Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

HANES.

33

Egypt and Assyria. It may be that we shall even
dig in earnest, could a little money but be spared from
the pressing claims of show, and luxury, and folly, for
labours which are certain of their reward, if we dare
but exchange a lottery which is all blanks for a lottery
which is all prizes. The cost of a pack of hounds
would in a few years clear all the monuments of Egypt.
Sennacherib was a mighty hunter, but he found time
for literary work, and organised research that the records
of former times should be preserved for the times to
come.

Mariette, the great explorer of Egypt, whose loss we
still deplore, with small funds and in the teeth of endless
difficulties, by stern determination and the gallant spirit
of a Frenchman, achieved more than all who had gone
before him. He has fallen at last in the fight, killed by
overwork and difficulties, but not by failure ; failure he
refused to recognise. To him we owe the answer to
many a riddle of the mysterious Sphinx, all but the
Sphinx's own riddle of origin and purpose. At his
bidding buried cities have thrown off the grave-clothes
which had enwrapped them for thousands of years, and
risen to tell us their story, and to fill the ages of oblivion

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