more!
how many new strata of earth have overlaid the country. Everything has
changed except this, that two and two are four, that a triangle is half
a quadrangle, that the moon may hide the sun, and boiling water hurl a
stone through the air.

"In this 'transitory world wisdom alone is enduring and permanent. And
woe to him who deserts the eternal for things as fleeting as clouds
are. His heart will never know peace, and his mind will dance like a
boat in a whirlwind."

"The gods speak through thy lips," replied Pentuer, after some thought,
"but barely one man in millions may serve them directly. And well that
it is so, for what would happen if laborers gazed for whole nights at
the firmament, if warriors made reckonings, and officials and the
pharaoh, instead of ruling the people, hurled stones by means of
boiling water? Before the moon could go once round the earth all would
die of hunger. No wheel or cattle would defend the laud from
barbarians, or give justice to those who were injured by wrong-doers.

"Hence," ended Pentuer, "though wisdom is like the sun, blood and
breath, we cannot all be sages."

To these words Menes made no answer.

Pentuer passed some days in the temple of the divine Nut; he admired at
one time the view of the sandy ocean, at another the fertile valley of
the Nile. In company with Menes he looked at the stars, examined the
wheel for raising water, and walked at times toward the pyramids. He
admired the poverty and the genius of his teacher, but said in spirit,

"Menes is a god in human form, surely, and hence he has no care for
common matters. His wheel to raise water will not be accepted in Egypt,
for first we lack timber, and second to move such wheels one hundred
thousand oxen would be needed. Where is there pasture for them even in
Upper Egypt?"

CHAPTER LXI

WHILE Pentuer was going around the country and choosing out delegates,
Ramses XIII tarried in Thebes, arranging the marriage of his favorite,
Tutmosis.

First of all, the ruler of two worlds, surrounded by a grand retinue,
drove in a golden chariot to the palace of the most worthy Antefa.

This magnate hurried forth to meet his sovereign before the gate, and,
taking the costly sandals from his feet he knelt and assisted Ramses to
alight from the chariot.

In return for this homage the pharaoh gave him his hand to kiss, and
declared that thenceforth Antefa was his friend, and might enter even
the throne hall in sand