people;
replete with thoughts of Death and of the more melancholy aspect of
religion; burdened with the menacing presence of a multitude of horrible
gods and demons, whose priests demanded the erection of vast temples for
their appeasement; having little joy of this life, and much uneasy
conjecture about the next; making entertainment in solemn gatherings and
ponderous feasts; and holding merriment in holy contempt. Of the five
startling classes into which the dictionary divides the human
temperament, namely, the bilious or choleric, the phlegmatic, the
sanguine, the melancholic, and the nervous, it is probable that the
first, the second, and the fourth would be those assigned to the ancient
Egyptians by these people. This view is so entirely false that one will
be forgiven if, in the attempt to dissolve it, the gaiety of the race is
thrust before the reader with too little extenuation. The sanguine, and
perhaps the nervous, are the classes of temperament under which the
Egyptians must be docketed. It cannot be denied that they were an
industrious and even a strenuous people, that they indulged in the most
serious thoughts, and attempted to study the most complex problems of
life, and that the ceremonial side of their religion occupied a large
part of their time. But there is abundant evidence to show that, like
their descendents of the present day, they were one of the least gloomy
people of the world, and that they took their duties in the most buoyant
manner, allowing as much sunshine to radiate through their minds as
shone from the cloudless Egyptian skies upon their dazzling country.

It is curiously interesting to notice how general is the present belief
in the solemnity of this ancient race's attitude towards existence,
and how little their real character is appreciated. Already the reader
will be protesting, perhaps, that the application of the geographer's
summary of French characteristics to the ancient Egyptians lessens in no
wise its ridiculousness, but rather increases it. Let the protest,
however, be held back for a while. Even if the Egyptians were not always
frivolous, they were always uncommonly gay, and any slight exaggeration
will be pardoned in view of the fact that old prejudices have to be
violently overturned, and the stigma of melancholy and ponderous
sobriety torn from the national name. It would be a matter of little
surprise to some good persons if the products of excavation in the Nile
Valley