DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5538#0214
194 PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS.
But when we are dealing with the origin and evolution of
national literatures, there is yet another factor to be taken
into the account; namely, the possession of a cheap and con-
venient material upon which to write. This is a very com-
monplace and vulgar necessity ; yet it is one of paramount
importance. So long as stone and metal are the only availa-
ble substances, so long will they be used for inscriptions and
state documents only. It is not till papyrus, and parchment,
and finally paper, become current articles of commerce, that
writing as a career or a recreation is even possible. Without
papyrus or parchment, we should never have had a literature
of Egypt, Greece, or Rome. Without paper, we could never
have had the magnificent literary efflorescence of the Renais-
sance. Fancy Anacreon and Sappho, Martial and Horace,
laboriously scratching their poems on tablets of limestone, or
plates of bronze! How the perfume of the roses and the
sting of the epigrams and the aroma of the Sabine wine
would have evaporated under such a process!
So far as we know, the people of ancient Egypt had to
make no struggle for existence at the outset of their career.
Hemmed in between two vast and pathless deserts, their fer-
tile valley was so strongly fortified by nature herself that
they had little cause to fear danger from without. It is not, in
fact, till thirteen royal dynasties, comprising about two hun-
dred kings, have passed in shadowy succession across the stage
of Egyptian history, that we hear of the Hyksos invasion.
The Egyptians of the first twelve dynasties, and, indeed,
the bulk of the nation at all times, were a pastoral and
peaceful people, well content with their lot in this life, and
much occupied with preparations for the next. They were
naturally averse to soldiering, and the armies of the great
military Pharaohs of the Nineteenth and Twentieth dynas-
ties were largely composed of foreign auxiliaries. What the
native-born Egyptian most dearly loved was to cultivate his
paternal acres, to meditate on morals and religion, and to
prepare a splendid tomb for his mummy wThen the inevitable
summons should come.
But when we are dealing with the origin and evolution of
national literatures, there is yet another factor to be taken
into the account; namely, the possession of a cheap and con-
venient material upon which to write. This is a very com-
monplace and vulgar necessity ; yet it is one of paramount
importance. So long as stone and metal are the only availa-
ble substances, so long will they be used for inscriptions and
state documents only. It is not till papyrus, and parchment,
and finally paper, become current articles of commerce, that
writing as a career or a recreation is even possible. Without
papyrus or parchment, we should never have had a literature
of Egypt, Greece, or Rome. Without paper, we could never
have had the magnificent literary efflorescence of the Renais-
sance. Fancy Anacreon and Sappho, Martial and Horace,
laboriously scratching their poems on tablets of limestone, or
plates of bronze! How the perfume of the roses and the
sting of the epigrams and the aroma of the Sabine wine
would have evaporated under such a process!
So far as we know, the people of ancient Egypt had to
make no struggle for existence at the outset of their career.
Hemmed in between two vast and pathless deserts, their fer-
tile valley was so strongly fortified by nature herself that
they had little cause to fear danger from without. It is not, in
fact, till thirteen royal dynasties, comprising about two hun-
dred kings, have passed in shadowy succession across the stage
of Egyptian history, that we hear of the Hyksos invasion.
The Egyptians of the first twelve dynasties, and, indeed,
the bulk of the nation at all times, were a pastoral and
peaceful people, well content with their lot in this life, and
much occupied with preparations for the next. They were
naturally averse to soldiering, and the armies of the great
military Pharaohs of the Nineteenth and Twentieth dynas-
ties were largely composed of foreign auxiliaries. What the
native-born Egyptian most dearly loved was to cultivate his
paternal acres, to meditate on morals and religion, and to
prepare a splendid tomb for his mummy wThen the inevitable
summons should come.