June 1, 1898] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



107 



lu Egypt the country had also a eompHcated ailmiiiistra- 

 tion, the result of efforts pursued through long years. 

 There were civil grades as well as religious grades, bishops 

 as well as prefects. Registration of lands was maintained. 

 The king had his court, and a whole world of ofhcials, 

 powerfully and wisely organized, gravitated round him. 

 Literature was held in honour." So also Prof. Maspero : 

 " In one of the tombs of Gizeh, a high officer of the first 

 period of the sixth dynasty (b.c. 3703) takes the title of 

 ' Governor of the House of l^ooks.' Not only was there 

 already a literature, but this literature was sufficiently 

 large to fill libraries, and its importance was so great that 

 one of the court officers was specially designated for the 

 keeping of the royal library." Lastly, Erman of Berlin, 

 also a distinguished Egyptologist, says : " If we have 

 hitherto believed that the immense literature of the dead 

 arose gradually during the long history of the Egyptian 

 people, and that it must be possible to follow the develop- 

 ment of their ideas among the Egyptians, we can hold 

 that view no longer. This literature was made at an epoch 

 that lies almost beyond our historical knowledge, and later 

 times did no more than pass it on." 



The wisdom and high moral teaching embodied in the 

 precepts of Ptah-hotep abundantly confirm this testimony. 

 This old writer urgently enforces on rulers the cultivation 

 of the doctrine of " Ma," an Egyptian dogma, com- 

 prehending " the true, the beautiful, the good." " Ma " 

 is the principle of order and harmony in everything ; it is 

 the stedfast pursuit of wisdom, knowledge, and obedience 

 — obedience as the best of all. Although, as in modern 

 expression, we should say " extremely liberal" on many 

 subjects, politically, Ptah-hotep displays an oriental horror 

 of innovators and innovations. Ideas that may be new to 

 the generation are not necessarily new to the world, and 

 changes do not always imply progress. " Good govern- 

 ment," he says, " can only be secured by the appointment 

 of good governors. He who is placed in authority over a 

 large number of men must be without reproach, and, in 

 spite of his power, never forget that there are lairs. The 

 neglect of this principle is the cause of revolutions ; when 

 the great forget their duty, why should not the small take 

 their place '? " (Chap. 5.) According to Ptah-hotep, 

 contemporary estimates of human actions are not always 

 the most reliable or the most enduring. " Not of the 

 counsel of the flatterers of to-day is it needful to take 

 heed ; it is of the judgment of posterity rather, which 

 renders justice to righteous actions." (Chap. 14.) " Only 

 hy a consistent life of reverence for knowledge and wisdom; 

 by observing a just moderation Ln everything ; not abusing 

 authority, but by seeking to inspire love rather than fear, 

 can we hope to appear before posterity with honour." 

 (Chap. 6.) The great man is to remember that "he is 

 only the dispenser of the gifts of the Supreme ; and if, 

 coming of low origin, Le has attained to high honour, he 

 must not, as is too often the case, be puffed up by his 

 good fortune, but should consider the new duties which 

 his rank imposes on him as the steward of the Almighty." 

 (Chap. 30.) 



In sixteen different instances in which Ptah-hotep speaks 

 of God, he does so in the singular number — an argument 

 happily no longer needed to establish the monotheistic 

 character of the Egyptian religion. He ends by saying : 

 " I have reached one hundred and ten years of life, blessed 

 by the favour of the king, among the first of those who 

 have e.xalted themselves hj their works, doing the pleasure 

 of the king in an honoured position." 



The work terminates with the colophon ; "It is finished, 

 from its beginning to its end, according to that which is 

 found in writing." 



"The Precepts of Ptah-hotep" have been translated 

 from the hieratic into French by M. Virey, and re- 

 translated into I'lnglish by Prof. Osgood. They reveal 

 throughout the mind of one who all his life has been 

 accustomed to the higher walks of society in a well- 

 ordered state. The sixteen pages of the " Precepts " are, in 

 the manuscript, preceded by a few leaves of a still earlier 

 work, written by one Kakimna, Prefect to King Seneferu, 

 of the third dynasty. Had this work been complete, we 

 should have been able to boast of a book older than the 

 Pyramids, and. dating from 3760 years before Christ — a 

 book 56.50 years old ! 



By the courtesy of the Principal Librarian at the 

 Bibliotheque Nationale, the writer, since the above was 

 written, has had the opportunity of inspecting the 

 document. It is in the hieratic character, in two colours, 

 red and black, and in a truly wonderful state of preserva- 

 tion. Nothing could well improve the arrangements for 

 its safe keeping, every sheet of the papyri being carefully 

 covered with glass, and secured from light and dust. 



Sci ence Not es. 



The last number of Astronomy and A.strojihi/sics contains 

 a remarkable photo-lithograph showing the disc of the sua 

 covered with a network of faculse. The picture is a photo- 

 graph of a drawing made from negatives taken by Prof. 

 G. E. Hale on April 16th, 1893, the day of the recent 

 eclipse. The solar photographs were projected on a screen 

 of white paper with an optical lantern, and tracings were 

 made from them showing faint details which Prof. Hale 

 believes would have been lost in direct photographic repro- 

 ductions. The solar facuhe, instead of being shown as 

 great white masses, are broken up into curving linear 

 forms, which interlock with one another, giving the 

 appearance of a kind of network extending over the 

 whole of the sun's disc, though it is brightest in the 

 southern hemisphere, and especially in the region of spot 

 development. — .-_ — 



The exploration of the higher atmosphere by means of 

 balloons has led to some interesting results in France. A 

 balloon, carrying registering meteorological instruments, 

 was sent up by M. Gustave Hermite on March 21. Its 

 volume was nearly 150 cubic yards, and the whole weight 

 of the apparatus, including an automatic distributor of 

 inquiry cards, was about thirty-seven pounds. The lowest 

 pressure registered was 103 millimetres ifour inches), that 

 is, rather less than one-seventh of an atmosphere, which 

 corresponds to a height of about ten miles. At a height 

 of nearly seven-and-a-half miles the temperature recorded 

 was — 51° C, or — 58-2 ' Fahr. The freezing of the ink of 

 the recording instruments then caused a break in the 

 curves of temperature and pressure. Subsequently, how- 

 ever, the ink was thawed (probably by the intense solar 

 radiation), and a temperature of — 5"' Fahr. was indicated 

 at ten miles. In the famous balloon ascent by Messrs. 

 Glaisher and Coxwell in 1862, the temperature observed at 

 a height of seven miles was — 12° Fahr. 



!-•-• 



There is in use at Millwall Docks a novel and ingenious 

 machine for discharging cargoes of grain in bulk, the 

 principle applied being the removal of the grain by the 

 creation of a strong current of air. The machine is erected 

 on a barge, which is placed alongside the ship to be 

 unloaded. One end of each of six 5-inch flexible pipes is 

 attached to the machine, the other ends being carried into 

 the hold or holds of the vessel and immersed a few mches 

 in the grain. When the engine is started the grain 

 immediately flows at the rate of one hundred tons an hour 



