book which he had been reading
from, and began again quoting from Weigall's _Life of Akhnaton_.

"'Love! One stands amazed at the reckless idealism, the beautiful
folly of this Pharaoh who, in an age of turbulence, preached a religion
of peace to seething Syria. Three thousand years later mankind is
still blindly striving after these same ideals in vain.'"

"How pathetic!" Margaret said. "And yet . . ." she hesitated, ". . .
the God of Battles . . . Akhnaton's was the God of Love, the God of
everlasting Mercy."

"What right had Egypt ever to go into Syria?" Mike said. "It sounds
fine and one can grow enthusiastic over these beautiful old names and
visualize a million greatnesses that Akhnaton was resigning, but what
right had Egypt in Syria? The right of might, the right of the
stronger against the weaker--Prussia's might against Poland, Spain's
might against Flanders, any large country's might against a weaker, the
right of armies, the right of the greed of monarchs! Akhnaton believed
in God, and to his thinking war could not go hand-in-hand with a love
for all that God had created."

"Get out, Mike!" Freddy said. "You'll get on to Ireland next--I know
him, Meg!"

"I agree with him in a way," Meg said. "To give people the love of God
and the proper sense of beauty, the enjoyment of all that God has made
for their good, in the best way, which was surely the way of Akhnaton,
seems better than spending the kingdom's wealth and brains in
maintaining armies to kill human beings and invade new territories."

"The great question," Freddy said, "is nationality. If you don't care
who wipes you out, or to what country or king you belong, well and
good, live the idealized life. Someone will think quite differently
and gobble you up. If Akhnaton hadn't died, there would soon have been
no Egypt, no Egyptian peoples."

"They'd have been quite as happy," Mike said, "for in those days the
kings actually owned their empires, they were their own property to do
what they liked with. The people fought for their King, not for their
country. An absolute monarch was an absolute monarch, the kingdom was
his to do as he liked with."

"How was it saved? Was it ever as great again?" Meg asked.

"It was saved by his son dying almost directly after he did and
Horemheb, the great commander-in-chief, at last got his way. He
persuaded the reigning Pharaoh, who had married Akhnaton's daughter, to
himself lead an expedition