Page:Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians Volume 1.djvu/14

vi be rejected by others, as incompatible with the feelings of an independent spirit.

The necessity of discrimination on this point must, therefore, be evident to every one, who considers the subject with a view to truth and impartiality; and, in order to enable the reader to form a just opinion of the character of the Egyptians, I commence the present work with a brief account of the general history and early advancement of that ancient state. But if, as must necessarily be the case, this account is deficient and unsatisfactory, I plead as my excuse the scanty means of information afforded either by the writers of antiquity, or by monumental record; and trust that the reader will indulgently consider the difficulties which present themselves in so intricate a question.

If, too, in the date assigned for the accession of Menes, and the era of the 18th dynasty, as well as some other points of chronology, I differ from the learned Professor Rosellini, it should be remembered that many doubts and discrepancies occur both in chronology and the details of events, even in what is considered the known history of other nations.

It would doubtless be satisfactory both to the reader and themselves, if all writers on the subject of hieroglyphics, and of ancient Egypt, were agreed, and if all their investigations were attended with the same results; but, since a diversity