DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12249#0252
216 THEORIES EXPLANATORY OE EGYPTIAN SEPULTURE.
especially to those depending on discoveries alike of
data as in treatment. More than two thousand books *
constitute the substructure and the fabric of the pre-
sent beacons wbich throw light along this vista of the
past. Worker after worker has built a pharos on the
great quicksand of oblivion which lies between it and
us, but the solvent influence of advancing inquiry has
deprived each in turn of cohesive power, causing it to
sink down and leave no trace unless its residuum con-
taining substantial elements could make some addition
to the accumulating foundations. And of the guides
now above the surface it is naturally the fate that
they too, in their present shape, must pass away;
and the measure of their utility in the future, if with
reference to the past the criterion is different, will be
the amount of actual facts which their materials may
supply to succeeding labourers possessing the benefit of
newer and ampler resources.
* A German writer, three years ago, published a catalogue of hooks
and memoirs in all languages relating to Egypt [Bibliotheca JEgyptiaca,
von H. Jolowicz: Leipzig 1858.] The number of entries is 2675.
Many of those publications are of course ephemeral or trivial, while
many relate to special subjects not alluded to in the remark in the text.
But when I use there the expression " more than two thousand," it
will not of course be understood that these writers, or more than a very
small proportion of them, were actual constructive labourers on any
considerable scale.
especially to those depending on discoveries alike of
data as in treatment. More than two thousand books *
constitute the substructure and the fabric of the pre-
sent beacons wbich throw light along this vista of the
past. Worker after worker has built a pharos on the
great quicksand of oblivion which lies between it and
us, but the solvent influence of advancing inquiry has
deprived each in turn of cohesive power, causing it to
sink down and leave no trace unless its residuum con-
taining substantial elements could make some addition
to the accumulating foundations. And of the guides
now above the surface it is naturally the fate that
they too, in their present shape, must pass away;
and the measure of their utility in the future, if with
reference to the past the criterion is different, will be
the amount of actual facts which their materials may
supply to succeeding labourers possessing the benefit of
newer and ampler resources.
* A German writer, three years ago, published a catalogue of hooks
and memoirs in all languages relating to Egypt [Bibliotheca JEgyptiaca,
von H. Jolowicz: Leipzig 1858.] The number of entries is 2675.
Many of those publications are of course ephemeral or trivial, while
many relate to special subjects not alluded to in the remark in the text.
But when I use there the expression " more than two thousand," it
will not of course be understood that these writers, or more than a very
small proportion of them, were actual constructive labourers on any
considerable scale.