THE WISDOM OF OLD EGYPT 33 



cultures, are drawn together. This explains how it 

 is that even imperialistic and purely selfish expansions 

 — military or commercial — at first do good ; and 

 before the end of this work we shall fully realize how 

 "civilizing" expeditions of this sort (the "White 

 Man's Burden," etc.) are a fallacious mixture of good 

 and bad, and lead eventually to decay through warfare. 



The reader will now understand that the remarkable 

 increase of our knowledge of early civilization during 

 the last twenty years has strongly confirmed this 

 principle. We have searched the earth, and we are 

 quite certain that civilization began in Crete, Egypt, 

 and Babylonia. The Chinese civilization is at least 

 a thousand years later than these ; the Hindu later 

 still; the American a comparatively modern develop- 

 ment. And we have now linked together the three 

 early centres as so many specially favourable spots in 

 one region into which the frozen condition of Europe 

 had poured a large and conflicting population. There 

 is no longer any question of " genius of race " or any 

 other mystical factor. It is a plain question of " the 

 materialistic interpretation of history." 



We saw that the Egyptian and Babylonian early 

 civilizations may be regarded as extensions or out- 

 growths — almost colonies — from the Mediterranean 

 region. It would not be difficult from the Medi- 

 terranean — that is to say, from the land which is 

 now the eastern end of the Mediterranean — to discover 

 Egypt. The beautifully fertile valley, with superb 

 climate, which stretches along the banks of the Nile 

 between two vast deserts, was only formed during the 

 New Stone Age. The Nile made its way across the 

 desert, and in time cut the broad channel which is 

 now Egypt. Its soil is, as is well known, a deposit 



