SIR GASTON MASPERO. V 



cienne des Peuples de I'Orient Classique," with subdivisions in the 

 Enghsh edition " The Dawn of Civihzation," " The Struggle of the 

 Nations " and " The Passing of the Empires." The framework of 

 the smaller history was filled out down to the smallest details. As 

 each of the ancient empires was taken up in turn, the oldest Egyptian 

 and Babylonian principalities, the Egypt of the middle period, the 

 Babylonian Empire at its height, Egypt in its glory, the Assyrian 

 Empire, Hebrew history, the Philistines, the Phoenicians, and the 

 nations of Syria and Asia Minor, notably the Hittites, the entire 

 material is given to the reader in a most attractive and readable 

 form, for like most of his countrymen Maspero knew not only how 

 to investigate but how to write. His style, while not as brilliant as 

 that of Renan and Taine, partook of the picturesque quahties of 

 these unsurpassed masters, and was marked by epigrammatic aper- 

 gus and suggestive summaries as he reached the end of some par- 

 ticular episode, set forth with close attention to details. Nothing — 

 not even the smallest article or even a note in an article in any of 

 the journals of France, England, Germany, Holland, Italy or the 

 United States — appeared to have escaped his keen eye. Only those 

 who have themselves worked in any special field can appreciate 

 what this meant, and what amazing and uninterrupted industry was 

 involved in such a herculean labor. An inadequate index, which 

 enhances the difficulty of consulting the work, is the one serious criti- 

 cism to be passed on a product that still remains without a rival, 

 even though in parts it has already become antiquated through the 

 rapid increase of material — during the past twenty years — particu- 

 larly for the older periods of Egyptian and Babylonian histories. 

 It is also unfortunate, though not fatal to the work, that the trans- 

 lator has at times taken liberties with the original to make the results 

 of critical study in connection with the history of the Hebrews more 

 palatable to orthodox English readers. 



The twenty years intervening between the appearance of Mas- 

 pero's little history and his monumental work were the busiest in a 

 career that knew no cessation of labor. In 1878 he himself estab- 

 lished the first French journal to act as a medium for publishing the 

 results of detailed studies bearing on Egyptology and Assyriology — 

 the Rccueil de Travaux relatifs a la Philologie et a I'Archcologie 



