which is in itself a matter for decipherment, it is full of absurdities and gratuitous mistakes, and is entirely worthless. It is one more instance of the lamentable results that arise when a person with a preconceived Biblical theory comes into contact with Egyptian records. In the following year M. Chabas did part of the papyrus into French, and, as might be expected of an Egyptologist of such attainments, his version was infinitely more accurate than the foregoing. In 1869 Herr Lauth made a translation—also partial—into Latin, and in 1884; M. Philippe Virey published a careful study and complete translation of both books. His rendering[[20]] was subsequently translated into English and published (with some alterations) in Records of the Past, 1890, and has remained the only complete translation in English. It has been taken bodily (even the footnotes) into Myer's Oldest Books in the World, and has been put into charming verse by Canon Rawnsley in his Notes for the Nile. Thus it appears to be, in a sense, the standard version. Nevertheless, it leaves very much to be desired in point of accuracy, although the general sense of each section is usually caught. Of later years Mr. Griffith has done important work on this text, and I am indebted to his translations for several readings.
As regards the version here offered, I will only say that it has been done with considerable care, without prejudice, and, it is thought, in accordance with scientific methods of translation; and that it has been compared with all previous renderings, and will be found to be, on the whole, the most accurate that has yet appeared.
And now I will leave Ptah-hotep to speak for himself. It may be thought that he has been introduced at too great length; but I would point out that his book has been strangely overlooked by the educated public hitherto, although it would be difficult to over-estimate its importance, to literature as the oldest complete book known, to ethics and theology as the earliest expression of the mystery we name Conscience, and to lovers of antiquity as one of the most instructive and touching relics of a people and a power that once were great and are now brought to nothing. By a happy chance the words of our sage have been justified, in that he said, 'No word that hath here been set down shall cease out of the land for ever.' Would indeed that we had more of such books as this, whereby we may a little lighten the darkness that lies behind the risings of a million suns; and learn how little the human heart, and the elements of human intercourse, alter throughout the ages. And what of the other writers of that time, whose works and whose very names are entirely swept away? To this there is no better answer made than in the lamentation made by the harper close upon five thousand years ago, which was written up in the tomb of King 'Entef:
Those that built them tombs, he sang, have now no resting-place. Lo! what of their deeds? I have heard the words of Yemhotep and of Hardedef, whose sayings men repeat continually. Behold! where are their abodes? Their walls are over-thrown, and their places are not, even as though they had not been.'
The burden of Egypt.
BATTISCOMBE G. GUNN.
3, PARK HILL ROAD, CROYDON.