able privilege to belong.

CHAPTER II.

THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE.

"History," says Sir J. Seeley, "lies before science as a mass of
materials out of which a political doctrine can be deduced.... Politics
are vulgar when they are not liberalised by history, and history fades
into mere literature when it loses sight of its relation to practical
politics.... Politics and history are only different aspects of the same
study."[1]

[Footnote 1: 'The Expansion of England.']

These words, spoken by a great historian, form the keynote of a book
which has run into nearly twenty editions; and they may therefore be
regarded as having some weight. Yet what historian of old Egyptian
affairs concerns himself with the present welfare and future prospects
of the country, or how many statesmen in Egypt give close attention to a
study of the past? To the former the Egypt of modern times offers no
scope for his erudition, and gives him no opportunity of making
"discoveries," which is all he cares about. To the latter, Egyptology
appears to be but a pleasant amusement, the main value of which is the
finding of pretty scarabs suitable for the necklaces of one's lady
friends. Neither the one nor the other would for a moment admit that
Egyptology and Egyptian politics "are only different aspects of the same
study." And yet there can be no doubt that they are.

It will be argued that the historian of ancient Egypt deals with a
period so extremely remote that it can have no bearing upon the
conditions of modern times, when the inhabitants of Egypt have altered
their language, religion, and customs, and the Mediterranean has ceased
to be the active centre of the civilised world. But it is to be
remembered that the study of Egyptology carries one down to the
Muhammedan invasion without much straining of the term, and merges then
into the study of the Arabic period at so many points that no real
termination can be given to the science; while the fact of the
remoteness of its beginnings but serves to give it a greater value,
since the vista before the eyes is wider.

It is my object in this chapter to show that the ancient history of
Egypt has a real bearing on certain aspects of the polemics of the
country. I need not again touch upon the matters which were referred to
on page 8 in order to demonstrate this fact. I will take but one
subject--namely, that of Egypt's foreign relation