BOOK NO TICES. 769 



BOOK NOTICES. 



History of Ancient Egypt. By George Rawlinson, M. A.; two volumes: 

 8vo., pp. 1143. Boston: S. E. Cassino. Estes & Lauriat, 1882. For sale 

 by M. H. Dickinson, $6.00. 



Until very recently no account of Ancient Egypt, combining its antiquities 

 with its history and embracing its manners, customs, art, science, literature and 

 religion, had been published. Since 1876, however, three have appeared, of 

 which that now under consideration is the most complete. 



These volumes are magnificently presented by the publishers; the paper, type, 

 and illustrations being of the finest quality, and fully equal to the English 

 edition, though costing less than one-third as much. Professor Rawlinson's pre- 

 vious historical works had prepared his readers for a comprehensive and valua- 

 ble work, which expectation is fully met. Commencing with its geography, he 

 takes up consecutively the climate and productions of ancient Egypt, the people 

 and their neighbors, their language and writing, literature, agriculture, archi- 

 tecture, mimetic art, science, religion, manners and customs. The whole of the 

 first volume is devoted to these preliminary accounts ; the second to a chronolog- 

 ical record of the progress of this wonderful people from the earliest times, when 

 all is dim and uncertain, through the various dynasties, to their conquest by 

 Cambyses, about five hundred years before Christ, when the death of Psamatik 

 terminated the long line of the Pharaohs which had ruled Egypt for not less than 

 twenty centuries. 



The greatest difficulty in the way of writing a reliable history of ancient 

 Egypt consists in the impossibility obtaining its correct chronology. The best 

 and most faithful students of this subject differ to the extent of over three thousand 

 years regarding the date of the accession of the first king to the throne. Fortu- 

 nately, this uncertainty does not exist in other historical matters and, as the 

 Egyptian people maintained a separate and independent existence during its entire 

 career, the need of chronological exactness is not so absolutely important as it 

 would be otherwise. This extreme isolation doubtless preserved the national 

 immobility and homogeneity during its almost fabulously long continuance, for 

 it appears that as soon as other nations and peoples began to make an impression 

 upon it, by introducing a more modern and progressive civilization, it succumbed 

 and in an incredibly short time its nationality was lost and its grandeur mere heaps 

 of ruins. 



No more interesting work than this has been written in recent times, whether 

 we regard the strictly historical portions or the discussions of art, science and 

 literature which grow out of them and show the author's familiarity with such 

 subjects. In the presentation of the religious beliefs and practices of the people,, 



