No Oriental scholar and archeologist is more widely known in Europe and
America, and beyond, or is surer of a hearing on any subject of which he
writes, from both those who agree and those who differ with him, than
Professor Sayce of Oxford University. The numerous published works of
Professor Sayce have made him extensively known among scholars, and
popularly. Prominent among these are the Hibbert Lectures on “The
Religion of the Ancient Babylonians,” “The Ancient Empires of the East,”
“Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments,” “The Life and Times of Isaiah,”
“The Hittites,” “Patriarchal Palestine,” and “The Egypt of the Hebrews.”
He now writes from Luxor, in Egypt, while passing the winter, as usual,
on the Nile, in his dahabiyeh Istar:
“A thousand thanks for the advance sheets of ‘The Threshold Covenant.’
Like all your work, it is brimful of accurate knowledge and new points
of view, and is written so charmingly that a child could understand and
follow you. I need not say I have been devouring the pages and admiring
their wealth of references. While I read, you carried me along with you,
and, if you had asked my opinion as I went on, I should have said that
you had made out your case step by step. But now that I come to look
back upon the work as a whole, the skeptical side of my nature comes
uppermost, and I have an uneasy feeling that the proof is too complete.
That you have made out your case to a large extent is clear, but whether
allowance ought not to be made for other elements is not so clear to me.
Human nature is complex, and we still know so little about the early
history of civilized man! And between civilized and uncivilized man the
gulf seems to have always been as great as it is today.”