LABOUR LOVED. 11 



sciences of Egypt which cannot be traced to the en- 

 lightened selfishness of the priestly caste. For, in the 

 earlier times it was necessary for the priests to labour 

 unceasingly, to preserve the power which they had 

 usurped. It was necessary to overawe not only the 

 people who worked in the fields, hut their own 

 dangerous allies, the military class ; to make religion 

 not only mysterious, but magnificent : not only to 

 predict the precise hour of the rising of the waters, or 

 the eclipses of the moon, but also to adopt and nurture 

 the fine arts, to dazzle the public with temples, monu- 

 ments, and paintings. Above all, it was necessary to 

 prepare a system of government which should keep the 

 labouring classes in subjection, and yet stimulate them 

 to labour indefatigably for the state, which should 

 strip them of all the rewards of industry and yet keep 

 that industry alive. Expediency will therefore account 

 for much that the Egyptian intellect produced ; but it 

 certainly will not account for all. The invention of 

 hieroglyphics is alone sufficient to prove that higher 

 motives were at work than mere political calculation 

 and the appetite of gold. For writing was an inven- 

 tion which at no time could have added in a palpable 

 manner to the wealth or power of the upper classes, 

 and which yet could not have been finished to a system 

 without a vast expenditure of time and toil. It 

 could not have been the work of a single man, but of 

 several labouring in the same direction, and in its 

 early beginnings must have appeared as unpractical, as 

 truly scientific to them, as the study of solar chemistry 

 and the observation of the double stars to us. Besides, 

 the intense and faithful labour which is conspicuous in 

 all the Egyptian works of art could only have been in- 

 spired by that enthusiasm which belongs to noble minds. 



