77 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



first difficulties, he was given older texts to copy. These texts 

 were moral treatises, older poems, fairy tales, religious and mythi- 

 cal writings, and letters. It is to this fact that we owe the preser- 

 vation of the greater part of the literary remains of ancient 

 Egypt. When one of these school-boys died, the copies he had 

 written, that could be of no earthly use to any one else, were 

 buried with him. From these old books that he copied he learned 

 to form his own style ; he learned the grammar and syntax of his 

 beautiful language ; he became acquainted with its vast stock of 

 moral precepts, religious and mythical traditions, and with the 

 unnumbered poems and tales that undoubtedly abounded, and of 

 which the merest fragments have come down to us. Two classes 

 of writings were preferred for this purpose, moral precepts and 

 letters. It was considered absolutely indispensable to inculcate on 

 the minds of the pupils vast numbers of moral precepts. Letter- 

 writing was considered a high and difficult art, and the pupils 

 needed very special preparation in it. Often these copies took the 

 form of correspondence between master and pupil, the letters be- 

 ing sometimes copied from older ones, sometimes invented for the 

 purpose by the teacher. The pupil wrote three pages a day, and 

 the teacher examined his copy with great care, often writing for 

 him the correct form of the letters on the margin, and sometimes 

 expressing his approbation by writing under the copy the word 

 " nofer " — good. The boys wrote only on one side of the papyrus, 

 often using the other side for rough notes, for first draughts of let- 

 ters, for practicing more difficult forms of writing ; or they drew 

 all sorts of pictures on it, as their fancy dictated. 



School was out at noon, but the boy was not then free. He 

 had to assist in the department work all the afternoon, thus learn- 

 ing his duties practically, and being of real use to the government 

 while still a school-boy. The teachers were older officials of the 

 same department, under whose care and instruction the boys were 

 placed, and the same teacher conducted the entire education of a 

 young man, teaching him the first rudiments of writing, initiating 

 him into the practical work of the department, and, even after the 

 young man had become an official himself, remaining his coun- 

 selor and friend. 



Discipline was very strictly maintained. The pupils, who seem 

 to have been entirely under the care of the department, were not 

 allowed to sleep long. Corporal punishment stood in great re- 

 nown, and the fundamental principle of Egyptian pedagogics was, 

 " The boy has a back ; if you beat him on this he will hear." But 

 whipping was not the severest punishment. Specially refractory 

 pupils were bound to the block, and we hear of a youth who suf- 

 fered this punishment for three months until he was subdued. 

 This strictness is based on a rather curious theory. The argu- 



