standpoint might very well be thought too
insignificant for record from the point of view of a great nation like
the Egyptians. But the all-powerful pen wrought a conquest for the
Hebrews in succeeding generations that their swords never achieved, and,
thanks to their literature, succeeding generations have cast historical
perspective to the winds in viewing them. Indeed, such are the strange
mutations of time that, had any scribe of ancient Egypt seen fit to
scrawl a dozen words about the despised Israelite captives, and had
this monument been preserved, it would have outweighed in value, in
the opinion of nineteenth-century Europe, all the historical records
of Thutmosis, Ramses, and their kin that have come down to us. But
seemingly no scribe ever thought it worth his while to make such an
effort.

It has just been noted that the hieroglyphic inscriptions are by no
means restricted to sacred subjects. Nevertheless, the most widely known
book of the Egyptians was, as might be expected, one associated with
the funeral rites that played so large a part in the thoughts of the
dwellers by the Nile. This is the document known as "The Chapters of the
Coming-Forth by Day," or, as it is more commonly interpreted, "The Book
of the Dead." It is a veritable book in scope, inasmuch as the closely
written papyrus roll on which it is enscrolled measures sometimes
seventy feet in length. It is virtually the Bible of the Egyptians, and,
as in the case of the sacred books of other nations, its exact origin is
obscure. The earliest known copy is to be found, not on a papyrus roll,
but upon the walls of the chamber of the pyramid at Saqqara near Cairo.
The discovery of this particular recension of "The Book of the Dead" was
made by Lepsius. Its date is 3333 B.C. No one supposes, however, that
this date marks the time of the origin of "The Book of the Dead." On the
contrary, it is held by competent authority that the earliest chapters,
essentially unmodified, had been in existence at least a thousand years
before this, and quite possibly for a much longer time. Numerous copies
of this work in whole or in part have been preserved either on the walls
of temples, on papyrus rolls, or upon the cases of mummies. These
copies are of various epochs, from the fourth millennium B.C., as just
mentioned, to the late Roman period, about the fourth century A.D.

Throughout this period of about four thousand years the essential
character of the book