stage, their historical sense and vocation. According to the Egyptian
annals, it was the same King Tosorthros who gained the highest reputation
relative to the perpetuity of the history of Egypt since his time, not
only by the introduction of hewn building stones, but still more by the
care he bestowed upon the development of the written character; and
we see upon the monuments, at least since the time of Cheops, between
three and four thousand years before Christ, a perfectly-formed system
of writing, and a universal habit of writing, by no means confined to
the priesthood. Even at that time the writing was no longer merely
monumental; the signs, indeed, when they were rapidly used, sometimes
approached the hieratical short-hand. It therefore appears to me
undoubted that, even in the time of Menes, in the very commencement of
our Egyptian history, the hieroglyphic writing had been long invented,
established, and practised, which we must of course presuppose since
we hold Menes to be historical; for there can be no history without
writing. From the choice of the pictures in hieroglyphics, and from other
reasons, it appears indeed justifiable to suppose, that this wonderful
picture-writing of the Egyptians was formed, with reference to its
peculiar character in Egypt itself, without any other influence from
abroad, although they may have brought the first beginning of it with
them from their original home in Asia. But that a people should produce
anything so perfect as this system of writing, which embraces at once all
the stages of human writing, from the most direct ideographical symbolic
writing through syllables, to the equally direct notification of sound
by means of vowels and consonants, certainly indicates a long previous
development.
The application, however, which the Egyptians made of this early
invention, from which so much resulted, is of still more importance.
For they not only employed it, as often happens among nations of much
higher civilisation, in the most necessitous cases, and where it was most
immediately advantageous, but to an extent which surpasses everything
that we have heard of elsewhere, and which must still astonish any
one who considers the matter for the first time. While the Greeks and
Romans, at the period when they were most lavish of their writing, only
placed a short inscription of a few words on the front of their largest
temples and most splendid buildings, for which reason the monumental
style still denotes among us a short laconic style, as seems most
suitable to the speaking stone; among the Egyptians the temples were
almost covered with inscriptions. All buildings, which were erected to
the gods, to the kings, and to the dead, had generally representations
or inscriptions upon all the walls, ceilings, pillars, architraves,
friezes, and posts—inside as well as outside. In place of only giving
the most necessary information, the writing here forms in itself at the
same time an essential ornament of the architecture, as is the case also
with representations on a larger scale. The variegated written columns on
the white or grey surfaces, not only express a feeling for ornamental
drawing, by the great variety in their lines, which run backward and
forward with the utmost regularity, and satisfy the painter’s eye by the
brilliancy of the varied colours, but they also excite the observation
of the unlearned by the figurative and direct meaning of the written
objects, taken from all the natural kingdom, and, lastly, the intelligent
curiosity of the inquirer, especially of every cultivated man, by the
peculiar signification of their religious or historical purport. Thus
hieroglyphics becomes a _monumental writing_, in a sense and to a degree
of perfection, beyond any other written character on earth.
They had also so far overcome the technical difficulty of engraving these
signs, both in the most fragile and the hardest kinds of stone, that it
seems hardly to have been considered at all, though these signs were
not composed of simple mathematical strokes, like the Roman or Greek
monumental writing, or the cuneiform writing of the Asiatics, but were at
the same time writing and artistic drawing.
Among the Egyptians the written character was not alone the constant
and indispensable accompaniment of architecture, and of the larger
representations upon the walls of the temples, but was placed with an
equal predilection upon all, even the smallest objects of art and of
daily life. How precious among other nations of antiquity are those
statues, vases, gems, or other objects, which bear upon them inscriptions
with respect to their origin, their owners, or their intended use! This
is the universal practice in Egypt. There, no Colossus was so great, and
no amulet so small, that it should not itself express for what it was
designed by means of an inscription; no piece of furniture that did not
bear the name of its owner. Not only the temples had their dedications,
in which the builder was named, and the god to whom it was consecrated
by him, but they were considered of such importance that a particular
class of independent monuments were especially devoted to them, viz., the
obelisks at the entrance of the gates; and besides this, every fresh
addition to the temple, every newly-erected pillar, actually even the
restoration of separate representations, which had been accidentally
injured upon the old walls, had a written information respecting which
of the kings built it, and what he had done for the enlargement,
embellishment, and restoration of the temple. We sometimes find the name
of the reigning king recorded upon the separate building stones, as the
stone-cutter’s mark, and it was usually stamped upon the bricks of royal
manufacture.
Finally, however, writing was employed among the Egyptians in its last
and highest destination, as _book-writing for literary purposes_; and,
indeed, as we have already mentioned, from the earliest times, for the
use of the papyrus goes thus far back, and we frequently see upon the
representations from the time of the great Pyramids of Memphis, one
or more scribes occupied in registering upon sheets their master’s
possessions in flocks, corn, and other treasures. We learn from the
historical accounts relative to the first Dynasties, which are still
preserved, that even at that time they possessed _Annals of the Monarchy_.
If we now reflect upon the period from which the original fragments
of such annals have come down to us, namely, the beginning of the New
Monarchy, we find that this extends one thousand five hundred years
farther back than the oldest remains of book literature in the whole of
antiquity put together. For it is known that the greater proportion of
our manuscripts only go back about as far as the tenth century of our
era; previous to this their number rapidly diminishes, and the small
fragment of a manuscript of Livy, which was lately brought to Berlin,
and was there recognised as probably belonging to the first century
after Christ, may be viewed as the earliest remains of a book which
can be referred to out of Egypt; even the rolls—which were reduced to
coal at Herculaneum—do not go farther back; whereas in Egypt not alone
numerous papyri have been preserved from the time of Ptolemy, but a much
greater number from the centuries previous to that time, namely from
the sixteenth to the thirteenth century, some of them of extraordinary
length[121]. The greatest proportion of them were deposited with the
mummies, and therefore only contain what relates to death and a future
life; but other rolls were interred in the tombs as the most secure
places, carefully packed in particular vases or baskets, and they contain
laudatory songs upon kings or gods, historical annals, the accounts of
the temple, that which relates to the calendar, and many other things
with reference to this life, frequently contracts, law-suits, and
similar documents from the time of the Greeks, sometimes also with Greek
translations or additions.
The large number still in preservation leave therefore no doubt
concerning the remarkable fact communicated by Diodorus I. 49, on good
authority, that King Osymandyas, _i. e._ Ramses-Miamun, built a library
in his temple at Thebes, as early as the fourteenth century before
Christ. The description which he gives us of this splendid building
may still be traced from one chamber to the other among its ruins, and
at the entrance—behind which, according to Diodorus, the library was
situated—Champollion perceived on both sides the representations of
Thoth, the God of Wisdom, and of Saf, the Goddess of History; then,
behind the former, the God of Hearing, and, behind the latter, the God of
Seeing, which significantly reminded the person who was entering of the
locality. Several hieratical papyri, which we still possess, are dated
from the Rameseion, 𓉐𓏤𓈖𓍹𓇳𓄠𓋴𓇓𓌹𓇋𓏠𓈖𓍺 and it is also frequently
mentioned in the so-called Historical Papyri. I found in Thebes the tombs
of two _Librarians_ of the time of Ramses-Miamun, therefore probably
belonging to the library described by Diodorus; they are situated to the
south-west of the palace of Ramses, behind Der el Medînet. The occupants
were father and son, since this office was hereditary, as most of them
were. The father was called Neb-nufre, the son Nufre-hetep, and they bore
the titles of 𓇯𓇩𓏏𓏺𓏼 _her scha· tu_, “Superior over the Books,” and
𓉻𓈖𓇩𓏏𓏺𓏼 _naa en scha· tu_, “Chief over the Books.” In the tomb of
the son, Ramses sacrifices to Amen-Ra, and portions of two statues of
the deceased are still scattered about. We have good reason to suppose
that this library, of which we have incidentally received still further
information, was neither the first, nor the only one, and this is
inferred, among other things, because the two gods above mentioned bear
as one of their fixed titles, not only here, but upon other monuments of
all classes, the one the _Master_ and the other the _Mistress_ of the
_Hall of Books_, and that, consequently, the idea of gods of libraries
must have been very familiar to the Egyptians.
This also explains how, in the earliest times of the Greek dominion,
under Ptolemy Philadelphus, it was possible to fill the library founded
in Alexandria in the space of a few years with 400,000[122] rolls, at
a time when there was no precedent in the Grecian motherland except
the private collection of Aristotle. It is explained, when we remember
that Philadelphus found such an abundant store already existing in the
Egyptian archives and libraries. It no longer seems anything remarkable
when Iamblichus[123], referring to a Seleucus, tells us of 20,000
hermetic books, which we must understand to be a rough computation of all
Egyptian literature; the notice does not obtain a mythological character
until the introduction into it of the cyclical number 36,525, which
Iamblichus quotes from Manetho—of course from the false one.
The fame of Egyptian wisdom[124], which was universally diffused
throughout the ancient world, was grounded upon an abundant literature,
and the stock of knowledge deposited therein, which increased from year
to year like a well-invested capital. This fame was never disputed
even by the Greeks themselves; possessing so much higher natural
endowments than others, they were more just in this point than many of
our modern critics, who would rather consider the genius of the Greeks
as auto-didactic, grown up in a barbarous wilderness. Herodotus calls
the Egyptians “by far the best instructed people with whom he has become
acquainted, since they, of all men, _store up most, for recollection_.”
When the Eleians wished to establish their Olympian games, they sent
an embassy to the Egyptians, they being the wisest people of all the
earth, to obtain their judgment and their good advice upon this great
project[125].
The distinguished series of celebrated men[126] who are said to have
carried Egyptian wisdom to the Greeks, begins as early as the mythical
times. Danaus brought the first germ of higher civilisation from Egypt
to Argos[127], and Erectheus, King of Athens, was considered by some
an Egyptian[128], and taught the Eleusinian mysteries according to the
manner of the Egyptians. The holy singers of antiquity, Orpheus[129],
Musaeus[130], Melampus[131], and Eumolpus[132], thence acquired their
theological wisdom; and even to Homer[133] himself Egypt may not have
been unknown. The most ancient artists of Greece, Daedalus[134],
Telecles[135], and Theodoras[136], are said to have educated themselves
in this land of primeval art, and have employed the Egyptian canon
of proportions. Lycurgus[137] and Solon[138] introduced into their
fatherland all the wise regulations they there became acquainted with;
and Herodotus[139] especially tells us that the Egyptian laws relating
to the surveying of the land, by which every one was obliged to declare
to the monarch his annual revenue, were transferred to Athens by Solon,
and were in use even in his time. Cleobulus, the sage of Lindus, is said
also to have visited Egypt[140]. It signifies little how much historical
foundation there is for these accounts. The general direction taken by
tradition, with reference to it, proves even more than separate facts
could do, the early and late general universal recognition of Egyptian
wisdom. It was considered a glory to participate in it.
But Egypt was especially regarded as a university for philosophy, and
for all that could be gained through science and learning. We therefore
see philosophers, mathematicians, physicians, historians, resorting to
Egypt, each emulating with the other, and studying for many years under
Egyptian teachers. The houses in Heliopolis in which Plato and the
mathematician Eudoxus had lived for thirteen years, were still shown to
Strabo[141]. The observatory of Eudoxus, in which he is said to have made
certain observations of the stars, and on Canobus, in particular, bore
his name[142] in the time of Strabo. Even Thales[143] was instructed by
the Egyptian priests, and as it is expressly said, had besides them, no
other teachers. Here he became acquainted with the division of the year
into seasons, and into 365 days; and here also he learnt how to take the
measurement of high objects, such as the Pyramids by their shadow, at a
particular hour of the day[144]. Archimedes[145] invented his celebrated
water screw in Egypt, and there applied it, in the establishments
which were devoted to the irrigation of the land. Pythagoras[146] was
a long time in Egypt, and all that we know concerning the dogmas of
this influential man agrees with this account[147]. His doctrine of
the immortality of the soul, especially, is very decidedly referred,
by Herodotus, to Egypt. He says, “_This doctrine is wrongly pronounced
by certain Greeks, whom he will not mention, as belonging peculiarly
to them_[148],” by which he evidently has Pythagoras and his master
Pherecydes in view, for it is also related of the latter that he was in
Egypt[149]. And it is in fact now sufficiently known, from the monuments,
that the Egyptians possessed from the earliest times very distinct ideas
about the transmigration of souls, and of judgment after death[150]. The
philosophers _Anaxagorus_[151], _Democritus_[152], _Sphaerus_[153], the
mathematician _Oinopides_[154], the physician _Chrysippus_[155], also
_Alcaeus_[156] and _Euripedes_[157], are enumerated among the visitors
to Egypt. Finally, the same is known of _Hecataeus_[158], _Herodotus_,
_Diodorus_[159], _Strabo_, and many less celebrated Greeks.
All these men did not merely desire to acquire a knowledge of Egypt as
eye-witnesses, but went there principally to gain instruction from the
learned priests on particular branches of knowledge. This is the light in
which those historians regarded it, who give us more detailed accounts
of these wanderings of the Greek scholars to Egypt[160]. The Egyptians
themselves indeed valued it so highly that the priests, as Diodorus, i.
96, expressly recounts, recorded in their annals the visits of celebrated
Greeks. It thence arose that the most distinguished among them, even the
individual teachers, remained known by name and descent, and were handed
down to us[161]. These names bear upon them a genuine Egyptian stamp,
and therefore offer no grounds for any material doubt from this side.
Plutarch calls the teacher of Solon, _Sonchis_, from Sais; of Pythagoras,
_Onnuphis_, from Heliopolis; and of Eudoxus, _Chonuphis_, from Memphis.
Clemens adds to these the teacher of Plato, _Sechnuphis_; all of them
names whose Egyptian form may be easily restored.
It is evident that this instruction must have contained more than an
unintelligible knowledge of symbols, a petrified mysticism, and empty
dreams, as people have been hitherto frequently inclined to believe. Real
knowledge and scientific experiences could only be founded upon a copious
_literature_, carefully fostered for many ages. Its great treasures had
indeed been long known and envied before the time of the Ptolemies; the
Persians, under Artaxerxes, carried off a portion of them, together with
other treasures, from the ancient archives of the temples, and only
restored them for a high ransom[162]. But their contents began for the
first time to be better known, and more perfectly understood, when the
translations appeared, which were extensively made for the Greeks[163]
after the time of the first Ptolemies. Strabo, among others, affords
us a valuable proof of this, where he speaks of the thirteen years’
residence of Plato and Eudoxus in Egypt[164]. “These priests (he says)
were versed in astronomy, but, mysterious and far from communicative,
it was only after the lapse of time and by polite attentions that they
allowed themselves to be induced to communicate some of their doctrines;
but still the most part was kept concealed by these barbarians. For
instance, to complete the perfect year, they added that portion of the
day and night which goes beyond the 365 days; _nevertheless, the perfect
year remained unknown to the Greeks, as well as many other things, until
the later astronomers learnt it from the treatises of the priests, which
were translated into Greek; and they still refer to the writings of the
Egyptians, as well as to those of the Chaldeans_”[165].
But, in order to view more distinctly the multiplicity of the Egyptian
branches of learning, I shall mention the forty-two Hermetic books,
probably chiefly _sacred_, described to us by Clemens of Alexandria, from
a genuine ancient authority[166]. We learn from it that the ten first
and principal books, those of the _Prophets_, called the Hieratical, or
Priest Books, treated of the laws and the gods, namely, of the highest
theological education, which embraced at once divine and human laws[167],
and philosophy[168]. To this was appended, as an immediate and necessary
complement, the ten books of the _Stolistes_—liturgical in their
contents—containing ordinances about the sacrifice, and the offering of
the first-fruits, of hymns, prayers, processions, feasts, &c.
To these twenty writings, which were in a stricter sense sacerdotal,
succeeded fourteen others, treating of more secular learning, what we
should call the _exact_ sciences, which were indeed indispensable to the
priests, but in themselves bore no theological character. These also
were again divided into two divisions; of which the first, consisting of
ten books, belonged to the hierogrammatist[169], and not alone embraced
the wide field of hieroglyphics, _i. e._ writing and drawing; but also
all that fell within the department of the measurement of space and of
geometry, commencing with the more general, _cosmography_, universal
_geography_, the _chorography_ of Egypt, and the course of the Nile;
then, also consequent upon that, the _topography_ of the temple-sites;
and lastly, the most local arrangements of the furniture of the temple,
as it were, or _naography_. The remaining four books, the _astrological_,
more properly called by us the _astronomical_, were committed to a
particular class of scholars—the horoscopi, or time seers. This portion
of their science, so peculiarly important to the Egyptians, and therefore
kept distinct from the rest, entered into everything that it was
necessary to be acquainted with for the calculation of time, both in
detail and on a large scale, therefore more especially with the heavenly
chronometers, the stars, and indeed, above all, the position of the fixed
stars (and the constellations); then the arrangement of the planets (and
their revolutions), the conjunctions and phases of the sun and moon;
lastly, the rising of the stars. The practical purpose was indicated by
the symbols of the horoscopes, the horologium, and the palm-branch of the
years and periods.
After the strict sciences, there followed the two books of the _Chanter_.
He represented the only _art_—at least, the only one which was recognised
as such, by its separate position—that of _music_. Architecture and the
art of drawing were practised, and even with a feeling for art, but they
had not emancipated themselves as independent arts, from the rule and
line condition of the hierogrammatist. Even music, which was apprehended,
and came into the world for the first time through the Greeks, was not
considered by the Egyptians as an independent art, in our sense of the
word, neither could it be regarded a science like drawing, as if it
were equally an efflux of the horoscopical chronology, to which it was
externally attached. It was on that account necessary to keep them apart.
We must, therefore, look upon the chanter only as a precentor—a practical
leader of the religious and festive songs. His two books contained hymns
to the gods, and (encomiastic-poetical) observations upon the _royal
life_, but only as the subject-matter of the religious chorus. It cannot
be known how far real music was here brought into consideration; but
certainly the ᾠδός had nothing to do with the theological purport of his
hymns—information concerning this must be derived from the prophets and
the Stolist.
The contents of the last six books were medicinal, and treated of the
structure of the body, of diseases, the organs, curatives, for the eyes
especially, and of female cases. They are assigned by Clemens, probably
from a misunderstanding, to the _Pastophori_, _i. e._ the watchers of the
temples[170].
This survey of the forty-two ancient sacred books deserves here
especially, our full consideration, because it brings clearly to light
an intelligent, thoughtful, general view of the universe, straining
after inward perfection and conscious arrangement, and also the necessity
of giving this a prominent form by _literature_, and of introducing it
practically into life. Proceeding from the general to the individual,
from the spiritual to the external, from the theoretical to the
practical, as well in the succession of the general sections as in the
arrangement of the separate books, this code forms a defined whole, which
we nowhere find repeated among any of the nations of antiquity, not even
among the Indians. Unfortunately, the ten first and most important books,
which contained their fundamental ideas on religion, philosophy, and
law, and therefore the highest and most spiritual department of their
contemplation, are not so fully described as the following sections, as
regards the detail of their contents; therefore the enumeration of the
separate branches of knowledge with which the hierogrammatists, the real
scholars, and the horoscopi, next to them, occupied themselves, and which
comprehended the whole visible and measurable world, is so much the more
worthy of our notice.