en in anger, for soft words are the medicine
for his heart.

"Seek silence for thyself."

For the study of the moral character of the ancient Egyptian, a
document, of which a mutilated copy is found on a papyrus preserved in
the Royal Library in Berlin, is of peculiar importance. As the opening
lines are wanting it is impossible to know what the title of the work
was, but because the text records a conversation that took place between
a man who had suffered grievous misfortunes, and was weary of the world
and of all in it, and wished to kill himself, it is generally called the
"TALK OF A MAN WHO WAS TIRED OF LIFE WITH HIS SOUL." The general meaning
of the document is clear. The man weary of life discusses with his soul,
as if it were a being wholly distinct from himself, whether he shall
kill himself or not. He is willing to do so, but is only kept from his
purpose by his soul's observation that if he does there will be no one
to bury him properly, and to see that the funerary ceremonies are duly
performed. This shows that the man who was tired of life was alone in
the world, and that all his relations and friends had either forsaken
him, or had been driven away by him. His soul then advised him to
destroy himself by means of fire, probably, as has been suggested,
because the ashes of a burnt body would need no further care. The man
accepted the advice of his soul, and was about to follow it literally,
when the soul itself drew back, being afraid to undergo the sufferings
inherent in such a death for the body. The man then asked his soul to
perform for him the last rites, but it absolutely refused to do so, and
told him that it objected to death in any form, and that it had no
desire at all to depart to the kingdom of the dead. The soul supports
its objection to suffer by telling the man who is tired of life that the
mere remembrance of burial is fraught with mourning, and tears, and
sorrow. It means that a man is torn away from his house and thrown out
upon a hill, and that he will never go up again to see the sun. And
after all, what is the good of burial? Take the case of those who have
had granite tombs, and funerary monuments in the form of pyramids made
for them, and who lie in them in great state and dignity. If we look at
the slabs in their tombs, which have been placed there on purpose to
receive offerings from the kinsfolk and friends of the deceased, we
shall find that they are just as bare as are the tabl