Page:The Harveian oration 1904.djvu/33

12 THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1904 a good medium for the clear and definite state- ment of facts, also that the modes of thought and forms of expression of the time were far removed from our own, even far remote from those of the Hellenes. We enter a different world when we try to comprehend the beliefs and conceptions of the ancient Egyptian, the platform of thought on which he built is imperfectly known to us. Furthermore, the philosophic conceptions which the Greeks gave to mankind and their lucidity of expression had not then come into existence.

In addition to these negative aspects of difference there are positive ones. The Egyptian believed himself to dwell in a universe peopled by spirits and demons, good and evil, whose influence must be propitiated or averted by charms and spells. It will, therefore, be understood that a hieratic papyrus is vastly more difficult to interpret than a Greek manuscript.

The references in various papyri to the circulation, though somewhat vague, are not without interest. Where the sense is important I have had the help of one or two learned living Egyptologists, and here I must express my acknowledgments to Dr. Budge, Professor Kurt Sethe, Dr. Brugsch, Dr. Joachim, Dr. Leemans, Dr. Withington, Dr. Grant Bey, Dr. Sandwich, Mr. Garstang, Professor Carrington Bolton, Pro- fessor Flinders Petrie, Mr. Percy E. Newberry, and others, for help orally, or from their writings, without which, in my ignorance, I should have