8 
About 1,400 s.c., a wonderful King, son of a Mesopotamian 
Princess, ruled the land of the Pharaohs. He tried to ‘‘ reform 
everything,” which could not be done in a generation in any 
country, wore particularly in the East. He temporarily wiped out 
the worship of the old Egyptian gods, and established the worship 
of the Energy of the Sun,—a magnificent conception, and one 
which, said the Professor, people could not even to-day, as 
Nature worshippers, exceed the justice of. He also tried to 
reform the art of the country, and encouraged Mycenean artists 
and realism and naturalness in art, and tried in every way to 
change the whole of the nation’s ideas. Such a change could 
not last. He died young, and every monument of his was 
thrown down, and every inscription erased. Yet the fact that 
the man could arise with such different ideas was ‘‘ one of the 
most astonishing phenomena in the whole history of thought.” 
The Professor had been so fortunate as to find a plaster cast of 
the dead face of this remarkable King, left by the sculptors who 
made his funeral monuments. The face was noticeable for the 
thoughtful expression it conveyed. A number of interesting 
specimens of the art work of this reign were shown, all of them 
remarkable for their fidelity to Nature. Some, indeed, such as 
sketches on broken potsherds at the King’s Art School, might 
have been done by young artists of to-day. A fresco of this 
reign showed the earliest specimen of shaded drawing. After 
this date the Egyptians again reverted to the conventional in art. 
Among the pictures thrown on the screen was one of a 
black granite slab, dating from about 1,400 8.c., in which occurs 
the first mention of the Israelites,—a mention four or five 
centuries older than any on the Assyrian monuments. It is not 
very lucid, and simply records the enigmatical statement that 
‘‘the people of Israel’s spoil was left without seed.” 
Another thing the Professor showed was a group of the 
oldest iron tools of which we know. They were part of the 
stock-in-trade of an Assyrian armourer in Egypt about 670 B.c., 
and the chisels, saws, files, and rasp showed that the contents of 
our carpenters’ shops have moved very little in 2,000 years. 
Finally, Professor Flinders Petrie told his audience some 
interesting details about the 80 trained Egyptian excavators who 
were ready to follow him to any part of the country for his work. 
He remarked that he got the best work from lads between 14 and 
18, and that often these would do twice as much an ordinary 
English navvy. 
The lecture was illustrated throughout with a series of 
admirable lantern slides. 
