, in thanking press and
public for the very cordial reception given to the "Wisdom of the East"
series, they wish to state that no pains have been spared to secure the
best specialists for the treatment of the various subjects at hand.

L. CRANMER-BYNG.
S. A. KAPADIA.

4, HARCOURT BUILDINGS,
INNER TEMPLE,
LONDON.

{11}

THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAH-HOTEP

INTRODUCTION

Memorials of the Past--The Land of Darkness--The Time of
Ptah-Hotep--Concerning the Book--The Treatise of Ke'Gemni--Date of the
Manuscript--An Egyptian Chesterfield--Who was Ptah-Hotep?--His
Teaching--Views on Women--The Gods of Egypt--Previous Translations--The
Oldest Book Known

Is there anything whereof it may be said,
See, this is new!
It hath been already of old time,
Which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things;
Neither shall there be any remembrance
Of things that are to come
With those that shall come after.

In these days, when all things and memories of the past are at length
become not only subservient to, but submerged by, the matters and needs
of the immediate present, those paths of knowledge that lead into
regions seemingly remote from such needs are somewhat discredited; and
the aims of those that follow them whither they lead are regarded as
quite out of touch with the real interests of life. Very greatly is
this so with archaeology, and the study of ancient and curious tongues,
and searchings into old thoughts on high and ever-insistent questions;
a public which has hardly time to {12} read more than its daily
newspaper and its weekly novel has denounced--almost dismissed--them,
with many other noble and wonderful things, as 'unpractical,' whatever
that vague and hollow word may mean.

As to those matters which lie very far back, concerning the lands of
several thousand years ago, it is very generally held that they are the
proper and peculiar province of specialists, dry-as-dusts, and persons
with an irreducible minimum of human nature. It is thought that
knowledge concerning them, not the blank ignorance regarding them that
almost everywhere obtains, is a thing of which to be rather ashamed, a
detrimental possession; in a word, that the subject is not only
unprofitable (a grave offence), but also uninteresting, and therefore
contemptible. This is a true estimate of general opinion, although
there are those who will, for their own sakes, gainsay it.

When