Historical Survey of Pre Christian Education

ssion of its capacity for civilised life, as did the Hebrews among the Semites, the Chinese among the Uro-Altaic (Turanian) and the Greeks among the Aryans. And quite apart from their superiority to other nations of their own blood, we find the Egyptians to be by far the most interesting of ancient peoples, in respect, at least, of the antiquity and detailed organisation of their complex civilisation. EGYPT It is now generally believed that the original immigrants who formed the Egyptian nation did not come from Ethiopia or Libya, but from the interior of Asia.1 Egypt proper is a country made, and it may be almost said annually re-made, by a single river ? the Nile, which, rising in the equatorial regions, falls into the Mediterranean. The water and mud deposited by the river in its annualinundations have made Egypt probably the most fertile tract of country in the world. When we consider that it is enclosed on all sides by desert or mountains or seas, and thus shut off from contact with other countries, we can understand that it should early become the home of a settled people who would develop their life and civilisation from within. It is this exclusion from external influences that gives to Egypt, a unique position in the history of civilisation.1 The fertility of the soil, and we may add the easy conditions of life caused by an almost uniform climate, enabled the Nile basin to support a large population. The tradition is that there were 20,000 cities, b...