ANCIENT EGYPT

THE

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

EDITION LIMITED TO FIVE HUNDRED COPIES

It may have been a Million years ago

The Light was kindled in the Old Dark Land
With which the illumined Scrolls are all aglow,
That Egypt gave us with her mummied hand:
This was the secret of that subtle smile
Inscrutable upon the Sphinx's face,
Now told from sea to sea, from isle to isle;
The revelation of the Old Dark Race;
Theirs was the wisdom of the Bee and Bird,
Ant, Tortoise, Beaver, working human-wise;
The ancient darkness spake with Egypt's Word;
Hers was the primal message of the skies:

The Heavens are telling nightly of her glory,
And for all time Earth echoes her great story.

VOL. I

London

T. FISHER UNWIN

ADELPHI TERRACE

1907

RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, Limited,

BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

(All rights reserved)

17.80

PREFATORY

I have written other books, but this I look on as the exceptional labour which has made my life worth living. Comparatively speaking, “A Book of the Beginnings" (London, 1881) was written in the dark, "The Natural Genesis" (London, 1883) was written in the twilight, whereas "Ancient Egypt" has been written in the light of day. The earlier books were met in England with the truly orthodox conspiracy of silence. Nevertheless, four thousand volumes have got into circulation somewhere or other up and down the reading world, where they are slowly working in their unacknowledged way. Probably the present book will be appraised at home in proportion as it comes back piecemeal from abroad, from Germany, or France, or maybe from the Country of the Rising Sun.

To all dear lovers of the truth the writer now commends the verifiable truths that wait for recognition in these pages.

Truth is all-potent with its silent power

If only whispered, never heard aloud,
But working secretly, almost unseen,

Save in some excommunicated Book;

'Tis as the lightning with its errand done
Before you hear the thunder.

For myself, it is enough to know that in despite of many hindrances from straitened circumstances, chronic ailments, and the deepening shadows of encroaching age, my book is printed, and the subject-matter. that I cared for most is now entrusted safely to the keeping of John Gutenberg, on this my nine-and-seventieth birthday.