me
have existed by the side of the Hittite hieroglyphs, and may have had
its origin in the influence exercised by Egypt on the peoples of the
Mediterranean in the age of the twelfth dynasty.

In volumes IV., V., and VI. we find ourselves in the full light of an
advanced culture. The nations of the ancient East are no longer each
pursuing an isolated existence, and separately developing the seeds of
civilization and culture on the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile.
Asia and Africa have met in mortal combat. Babylonia has carried its
empire to the frontiers of Egypt, and Egypt itself has been held in
bondage by the Hyksos strangers from Asia. In return, Egypt has driven
back the wave of invasion to the borders of Mesopotamia, has substituted
an empire of its own in Syria for that of the Babylonians, and has
forced the Babylonian king to treat with its Pharaoh on equal terms.
In the track of war and diplomacy have come trade and commerce; Western
Asia is covered with roads, along which the merchant and the courier
travel incessantly, and the whole civilised world of the Orient is knit
together in a common literary culture and common commercial interests.

The age of isolation has thus been succeeded by an age of intercourse,
partly military and antagonistic, partly literary and peaceful.
Professor Maspero paints for us this age of intercourse, describes
its rise and character, its decline and fall. For the unity of Eastern
civilization was again shattered. The Hittites descended from the ranges
of the Taurus upon the Egyptian province of Northern Syria, and cut off
the Semites of the west from those of the east. The Israelites poured
over the Jordan out of Edom and Moab, and took possession of Canaan,
while Babylonia itself, for so many centuries the ruling power of the
Oriental world, had to make way for its upstart rival Assyria. The old
imperial powers were exhausted and played out, and it needed time before
the new forces which were to take their place could acquire sufficient
strength for their work.

As usual, Professor Maspero has been careful to embody in his history
the very latest discoveries and information. Notice, it will be found,
has been taken even of the _stela_ of Meneptah, recently disinterred by
Professor Petrie, on which the name of the Israelites is engraved.
At Elephantine, I found, a short time since, on a granite boulder, an
inscription of Khufuankh--whose sarcophagus of red granite is one of