DR. PORTEU ON EGYPT, 31 



grand monuments, shows tlie advanced civilisation of Egypt at 

 a remote period, that we possess a papyrus hieratic manuscript 

 written during the eleventh dynasty, which is a copy of a 

 treatise " composed by Prince Ptah-Hotep, who lived during 

 the reign of Assa, a king of the fifth dynasty/' The manu- 

 script was found by M. Prisse in 1847, in a tomb of the eleventh 

 dynasty, and is thus older by many centuries than the time of 

 Moses, — older probably than the date usually assigned to 

 Abraham, — while the work itself must be regarded aS the 

 most ancient of all existing books. Yet in this manuscript 

 we have a perfect alphabet, in which are the prototypes of 

 the Seraetic, and all alphabets derived from it, — Phoenician, 

 Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, Arabic, Roman. 



The subject-matter of the manuscript also proves that in that 

 remote age the Egyptians were as far advanced in the refine- 

 ments of literary composition, and in the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of ethics, as they were in the mechanical art of writing 

 with pen and ink. The author of the now famous papyrus- 

 Prisse was an aged sage, who desired to give to the world the 

 moral results of long experience and deep thought. He 

 thus writes :— " With the courage which knowledge imparts 

 discuss with the ignorant as with the learned. Good words 

 shine more than the emerald which the slave finds among the 

 pebbles.^' Again, we have an injunction to filial duty which 

 strikingly reminds one of the fifth commandment : — " The 

 obedience of a good son is a blessing ; the obedient walks in 

 his obedience. The son who accepts the words of his father 

 will grow old on account of it. Obedience is of God; dis- 

 obedience is hateful to God. The heart is the teacher of man 

 in obedience and disobedience ; but man gives life to his heart 

 by obedience.'^ Then he adds : — " Good for a man is the 



discipline of his father a good son is the gift of God. 



It is thus I obtain for you health of body and the favour of the 

 king.'' 



The sublime sentences of the Proverbs of Solomon scarcely 

 surpass those maxims of the Egyptian sage. Yet the words 

 were written probably a thousand years before Moses ; and 

 they formed, at that time, a code of ethics in the very school 

 in which Moses was subsequently trained. 



On, or Heliopolis, and its OhelisJcs. 



The founding of the sacred City of On, and the establish- 

 ment there of the Temple of the Sun, with its large staff of 

 learned priests, form a noteworthy epoch in Egyptian history. 



