he regardeth as ignorance, profitable things as hurtful things. He
doeth all kind of errors, so that he is rebuked therefor every day.
He liveth in death therewith. It is his food. At chattering speech
he marvelleth, as at the wisdom of princes, living in death every
day. He is shunned because of his misfortunes, by reason of the
multitude of afflictions that cometh upon him every day."
Of one thing the old prime minister was especially sure. It was that
employment at no single occupation, no matter what it was or how
interesting soever it might be, could satisfy a man or even keep him
in good health. He felt, {31} probably by experience, the necessity
for diversity of mind and of occupation, if there was to be any
happiness or any real success in life. He has a quiet way of putting
it, but he says, as confidently as the most modern of pedagogues, that
all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and all play and no work
makes it impossible for Jack to get on. But a proper mixture of both
makes life livable; and if a man has only the work that he cares for,
and can get some of his pleasure in life out of his work, then is all
well. "One that reckoneth accounts all the day passeth not an happy
moment. One that gladdeneth his heart all the day provideth not for
his house. The bowman hitteth the mark, as the steersman reacheth
land, by diversity of aim. He that obeyeth his heart shall command."
There are some conclusions in the philosophy of life that we are very
much inclined to think are the products of modern practical wisdom,
and it is rather surprising to find them stated plainly in this
old-time advice of the father to his boy. If there is one idea more
than another that we are confident is modern, and are almost sure to
attribute to the social development of our own generation, it is that
riches do not belong to the man who makes them to be used for his own
purpose alone, but their possession is justified only if he uses them
for the benefit of the community. This is so up-to-date an idea indeed
that it is startling to find it expressed in all its {32} completeness
in this oldest of books. Ptah Hotep said: "If thou be great after
being of no account, and hast gotten riches after poverty, being
foremost in these in the city, and hast knowledge concerning useful
matters so that promotion is come unto thee, then swathe not thine
heart in thine hoard, for thou art become the steward of the
endowments [of God]. Thou art not the last; another shall be thine
equal, and to him shall come the like [fortune and station]."
After all this it may be necessary to trace the pedigree of the book,
since it might seem to be possible that it was a modern invention. The
original of it is the so-called "Prisse Papyrus," which is well known
by name to all students of archaeology and especially of Egyptology,
and the contents of which are familiar to all who are acquainted with
Egyptian history and literature. It appears to have been found at
Thebes, but the exact place is not known. M. Prisse d'Avennes, the
well-known French archaeologist after whom it is named, is said to
have bought it from one of the Egyptian native workmen, or _fellahin,_
whom he had hired to make excavations in the tombs of Thebes.
Egyptologists generally have accepted the idea that it was actually
taken by this workman from the tomb of one of the Kings Entef, who
were of the Eleventh Dynasty and reigned about 3000 B.C. This is not
certain, however. After publishing a translation in 1847, M. Prisse
presented the precious papyrus to the {33} Bibliotheque Royale (now
Nationale). There it may still be seen. Spread out flat, it measures
about twenty-four feet in length and six inches in width. There are
about eighteen pages of clear red and black writing in the Hieratic
character.
The first part of this manuscript is a portion of another book, the
so-called "Instructions of Ke'gemni." [Footnote 4] This is, however,
only a short fragment, though probably of even older date than the
"Instructions of Ptah Hotep." This work we have in its entirety.
Doubtless its preservation was due to the fact that many copies of it
had been made, though only two have come down to us.
[Footnote 4: These Egyptian names are spelled differently by
different modern scholars, according to their idea of the value of
certain sounds of the older language as they should be expressed in
the modern tongue to which they are most familiar. Many English
scholars spell this as I have done, Ke'gemni. Maspero, however, and
most of the French scholars, spell it Qaqimni. Maspero prefers the
form Phtah-Hotpu to that of Ptah Hotep, which has been adopted by
English scholars.]
There is a second manuscript of the "Instructions of Ptah Hotep,"--or
the "Proverbs of Phtahhotpu," as the book is called by Maspero. This
was discovered not long ago in the British Museum, by Mr. Griffith;
and, while it is not so complete as the French copy, there is such an
agreement between the two manuscripts that there is no doubt about the
authenticity of the book and of the fact that it represents the oldest
book in the world.
Its date would be about 3650 B.C. if we were {34} to follow,--as does
the translator of the most easily procurable English edition, Mr.
Gunn,--the chronology of Flinders Petrie. Recent advances in our
knowledge of Egyptology, however, have brought the dates nearer to us
than they were placed before. Such men as Breasted of Chicago, and
Maspero, would probably take from three hundred to five hundred years
from this date. There is a definite tendency in all the histories to
bring dates much nearer to the present than before. For a time, the
older one could place a date the more scholarly seemed to be the
appeal of such an opinion. Now the tendency is all the other way. Even
the latest date that can be given for Ptah Hotep, or Phtahhotpu, would
still make his little book the oldest book in the world, however.
Fortunately for us the manuscripts of the instructions of Ptah Hotep
that have come down to us are in much better condition than those of
most of the other instructions of similar kinds formerly used in the
schools that have been preserved. In some of these there are a great
many errors of writing, spelling and grammar with the corrections of
the master above in a different-colored ink. Verily, education has not
changed much in spite of six millenniums, or very nearly so, of
supposed progress since these were written, for the whole process is
as familiar as it can be. As Mr. Battiscombe Gunn says in his
Introduction to his edition "a schoolboy's scrawl over 3,000 years
{35} old is no easy thing to translate." We would seem, however, to
have been blessed in the preservation of this oldest book in the
world, either of the original copies set by the masters or of such
copies as were made by advanced students. The series of lucky chances
that have combined to bring to us, in the comparatively perfect form
in which it exists, this oldest book in the world is interesting to
contemplate. Without them we would have no idea of how closely the
first people of whom we have any definite records in history resembled
us in every essential quality of humanity, even to the ways and modes
by which they tried to lift humanity out of the barbaric selfishness
inherent in it to what is higher and nobler in its nature.
With this surprising resurrection of our school-teaching methods from
the past it is interesting to study other phases of the education of
these early times, and at the same time to note the accomplishments of
the men, of the period, their tastes, the state of their culture as
regards the arts and crafts and personal adornment and the decoration
of their houses and buildings of various kinds. Flinders Petrie, the
distinguished English Egyptologist, in an article on "The Romance of
Early Civilization," printed recently in _The Independent_ (New York),
said:
"We have now before us a view of the powers of man at the earliest
point to which we can trace written history, and what strikes us
most is how very little his nature or abilities have changed in {36}
seven thousand years; what he admired we admire; what were his
limits in fine handiwork are also ours. We may have a wider outlook,
a greater understanding of things, our interests may have extended
in this interval; but as far as human nature and tastes go, man is
essentially unchanged in this interval."
We have enough of the products of the arts and crafts of these early
Egyptian generations to show us that there must have been no
inconsiderable training of the men of this time in the making of
beautiful art objects. For instance, the interior decoration of their
tombs shows us men skilled as designers, clever in the use of colors,
with a rather extensive knowledge of pigments and with a definite
tendency not to repeat designs but to create new ones. Most of the
diapered designs of modern interior decorations were original with the
Egyptians, and some of those found in the tombs uncovered in recent
years have been adopted and adapted by modern designers. It is in the
matter of jewelry particularly that the ability and the training of
the old Egyptian workmen are most evident. It would be quite
incredible to think that these workmen developed their artistic
craftsmanship without training, and therefore there was at least the
germ of a technical school or set of schools in oldest Egypt. It would
be quite impossible to believe this only that we know so much more
about other features of Egyptian education as anticipations of our
own. {37} A special word about their jewelry then, because it
illustrates a definite training quite different from that of our time,
will not be out of place.
Their jewelry, it may be said at once, is in striking contrast with
what we call jewelry in our time. It is true that we are in the midst
of one of the worst periods of jewelry-making, but then we are so
prone to think of anything very modern as representing the highest
evolution, that the contrast is chastening and illuminating. Mr.
Petrie has insisted on the beautiful jewelry, carved precious stones
and gold ornaments of the very early period in Egypt. In our time we
have no jewelry that deserves the name. I doubt whether we even know
the real definition of jewelry, so I venture to repeat it. Jewels are
precious stones themselves of value, usually of a high degree of
hardness so that they do not deteriorate with time or wear, to which a
greatly enhanced value is added by the handiwork of man. Jewels are
made by artistic carving and cutting so that besides their precious
quality as beautiful colored stones, they have an added charm and
interest from human workmanship. We wear no such jewelry in our
generation. What we have are merely precious stones. These by an
artificial rigging of the market and a combination of the great
commercial agencies that control the sale of diamonds and other
precious stones, remain very expensive in spite of their comparative
abundance. They are worn only because they are a display of the {38}
amount of money that a person can afford to spend for mere ornaments.
There is nothing in these precious stones themselves that carries an
appeal to the educated mind. It is true that they are pretty, but only
with the prettiness of the play of rainbow colors that delights a
childish or uncultured eye. It requires no taste to like them, no
culture to appreciate them, and their cost alone gives them value.
This is so true that those who possess a magnificent _parure_ of
diamonds often also have an imitation of them in cheaper stones that
may be worn on most occasions. The danger of loss or the risk of
robbery is so great that it has seemed worth while to have this
imitation made in many cases. No one except an expert will recognize
the difference, and if you are known to possess the real stones it
will of course be supposed that you are wearing them. What gives them
value as an adornment in the eye of the possessor, and presumably also
of the onlookers, is the fact that they must have cost such a large
sum of money. They are a vulgar display of wealth. They are typically
barbaric and, worn in the profusion now so common, carry us back to
the uncultured peoples who like to wear gaudy things. The taste is
perhaps a little better, but the essential quality of mind that
dictates the wearing of heavy brass rings and strings of beads and
that which impels to the display of many diamonds, is hard to
differentiate.
Artistic objects produce a sense of pleasure in {39} the beholder, an
appreciation of the beautiful handiwork of man. Precious stones worn
as is now the custom produce only a sense of envy. Of course envy
comes only to baser minds, but it is perfectly clear that most of
those who are supposed to be affected by the sight of diamonds worn in
profusion have this particular quality rather well developed. This
distinction is often forgotten. Personal adornment as well as the
adornment of one's house should be in order to give pleasure to
others, and not merely a display of wealth for wealth's sake in such a
way as is likely to produce envy. The old Egyptians made their jewelry
with the true artistic sense. Flinders Petrie has told how beautifully
they carved hard gems of various kinds and how the remains of these
show us a people of good taste, even though their technique in the
manufacture of such objects may have left something to be desired. In
connection with this oldest of books it is important to recall this,
for it shows that not alone in the applied wisdom of life and the
knowledge gained from personal experience were these Egyptians of over
5,000 years ago brothers and sisters beyond whose wise saws we have
not advanced, but also in the realm of art their work takes its place
beside what is best in the modern time.
Some may be inclined to say that while the Egyptians may, as indeed we
must admit they did, know many things about art and literature and
practical wisdom, yet they did not have exact {40} knowledge. Their
knowledge, though large and liberal, had not become scientific. This
will scarcely be maintained, however, by any one who realizes how much
of applied science there was in the building of the old temples and
pyramids and how much they must have developed mechanics, applied and
theoretic, in order to accomplish the tasks they thus set themselves.
Cantor, the German historian of mathematics, acknowledged this and
paid a worthy tribute to the old Egyptians' development of
mathematics, pure and applied, in discussing the expression that had
been used by Democritus, the early Greek geometer, who once declared
that "In the construction of plane figures with demonstrations no one
has yet surpassed me, not even the rope fasteners (harpedonaptai) of
Egypt." For a long time this word harpedonaptai was a mystery, but
Professor Cantor cleared it up, and explaining for us the exact
meaning of the compound which means literally either rope fasteners or
rope stretchers, he says, "There is no doubt that the Egyptians were
very careful about the exact orientations of their temples and other
public buildings. Old inscriptions seem to show that only the North
and South lines were drawn by actual observation of the stars. The
East and West lines were drawn at right angles to the others. Now it
appears from the practice of Heron of Alexandria and of the ancient
Indian and probably also the Chinese geometers, that a common method
of {41} securing a right angle between two very long lines was to
stretch round three pegs a rope measured in three portions which were
to one another in the ratio 3:4:5. The triangle thus formed is
right-angled. Further the operation of rope stretching is mentioned in
Egypt, without explanation, at an extremely early time (Amenemhat I).
If this be the correct explanation of it, then the Egyptians were
acquainted 2,000 years B.C., with a particular case of the proposition
now known as the Pythagorean theorem."
This may not seem to mean very much. Yet what it illustrates is just
this. These men wanted a certain development of mathematics. They
needed it for the work that they were engaged at. They set themselves
to the solution of certain problems and in doing so evolved a theorem
in pure mathematics and an application of it which greatly simplified
construction and gave an impetus to mechanics. In so doing they
anticipated the work of a long after time. This is what I would insist
is always true with regard to man. When he needs some intellectual
development he makes it. When he requires an application of it he
succeeds in working it out. Later ages may go farther, but had he
needed further developments he evidently had the power to make them
and probably would have made them.
The old Greeks had a much better opportunity to study Egyptian remains
than we have, and especially was this true after the foundation of
{42} Alexandria. There must have been a lively interest in things
Egyptian aroused in the Greek minds by this Greek settlement in old
Egypt. It is not surprising, then, to find some magnificent
compliments to the old Egyptians in the mouths of some of the writers
about the time of the foundation of Alexandria. Eudemus, for instance,
the pupil of Aristotle, wrote the history of Geometry in which he
traces its invention to the Egyptians, and states that the reason for
its invention was its necessity in the remeasurement of land demanded
after the removal of landmarks by the annual rise of the Nile. Always
does one find this, that when there is a serious demand for an
invention in theory or practice men make it. It is not a change or
development in man that brings about inventions, but a change in his
environment which causes new necessities to arise, and then he
proceeds with an ability always the same to respond properly to those
necessities.
Eudemus says: "Geometry is said by many to have been invented among
the Egyptians, its origin being due to the measurement of plots of
land. This was necessary there because of the rising of the Nile,
which obliterated the boundaries appertaining to separate owners. Nor
is it marvellous that the discovery of this and other sciences should
have arisen from such an occasion, since everything which moves in
development will advance from the imperfect to the {43} perfect. From
mere sense-perception to calculation, and from this to reasoning, is a
natural transition."
The old Egyptians made some fine developments of arithmetic. These
were afterwards lost and were reinvented probably several times. I
have already quoted from Cantor the opinion that the Egyptians were
familiar with the properties of the right triangle whose sides were in
the ratio 3:4:5 over 4,000 years ago. In the _Papyrus_ of Ahmes, whose
contents probably come from before 2400 B.C., there are the solutions
of many problems which show how far the Egyptians had gone in
arithmetical calculations. For instance, there are methods of
calculating the solid contents of barns. The solutions are not
absolute but are very closely approximate. Ahmes has problems that
were solved in connection with the pyramids, which make it very clear
that the old Egyptians had more than a little knowledge of the
principles of proportion, of certain geometrical figures and probably
were familiar also with the simpler phases at least of trigonometry.
The area of a circle is found in Ahmes by deducting from the diameter
one-ninth and squaring the remainder, which gives a value for the
ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle much more
nearly correct than that used by most writers until comparatively
recent times.
As a teacher of the history of medicine with certain administrative
functions in a medical {44} school, I have been very much interested
in the old-time medicine and above all the details of medical
education that we find among the Egyptians. Ordinarily it would be
assumed that there was so little of anything like medical education
that it could be scarcely worth while talking about it. On the
contrary, we find so much that is being constantly added to by
discoverers, that it is a never-ending source of surprise. There is a
well-grounded tradition founded on inscriptions that Athothis, the son
of Menes, one of the early kings, wrote a work on anatomy. This king
is said to have died about 4150 B.C. There are traces of the existence
of hospitals at that time in which diseases were studied and medical
attendants trained. Even earlier than this there was a great
physician, the first physician of whom we have record in history,
whose name was I-Em-Hetep, which means "the Bringer of Peace." He had
two other titles, one of which was "the Master of Secrets," partly
because he possessed the secrets of health and disease, very probably
also because so many things had to be confided to him as a physician.
Another of his titles was that of "The Scribe of Numbers," in
reference, doubtless, to the fact that he had to use numbers so
carefully in making out his prescriptions.
His first title, that of the bringer of peace, shows that very early
in the history of medicine it was recognized that the physician's
first duty was to bring peace of mind to his patients. A {45}
distinguished French physician (Director) of the department of
physiology of the University of Paris, Professor Richet, said not long
since, that physicians can seldom cure, they can often relieve, but
they can always console, and evidently this oldest physician took his
duty of consolation seriously and successfully. He lived in the reign
of King Tehser, a monarch of the Third Dynasty in Egypt, who reigned
about 4500 B.C. or a little later. How much this first physician was
thought of will be best appreciated from the fact that the well-known
step pyramid at Sakkara, the old cemetery near Memphis, is called by
his name. So great indeed was the honor paid to him that after his
death he was worshipped as a god, and so we have statues of him seated
with a scroll on his knees, with an air of benignant knowledge, a
placid-looking man with a certain divine expression of sympathy well
suited to his name, the bringer of peace. While they raised him to
their altars he does not wear a beard as did all their gods and their
kings when they were raised to the godly dignity, but evidently they
felt that his humanity was of supreme interest to them.
There is another monument at Sakkara that is of special interest to us
in its consideration of old-time medicine. I discussed it and its
inscriptions in the _Journal of the American Medical Association_
(Nov. 8, 1907). It is the tomb of a surgeon, decorated within with
pictures of surgical operations. The grandeur of the tomb and its {46}
location show us that the surgeon must have held a very prominent
place in the community of that time. The date of this tomb is not
later than 2500 B.C. Certain of the surgical operations resembled
those done at the present time. There is the opening of a carbuncle at
the back of the neck which shows how old are men's diseases and the
modes of their treatment. After this the oldest monument in the
history of medicine is documentary, the Ebers Papyrus, the writing of
which is probably not much later than 1700 B.C. This consists,
moreover, of a collection of older texts and suggestions in medicine,
and some of the idioms are said to belong to several distant periods.
It is probable that certain portions of this papyrus were composed not
much later than the oldest book in the world, and that they date from
nearly 3000 B.C. This papyrus is as interesting and as startling in
its anticipation of some of our modern medical wisdom as is the
Instruction of Ptah Hotep in the practical wisdom of life. This seems
a good deal to say, but there is ample evidence for it.