d to distribute them over a
large area. Thus, the industries that began in early Sumer and Akkad,
coming from farther east, were passed on to Egypt and Phoenicia and
were further distributed over the world. Especially is this true in
the work of metals, the manufacture of glass, and the development of
the alphabet, which probably originated in Babylon and was improved by
the Phoenicians, and, through them as traders, had a wide dispersion.
Perhaps one ought to consider that the study of the stars and the
heavenly bodies, although it led no farther than astrology and the
development of magic, was at least a beginning, although in a crude
way, of an inquiry into nature.

In Egypt, however, we find that there was more or less scientific study
and invention and development of reflective thinking. Moreover, the
advancement in the arts of life, especially industrial, had great
influence over the Greeks, whose early philosophers were students of
the Egyptian system. Also, the contact of the Hebrews and Phoenicians
with Egypt gave a strong coloring to their civilization. Especially is
this true of the Hebrews, who dwelt so long in the shadow of the
Egyptian civilization. The Hebrews, after their captivity in Babylon,
contributed the Bible, with its sacred literature, to the world, which
with its influence through the legal-ethicalism, or moral code, its
monotheistic doctrines, and its attempted development of a commonwealth
based on justice, had a lasting influence on civilization. But in the
life of the Hebrew people in Palestine its influence on surrounding
nations was not so great as in the later times when the Jews were
scattered over the {185} world. The Bible has been a tremendous
civilizer of the world. Hebrewism became a universal state of mind,
which influenced all nations that came in contact with it.

But what did this civilization leave to the world? The influence of
Egypt on Greece and Greek philosophy must indeed have been great, for
the greatest of the Greeks looked upon the Egyptian philosophy as the
expression of the highest wisdom. Nor can we hesitate in claiming that
the influence of the Egyptians upon the Hebrews was considerable.
There is a similarity in many respects between the Egyptian and the
Hebrew code of learning; but the art and the architecture, the learning
and the philosophy, had their influence likewise on all surrounding
nations as soon as Egypt was opened up to communication with o