before then, and in shaping the complex
body of customs and beliefs that were the outcome of these potent
intellectual ferments.

In speaking of the relationship of the practice of mummification to the
development of civilization, however, I have in mind not merely the
influence it exerted upon the moulding of culture, but also the part
played by the trend of philosophy in the world at large in determining
the Egyptian's conceptions of the wider significance of embalming, and
the reaction of these effects upon the current doctrines of the meaning
of natural phenomena.

No doubt it will be asked at the outset, what possible connexion can
there be between the practice of so fantastic and gruesome an art as the
embalming of the dead and the building up of civilization? Is it
conceivable that the course of the development of the arts and crafts,
the customs and beliefs, and the social and political organizations--in
fact any of the essential elements of civilization--has been deflected a
hair's breadth to the right or left as the outcome, directly or
indirectly, of such a practice?

In previous essays and lectures[12] I have indicated how intimately this
custom was related, not merely to the invention of the arts and crafts
of the carpenter and stonemason and all that is implied in the building
up of what Professor Lethaby has called the "matrix of civilization,"
but also to the shaping of religious beliefs and ritual practices,
which developed in association with the evolution of the temple and the
conception of a material resurrection. I have also suggested the
far-reaching significance of an indirect influence of the practice of
mummification in the history of civilization. It was mainly responsible
for prompting the earliest great maritime expeditions of which the
history has been preserved.[13] For many centuries the quest of resins
and balsams for embalming and for use in temple ritual, and wood for
coffin-making, continued to provide the chief motives which induced the
Egyptians to undertake sea-trafficking in the Mediterranean and the Red
Sea. The knowledge and experience thus acquired ultimately made it
possible for the Egyptians and their pupils to push their adventures
further afield. It is impossible adequately to estimate the vastness of
the influence of such intercourse, not merely in spreading abroad
throughout the world the germs of our common civilization, but also, by
bringing into close contact peoples