32 THE INACTIVE AGE. 



to a certain class. More than half the area of the 

 Greek and Roman world was shut off by slavery from 

 the fertilising stream. This single fact is sufficient to 

 explain how that old civilisation, in some respects so 

 splendid, was yet so one-sided and incomplete. 



But the civilisation of Egypt was less developed 

 still, for that country was enthralled by institutions 

 from which Greece and Rome happily for them were 

 free. 



It has been shown that the instinct of self-preser- 

 vation, the struggle for bare life against hostile 

 nature first aroused the mental activity of the 

 Egyptian priests, while the constant attacks of the 

 desert tribes developed the martial energies of the 

 military men. Next, the ambition of power produced 

 an equally good effect. The priests invented, the 

 warriors campaigned ; mines were opened, manufac- 

 tories were founded ; a system of foreign commerce 

 was established ; sloth was abolished by whip and 

 chain ; the lower classes were saddled, the upper 

 classes were spurred, the nation careered gallantly 

 along. Finally, chivalrous ardour, intellectual passion, 

 inspired heart and brain ; war was loved for glory's 

 sake ; the philosopher sought only to discover, the 

 artist to perfect. 



And then there came a race of men who, like those 

 that inherit great estates, had no incentive to continue 

 the work which had been so splendidly begun. In 

 one generation the genius of Egypt slumbered, in the 

 next it died. Its painters and sculptors were no 

 longer possessed of that fruitful faculty with which 

 kindred spirits contemplate each others' works ; which 

 not only takes, but gives ; which produces from 

 whatever it receives ; which embraces to wrestle, and 



