Modern publicists, confounding stability with immovableness, have thought the power of bequeathing property did not exist under the ancient laws of the East. This opinion seems incompatible with the nature of the paternal authority, which was carried to a sovereign degree in the families of primitive times. Does not the Bible represent the patriarch Jacob on his death-bed disinheriting Reuben, the oldest of his twelve sons, and giving his inheritance to Judah? And this scene, so well related in Holy Scripture, took place in Egypt itself. It is true, the descendants of Abraham had preserved the traditions of the patriarchal life more perfectly than the Egyptians, but the latter, as we have seen, also professed great respect for the paternal authority, the rights of which must have harmonized with the requirements of the principle of hereditary professions. A passage from Diodorus seems to decide the question in this sense: "The legislator regarded property as belonging to those who had acquired it by their labor, by transmission, or by gift." However this may be, it is certain that all the land, according to Herodotus and Diodorus, belonged originally to the king, the priesthood, and the military class. This division of the landed property must have greatly contributed to the stability which is so distinctive a characteristic of the Egyptian nation. The hereditary transmission of the land in the sacerdotal and military classes effectually assured a solid basis for their preponderance, and at the same time guaranteed the independence and dignity of the aristocratic classes. They were thus fully enabled to second the king in the government, administration, and defence of the country.
IV.
ORGANIZATION OF LABOR.
Ancient Egypt, from an agricultural point of view, is in some respects worthy of attention. Certain modern writers have supposed the members of the military class cultivated their own lands, as the legionaries of ancient Rome, but this supposition is irreconcilable with the testimony of the ancient historians who visited Egypt. Herodotus says they were "not allowed to practise any mechanical art, but were skilled in the art of war, which they transmit from father to son." This point is settled by the following passage from Diodorus: "The agriculturists pass their lives in cultivating the lands, which are leased them at a moderate price by the king, priests, and warriors."
As to the sacerdotal class, absorbed in the religious observances, the administration, the study of the laws and the sciences, it was impossible for its members to engage in the cultivation of the land, which, as we have seen, they leased. Notwithstanding great research, no information has been obtained about the economic condition of the agricultural class. We only know, from the extract quoted from Diodorus, that the land was leased at a moderate price. The stability which prevailed in Egypt, and the principle of hereditary professions, induce us to believe that private estates generally had a kind of entail, so the same family of husbandmen lived from generation to generation on the same land. This principle of stability was eminently favorable to the moral and material welfare of the family, as well as to the progress of agriculture. Reared from childhood amid rural occupations, they acquired more experience in them than any other nation. They perfectly understood the nature of the soil, the art of irrigation, and the time for sowing and harvesting, a knowledge they acquired partly from their ancestors and partly by their own experience. The same observation may be applied to the shepherds, who inherited the care of their flocks, and passed their whole lives in rearing them; thus perfecting the knowledge acquired from their fathers.
The other industrial classes were no less prosperous. They also inherited their occupations. A celebrated publicist states that "the Egyptian artisans held no property."[203]
To prove the truth of such an assertion, it must be shown that they were reduced to a state of slavery: which is formally contradicted by Diodorus, as we shall see presently, and it is not confirmed by any of the recently discovered monuments. It may be safely affirmed that the artisans of ancient Egypt, with the exception of those attached to the temples or public works, had a complete right over their trades and the fruit of their labors. The possession of land was denied them, but there is reason to believe they could own their dwellings and the little gardens that surrounded them.
Champollion-Figeac, who rivalled his brother in the sciences and the profound knowledge of the arts and pursuits of ancient Egypt, represents the people of that country with their "plates of glazed earthenware, their rush-baskets, and their shoes of papyrus." "The lower classes," says he in another place, "generally wore a short linen tunic called a calasiris, confined by a girdle around the hips, and sometimes with short sleeves trimmed with fringe at the end."
V.
SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE LABORING CLASSES.
Notwithstanding the light which the wonderful discoveries of modern science have thrown on the history of ancient Egypt, we still lack precise information respecting the internal organization of the corporations occupied in manual labor. We only know from Diodorus that they belonged to the class of citizens—that is, they were free men. "There are in the kingdom," says he, after having spoken of the two dominant classes, "three classes of citizens: shepherds, husbandmen, and artisans."
Labor among the ancients was not always a mark of servitude. In retracing the origin of the ancient nations, as far as the light of history diffuses its rays, we find agriculture and the industrial pursuits carried on everywhere by free labor.