NTHONY
History of England

A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end
of Volume XX.

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Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the
following selections--"The Dawn of Civilisation," "The
Struggle of the Nations" and "The Passing of the Empires," by
Gaston Maspero--which appear in this volume, are hereby
tendered to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of
London, England.

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Ancient History

GASTON MASPERO

The Dawn of Civilisation

Gaston Camille Charles Maspero, born on June 23, 1846, in
Paris, is one of the most renowned of European experts in
philology and Egyptology, having in great part studied his
special subjects on Oriental ground. After occupying for
several years the Chair of Egyptology in the Ecole des Hautes
Etudes at the Sorbonne in Paris, he became, in 1874, Professor
of Egyptian Philology and Archaeology at the College de
France. From 1881 to 1886 he acted in Egypt as director of the
Boulak Museum. It was under his superintendence that this
museum became enriched with its choicest antique treasures.
Dr. Maspero retired in 1886, but in 1899 again went to Egypt
as Director of Excavations. His works are of the utmost value,
his skill in marshalling facts and deducting legitimate
inferences being unrivalled. His masterpiece is an immense
work, with the general title of "History of the Ancient
Peoples of the Classic East," divided into three parts, each
complete in itself: (1) "The Dawn of Civilisation"; (2) "The
Struggle of the Nations"; (3) "The Passing of the Empires."

_I.--The Nile and Egypt_

A long, low, level shore, scarcely rising above the sea, a chain of
vaguely defined and ever-shifting lakes and marshes, then the triangular
plain beyond, whose apex is thrust thirty leagues into the land--this,
the Delta of Egypt, has gradually been acquired from the sea, and is, as
it were, the gift of the Nile. Where the Delta ends, Egypt proper
begins. It is only a strip of vegetable mould stretching north and south
between regions of drought and desolation, a prolonged oasis on the
banks of the river, made by the Nile, and sustained by the Nile. The
whole length of the land is shut in by two ranges of hill