Onthe twenty-third of August, 1846, Lepsius was appointed a regular professor at the Berlin University. This was followed, in 1850, by his election as member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1855 by his appointment as co-director of the Egyptian museum, in conjunction with Passalacqua, who, although a person of superficial education, was a good man, and could not be set aside. Lepsius thus obtained the necessary leisure to devote himself uninterruptedly to the great and varied labors which awaited him.
Now that his probation as a journeyman was completed, he established a home of his own, and on the fifth of July, 1846, was married to Elizabeth Klein. The lovely bride, then eighteen years old, was an orphan, the child of the celebrated musician and composer of the same name.
In 1856 were completed the twelve volumes of the great work on monuments which Lepsius had been commissioned by his king to prepare. At the time that he left Egypt he had thought that it would exceed his powers. It was published in sixty-two numbers, and the eight hundred and ninety-four plates which compose them are in folio form, and exceed in size all previous works of the kind. The size interferes with the convenience of the book for handling, and is thesole point to be found fault with in what is otherwise a model production. The late Mariette once said to us in jest: “One needs a corporal and four soldiers to use your Lepsius’ ‘Monuments,’”and it is true that these twelve gigantic volumes demand too much physical strength, and too much space on the study-table, when one is obliged to consult them one after another. Yet the labor is substantially lessened by the incomparable order in which the author has arranged them. “The Monuments of Egypt and Ethiopia”[62]embrace all the archaeological, palaeographic and historical acquisitions of the expedition. They contain the prodigious wealth of hieroglyphic, Greek and other written records which the travellers collected on the way, in addition to maps, sketches, landscapes and architectural pictures, many of which are finely executed in colors.
The thousands of sheets of paper containing the impressions taken in Egypt, from which the majority of the inscriptions were copied and transferred to the lithographic stone, are preserved in the Egyptian museum as valuable documents. Let it be noted here that Lepsius was the first to apply successfully and efficiently this excellent method of copying by means of paper impressions. It is now, however, only on rare occasions of minor importance that the investigator finds it necessary to refer to the original impressions of the expedition, so wonderfully accurate are the reproductions of them. In the great publicationsof Champollion and Rosellini, (page 78) we frequently find alterations and inaccuracies on comparing them with the monuments, but in the “Monuments” of Lepsius such defects are almost unknown. Yet still greater commendation is due to the classification of the immense material comprised in this inexhaustible mine. There is scarcely the least change to be made in the historical sequence of these hundreds of closely filled plates, although later researches and excavations have furnished much that is new, and many details have been elucidated by the monographic works of Egyptologists since 1850. Before his departure for the Orient Lepsius had already examined the succession of the Egyptian dynasties. Amidst the monuments of the Nile he succeeded in finding answers to all that had appeared questionable to him while in Europe, and in thus bringing light into darkness. While carrying forward his work on the “Monuments” he also established a scientific groundwork for all the knowledge which he had previously accumulated, and was thus able to assign their correct places to the ruling families or dynasties, and to the several Pharaohs among them. It was easy to give their proper positions to the latter, as in the historical inscriptions are recorded the names of the Pharaohs under whom they were made. For such as were not dated the ingenuity and experience of the savant fixed their correct places according to the indications of style, or on palaeographic or other grounds.
To the inquiry which of the achievements of Lepsius we consider the greatest, we do not hesitate to answer, the classification of his “Monuments,” when we consider the lamentable condition of Egyptian historical research at the time when it was produced, and the prodigious amount of new information to be reduced to order. In this work we see him surmount the mass of material which had been collected by his own energy, and transform the chaotic whole into a beautiful and faultlessly-proportioned organism. He never loses his broad outlook over the entire field, and nevertheless he gives the smallest detail its due with painstaking consciousness. We discern the divine likeness most clearly in a great man when he keeps in view the great whole, and yet does not disdain to give heed to small things; like the eternal and mysterious power which prescribes their wide and immutable orbits to the stars, and yet forgets not to give its antennae to the tiny insect.
This colossal work is accompanied by no explanatory text,[63]and the excellence of the classification makes it easy to dispense with one. Each separate inscription can only be sought for in the place where it occurs, and the marginal notes inform us as to the locality whence it came, and the ruler under whom it originated. Whoever wishes to know to what period the Pharaoh in question should be assigned, must consult the Book of Kings, which was begun by Lepsiusat an early date, and completed in 1859. He will there find the desired information.
In the middle of the fiftieth year of this century, the time had not yet come for giving continuous and exact translations of great hieroglyphic texts, and therefore the editor of the “Monuments” wisely abstained from doing so. Such an undertaking would also have far exceeded the powers of one person. Even now an abundance of difficult problems are still presented to Egyptian philology, great as are the advances which that has made, by this unparalleledcorpus inscriptionum. It contains the most important Egyptian inscriptions, from the most ancient times up to the period of the Roman emperors, classified in the most rigorously systematic manner.
The “Monuments” is, and must ever remain, the chief and most fundamental work for the study of Egyptology.
Its classification presupposes a deeper study into the history of the Pharaohs hitherto unheard of. We have seen how, when a journeyman, Lepsius devoted himself by preference to the study of historical monuments, and while in Egypt he everywhere laid the greatest stress upon this.
As a master workman too, after his return to Berlin in 1846, he remained faithful to his historical bias. He had at his disposal, in complete shape, all that was furnished by the monuments in the way of historical information. The systematic arrangement of the work on monuments which he had in view already imposedupon him the task of restoring in a critical manner the main skeleton of history, (chiefly Egyptian,) and of ascertaining the periods of time which separate the chief historical events from each other and from our own age. In other words, he was obliged to devote himself with all his energy to the study of Egyptian chronology.
As a matter of course the monuments were always the foundation from which he proceeded, but it was also necessary to consult and to fix the worth of such other historical records as were in existence.
Amongst these the highest rank was held by the Egyptian history of Manetho of Sebennytos. This had been written, or was said to have been written, for Ptolemy II. Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.) by Manetho, an Egyptian priest familiar with the Greek tongue. During the Christian era several other works, (the Book of Sothis and the Old Chronicle), were falsely attributed to this writer. The heathen Greeks had held the histories of the priestly scholar in little esteem, but, except by the Jew Flavius Josephus, they were diligently used by chronographers of the Christian era in their efforts to establish a chronological reckoning for the legendary and historical events in the Old Testament. Amongst these writers are found the lists of the Egyptian kings compiled by the Sebennite, with an estimate of the duration of their reigns. But there is a frequent disagreement in the facts as given by them, for each individual chronographer adapted the figures to his own system, and altered them arbitrarily to suithis special purposes. Therefore the fragmentary information gathered from Manetho as to the succession of rulers, can only be used with great prudence. Lepsius submitted these statements, as well as other accounts of Egyptian history occurring in the classics (Hecateus of Miletus, Herodotus, Hecateus of Abdera, Diodorus, etc.), to a severe criticism, in the attempt to separate the genuine work of Manetho from all that had been interpolated or perverted in his writings. As a result of Lepsius’ supposition that some of the ruling families enumerated in the lists did not reign successively, but contemporaneously, he arrived at the conclusion that Manetho would reckon the duration of Egyptian history, from the first King Menes to the end of the reign of Nectanebus II,[64]at three thousand five hundred and fifty-five years, and that the accession of Menes to the throne should therefore be fixed at 3892 B. C. On the correctness of this computation he insisted up to the time of his death, and by the aid of his innate fine mathematical sense he showed the connection between this and the other calculations, as subtle as they are clever, which lie at the basis of his system of reckoning.
Rosellini’s industrious attempt to compile an Egyptian history was of little service to him, but he found many fruitful ideas in Bunsen’s fine publication.[65]This had been meantime completed with the advisory aid ofthe able English Egyptologist S. Birch, and Lepsius himself had furnished many contributions to it. No less a man than Boeckh[66]had, a short time before, addressed himself to a criticism of Manetho, incited thereto partly by Champollion’s and partly by his own investigations. In France, also, Biot,[67]Lesueur and Nolan had published able works on Egyptian chronology. Ideler’s hand-book, which came out in 1825, was still highly esteemed, although this acute but far too versatile scholar was entirely ignorant of the monuments.
Lepsius had the advantage over his predecessors in his comprehensive knowledge of all the monuments, and his understanding of hieroglyphic writing. He took his stand upon the monuments, and on this foundation which at that time was a safe and favorable one for him alone, he labored with perfect independence, but without overlooking the prior works mentioned above. These, however, in most cases he was forced to controvert. As far as the chronology of Bunsen was concerned, he was obliged to shake it to the foundations, and he found himself forced to apply critical standards very different from those of his learned friend to the lists of Eratosthenes, the value of which, as we know, the latter had far over-estimated. Although on this account he naturally arrived at results which contradicted those of Bunsen, yet he dedicated to him thegreat work,[68]the first volume of which was published in 1849, in the midst of his arduous labors in editing the “Monuments.” The second and third volumes originally planned by him remained unwritten. While the first volume was mainly occupied with criticism of the authorities, the two latter were to have contained the applications and proofs in detail. All these are now to be found in the folio volume of text which accompanies the plates of the “Book of Kings”[69]previously mentioned. In the beautiful dedication of his chronology to Bunsen, he declared that he offered him this work as “a public token of gratitude.” Lepsius knew that Bunsen, like himself, had only the truth at heart, and agreed with him that the final truth could only be attained by a keen comparison of all possible differences of opinion. Such differences of opinion existed between Bunsen and Lepsius, but, however candidly they were expressed, they had no power to shake the real attachment of these two men.
Unlike Bunsen’s great book, Lepsius’ work was not intended to establish the place of Egypt in universal history, but only in the external frame thereof, the annals of time. It made no attempt to be a history, but was a chronology solely. The problem involved is solved in the first volume of which we speak, and is treated in an original and at the same time broad manner. Here, as elsewhere, Lepsius never loses cognizance of the general aspect of his subject, whilst always carefully and even lovingly considering the smallest detail and assigning it its place as a part and factor of the whole.
He first criticizes the chronology of the Romans, the Greeks, the Hindoos, the Chaldeans in Babylon, the Chinese and the Hebrews. In so doing he makes it clear that among all these nations the conditions for a very early computation of time were lacking, and proves that no nation and no country possessed more favorable conditions for an early chronology and history than the Egyptian. He then proceeds to consider the astronomical basis of the Egyptian chronology, and goes thoroughly into the question of the divisions of time employed by the ancient Egyptians. Here, in addition to the monuments, which he always considers as of the first importance, he cites the classic authors, and ascends in regular progression from the smaller divisions of time, the thirds, seconds and minutes, to the days, weeks, months, intercalary days and years. He dwells for some time upon these latter, and explains with remarkable clearness his views regarding the vague year and the fixed year of Sirius. After these fundamental principles are established he turns his attention to the longer periods of time, beginning with the Apis period of twenty-five years, and concluding with the conjecture that the Egyptians possessed the knowledge of a longest astronomical period of revolution of thirty-six thousand years. According to our reckoning this should undoubtedly be only twenty-six thousandyears, yet the period given can be recognized in the thirty-six thousand five hundred and twenty-five years which Syncellus alleges to have been the Egyptian period of universal apocatastasis of the heavens.
He then reviews the Egyptian calendar, its introduction and reforms. Although no one knows so well as he that events are commonly reckoned upon the monuments, not from an era, but according to the years of the separate reigns, he attempts to prove that the Sothiac cycle of one thousand four hundred and sixty years had been used as an era for such purposes as necessitated the conception of a longer distinct period of time.
To many of our readers the words “Sothiac cycle” and “year of Sirius” will be but empty sounds. We will therefore give an explanation of them, in accordance with our promise to be intelligible even to the general reader. Let us adhere as closely as possible to the statement of Lepsius himself!—In the Egyptian heavens was visible a sidereal phenomenon which in a very remarkable manner corresponded perfectly, except for a mere trifle, to the Julian year of three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days. It continued for more than three thousand years, and in fact was precisely coeval with the duration of the Egyptian empire. This was the heliacal rising of Sirius; that is, the reappearance of Sirius, the brightest fixed star, before sunrise. For a time this star was invisible, on account of its rising simultaneously with the sun. The early rise of which we speak occurred regularly oneday later at the expiration of every four (civil) years of three hundred and sixty-five days, which was the simple basis on which the Egyptian calendar had been established at an early period. Thus when the New Year’s day of the fixed year of three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days fell upon the first of the New Year’s month (Thot) of the civil year of three hundred and sixty-five days, then, after four fixed years, it fell upon the second of the New Year’s month, Thot, after 2 × 4 upon the third, after 3 × 4 upon the fourth of Thot, and so on. After 365 × 4, that is, when, after one thousand four hundred and sixty fixed years, it had run through all the days of the civil year, the next New Year’s day of the fixed year fell once more upon the first of the New Year’s month Thot, and the two forms of the year had thus readjusted themselves, so that one thousand, four hundred and sixty fixed years of three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days were exactly equivalent to one thousand, four hundred and sixty-one civil years of three hundred and sixty-five days. We cannot here take cognizance of the slight error which resulted from the fact that the true solar year does not exactly amount to three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours, but only to three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-eight seconds; nor can we now speak of the compensation therefor. In any case, it follows from what has been said that the Egyptians, during their whole history, had in their year of Sirius, computed according to the heliacal or early ascensionof that star, the most perfect sidereal model ever possessed by any nation for their simple annual reckoning of the year of three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days. Therefore Lepsius is right when he maintains that the Egyptians had a perfectly exact astronomical period in the Sothiac cycle of 4 × 365; that is, in the one thousand, four hundred and sixty years of Sirius, during which the civil year, shorter by a quarter of a day, readjusted itself by being renewed one thousand four hundred and sixty-one times.
Thus closes, on page 240, this full and noble introduction. The review of the authorities then begins. After a preliminary survey of these, Herodotus and Diodorus undergo a searching criticism, which proves the uselessness of these authors for chronological purposes. In the subsequent chapters Lepsius exerts himself to show the relation of the Egyptian to the ancient Hebrew chronology, and he rightly applies to the Biblical reckoning the same rules of criticism which he has employed in regard to that contained in secular writings. In so doing he proceeds on the sole tenable principle that the truth discovered in the course of the healthy development of any science cannot be opposed to Christian truth, but must rather promote it. “For all the truths in the world,” he says, “have from the very beginning presented a union and solidarity against all untruth and error. But in order scientifically to separate truth from error in any department, theology possesses no other method than that which belongs to every other science; namely, rational and cautiouscriticism. Whatever this may affirm, it is only possible to amend or refute by a criticism which is still better and more cautious.”
To him, as to us, the practical religious significance which the Old Testament must have for every Christian reader, seems to have no connection with the recorded dates regarding early periods of time of which the authors and compilers of those Scriptures could have had no exact knowledge, except by means of a purposeless inspiration.
“Science must be pursued with reverence and freedom.” With these beautiful words of Bunsen, Lepsius agreed, and he demanded reverence for all that was venerable, holy, noble, great and well-proved, and claimed freedom wherever it was a question of attaining and declaring the truth and his own conviction thereof. This noble principle he also impressed upon his disciples, and we would like to recall it to the memory of those younger men who, in our day, so readily absolve themselves from all that goes by the name of “reverence,” and hold themselves so much the greater and stronger if they can succeed in shaking that which is established, in detecting a blemish upon greatness, or discerning a spot upon the source of light. They have received criticism as an inheritance; but there is only too good foundation for the complaint often repeated by Lepsius, that by them the noblest of all weapons is wielded sacrilegiously, and with special delight for the purposes of destruction. They can learn from the Master, who prescribed the method fora whole science, and aided to erect its mighty edifice, that it is possible to practise reverence and gratitude, and yet maintain one’s own opinion with manly independence, and attack error with the sharpest criticism.
The last and perhaps the most important portion of the “Chronology” is occupied with Manetho and the authorities which can be traced back to him, and also with the relation of these authorities to each other. A special chapter is also devoted to Eratosthenes and Apollodorus.
This work embraces the whole foundation of Egyptian chronology, and indicates the methods according to which all chronological investigations, no matter in what direction, should be conducted. The detached historical-chronological researches on special subjects[70]which followed the “Chronology” are so many model specimens of the consistent application of this method.
In the “Chronology” itself the fine and thorough humanistic training of its author is manifested in a specially happy manner. There are modern scholars who, as students, confine themselves to their special provinces, and, peasant-like, do not look beyond the space where they plow and sow and reap. These may learn from Lepsius how, without straying too far afield, it may yet be possible to establish a connection between that which they themselves have gained, and the acquisitions which have been made in other andkindred departments of science. They may observe how details can be treated in the most thorough and fundamental manner, without losing cognizance of the whole. Lepsius was an able philologist, linguist, archaeologist and historian, before he became an Egyptologist. From an acquaintance with the main principles of science, and from broad generalities, he descended gradually and without a break to a knowledge of the separate parts. Vulgar learning amasses the material of knowledge, and leaves all that has been thus acquired heaped together in confusion; genuine learning proceeds from the general to the special, connects the details with the whole, and always subjects the former to the latter. It was thus that the scientific activity of Lepsius was exercised, and if we inquire what it was that elevated him above even the most industrious and ingenious of his fellow workers, we find that he owed his lofty position to his truly scientific method of development, research and work. This makes his productions a true system of learning, in contrast with the knowledge amassed by so many others who have labored without regard to the general principles animating the whole.
Thence, too, it results that his “Chronology” is available for every purpose, and is employed as a guide and source of instruction, not only by the Egyptologist, but also by every historian who wishes to devote himself to the study, either of the chronology of all nations, or of any special people. Although many of the details of this work may have become disputable and untenable in consequence of the latest advances of science, yet for all time to come it must remain the starting point whence all investigations in this domain are forced to proceed.
In spite of the manifold and profound researches on which this work was based, and in spite of the time and strength demanded by the editing of the “Monuments,” Lepsius, during the years following his return to his native land, himself superintended the embellishment of those rooms in the new museum at Berlin which were destined to hold the Egyptian collection. He also attended personally to the arrangement and cataloguing of the collection. He took peculiar pleasure in this work, and pursued it with indefatigable zeal.
The aged Passalacqua, a man eager for knowledge, had gone to Egypt in the capacity of a merchant, and had afterwards made himself acquainted, as a dillettante, with the discoveries and works of Champollion. He now filled, “conscientiously and with pleasure to himself,” the post of superintendent of the collection of monuments and relics which he had brought from the Nile. Frederick William IV. in buying his collection had taken him with it into the bargain; no one wished to remove him from his position, and thus it came to pass that Lepsius could only be appointed co-director in 1855, and it was not until 1865, that he was appointed chief superintendent.
The Berlin collection of Egyptian antiquities consisted of the collections of v. Minutoli, Passalacqua, v. Koller and Bartholdy. Prior to its removal to the newmuseum it had been lodged in the palace of Monbijou, and while there had received many additions, especially by the purchase of the third collection of Drovetti. This man, who had been French consul-general at Alexandria under Napoleon I., had some time before collected the rich stores which now form the Egyptian museum at Turin. (See pages 93 and 132.) He had already sold another smaller collection, (See page 97), to King William IV., upon the solicitation of Lepsius and in consequence of his intervention. Bunsen only concluded the purchase in 1837, as the authorized agent of that prince. In 1839, there was added to the Berlin collection that of the state-counsellor Saulnier at Paris, and in 1843, that of d’Athanasi at London. From the pamphlet published in 1880, entitled “History of the Royal Museum at Berlin,”[71]and from the portion of the same dedicated to Dr. S. Stern of the Egyptian department, we learn that there were already five thousand numbers in that department in the year 1849, that is, previous to the incorporation of the treasures which Lepsius sent home from Egypt.
The expedition whose travels and labors we have recorded had sent home not less than fifteen thousand Egyptian antiquities and plaster casts. Especially valuable among these were the three tombs already mentioned from the necropolis of ancient Memphis on the plain of the pyramids at el-Gizeh, as well as manysculptures and inscriptions from other tombs of the Old Kingdom. The colored portraits of Amenophis I. and his celebrated mother Nefertari, long worshipped as divine, are also of great importance. These the expedition took, together with the fragment upon which they were painted, from a tomb. They also took a pillar from the tomb of Seti I. Both of these monuments came from Thebes. With them and with a column taken from the temple of Philae was connected the reproach brought against the expedition of having destroyed venerable monuments to further their own special purposes. Against this accusation we have hitherto defended the expedition in perfectly good faith, but unfortunately, as far as the pillar from the splendid tomb of Seti was concerned, there was some foundation for the charge. Of the other acquisitions of Lepsius we will also name an obelisk and many columns from tombs, a portrait in relief of Thothmes III., a colossal bust of King Horus, the naophore statue of Prince Setau-an, an altar from Ben-Naga, and, in addition, the ram sphinx from Mount Boreal mentioned on page 156. Together with these were numerous monuments from Meroë, many of which were covered with those Ethiopian-demotic inscriptions, the key to which is still wanting. He also sent home several beautiful sarcophagi of stone and wood, the tablet of Moschion, with a Greek-demotic inscription, many bricks with the stamp of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, and finally, in addition to numerous lesser relics, valuable papyri.
The casts taken by the expedition while on the Nile were intended to complete the collection of casts begun by the advice of Lepsius. Large and fortunate additions were afterwards made to this collection, and its founder always, and with justice, attributed great importance to it. By means of these casts it was possible to supply in an available and desirable manner the inevitable deficiencies with respect to an historical sequence of the original monuments. Other museums imitated that of Berlin in instituting collections of casts. The finishing and painting of the halls which had been renovated for the Egyptian collection were begun and completed under the superintendence of Lepsius, who had entire liberty in the matter. In every respect it was done to correspond with those ideas and wishes which he had already expressed in Cairo. All the demands of the Egyptian style were observed in the three halls at his disposal, and the walls, pillars and ceilings received that decorative and highly-colored pictorial ornament with which the temples and tombs of the time of the Pharaohs are adorned. The most interesting pictures from the tombs and sanctuaries on the Nile were reproduced here, and Ernest Weidenbach, upon whom devolved the execution of the multitude of paintings selected and arranged by Lepsius, performed the task with that delicate feeling for the characteristics of Egyptian style which was peculiar to himself. They had at their disposal the rooms situated in the northern half of the ground floor of the new museum. The entrance leads immediately into theanteroom, where a column from Philae with a palm capital is stationed. If one turns thence towards the hall adjoining on the right, one has before him a series of rooms which can in some measure represent the chief divisions of an Egyptian temple; vestibule, hypostyle and sanctuary. In an Egyptian temple the court was usually surrounded by colonnades, whose architraves contained the dedication of the building. In the midst stood an altar. Behind these sacred halls there were smaller rooms, the last of which, in the axis of the building, was the sanctuary containing the statue of the god of the temple. In a general way the rooms of the Berlin Egyptian collection correspond to this customary arrangement. They contain the court, covered with glass and surrounded by columns, the hypostyle adjoining, and the cella in the background. At the side of this central temple lie three main rooms; to the right are the mythological hall and the hall of tombs, while the historical hall extends along the whole length of the left side.
Let us turn first to those rooms situated on the right and towards the east; these are the mythological hall and the hall of tombs. In the former are arranged the sarcophagi and coffins, and the spectator is there impressed by that serious mood so easily awakened in our souls by objects which remind us solely of death. There he finds himself in the company of the gods, and every picture on the walls relates to them, and is connected with the mythological tenets of the most religious of all peoples. The divine constellations of the Egyptian heavens look down upon the visitor from the ceiling, as in the great passages of the rock tombs and the consecrated halls of the temples. Every picture has its astronomical and mythological significance. In the rear portion of this space, which is partitioned off, is the hall of tombs, and here are the tomb chambers from Memphis, and the other monuments of the Old Kingdom.
The middle hall is divided into the portico, the hypostylic hall, and the sanctuary of an Egyptian temple. The portico, which lies to the south, and which in Egypt is covered only by the bright blue arch of heaven, is intended to arouse in the spectator the sensation of being still in the open air. Therefore the beautiful landscapes with which modern artists have adorned the walls, and which remind us of the most remarkable localities and the sites of the most venerable monuments of Egypt, are extremely appropriate here, where are also grouped the colossal statues and sepulchral stele. In the hypostylic portion of this hall the paintings transport us among the subjects of the Pharaohs, and numerous illustrations of the private life of the old Egyptians make us familiar with the high and peculiar culture which took root and blossomed in the valley of the Nile much earlier than in any other spot on earth. Carefully-selected papyri are hung on the walls of this room. In the sanctuary, which lies altogether to the north, stands the statue of King Horus.
The third or historic hall, (to the left or west,) is adorned with pictures connected with the history of thekingdom of the Pharaohs, and also with representations of battles by land and water. The long series of ovals inscribed with the names of the old royal rulers of the Nile valley in hieroglyphics, form a suitable decoration, and attract the eye of all who are desirous of knowledge. Those monuments which are distinguished for their historical importance are arranged here in order according to the time of their origin. The plaster casts are in a special room beside the vestibule, and are beginning more and more to overflow it.
If the Egyptian museum in Berlin has long been among the most famous in the world, on account of the wealth of treasures there preserved, it has also gained a value peculiar to itself from the historical ideas introduced and carried out by Lepsius. There we see exhibited the artistic epochs of Egyptian history arranged in groups according to their chronological succession. Yet at the same time the effort to keep together objects which are mutually connected, such as sarcophagi and coffins, has been successful. Also, where it was necessary to form distinct divisions, the historical method has been applied within the limits of each separate group.
There can be but one opinion as to the propriety and the scientific advantages of Lepsius’ historical method of classification; but the decoration of the rooms in the Berlin museum by no means meets with such universal approbation. It is indeed conceded that it is in the best possible taste, and is both beautiful and attractive, but it is maintained by many people that the pictorial representation on the walls, that is,the accessories, draw the attention of the visitor too strongly and distract him from the contemplation of the monuments, which are certainly the real objects of importance.
There is some reason for this objection; but yet these pictures serve the immediate purpose of bringing visitors to the collection and it is this very decoration of the Berlin-Egyptian museum which renders it peculiarly attractive.
Whoever goes there with any knowledge of the monuments will pay attention to them, and not to the decorations of the hall. But the layman will there become interested in the culture and artistic ability of the old Egyptians, as he would not do in a museum where the monuments stand in bare halls, and have to speak entirely for themselves. The pictures attract him, and at the same time introduce him to Egyptian antiquity. They make him familiar, in a trustworthy manner, with the Egyptian civilization from whose soil have sprung the works of art there assembled. They teach him to understand the connection between these and the organic whole of which they are the separate parts, and, in many cases, the most beautiful blossoms. In one place there are pictorial representations, and in another monuments, to direct and instruct the visitor so that he may comprehend every stage of the development of this great whole. Whoever enters these rooms with a mind open and alert will soon perceive the relation between the decorative pictures and the monuments, and will easily succeed in connecting them with the departments of Egyptian life and activity to which they belong. He will transport the coffin, upon which he can lay his hands, into the funeral procession shown him in the painting; when he gazes up at a colossus he will place it mentally in that spot at the temple gate where it really belongs, according to the picture on the wall. Indeed, the decorative paintings will show him the Egyptian artist at his work, and the prince whose monument stands before him upon his war chariot in the tumult of battle. They will make him familiar with the gods who are mentioned in the hieroglyphic texts of coffins, stele and papyri. Thus these paintings possess great value for instructive and illustrative purposes, apart from the attraction which they present to the eye, and the appearance, as peculiar as it is pleasing, which they lend to the halls of the museum. Therefore we would not willingly be without them. He, who permits himself to be distracted from the monuments by them, will yet not have visited the museum in vain, but will have learned something authentic and interesting concerning Egyptian antiquity.
By the beginning of the year 1850 the arrangement of the Egyptian relics in the new museum was completed, and after Passalacqua’s death, when Lepsius had officially assumed the management of the collection, he caused Ernest Weidenbach to be employed as assistant in the Egyptian department. He also immediately drew up a full description of the pictures on the walls,[72]for the use of visitors to the museum, andafterwards prepared a little catalogue.[73]In 1878, he had the larger monuments furnished with short explanatory labels. After his appointment as chief librarian he nominated Dr. L. Stern as first assistant superintendent. Dr. Stern aided him in all his labors concerning the museum with diligence, judgment and technical knowledge; he was an able Egyptologist and had a thorough knowledge of the Coptic language. The Egyptian collection received continual additions under the direction of Lepsius, and the complaisance with which he placed its treasures at the service of foreign scholars was universally recognized.
As an academical instructor Lepsius also manifested the high intellectual qualities and admirable ability peculiar to himself. His first lecture was delivered on the twenty-ninth of October, 1846, and related to the condition of Egyptological science in France and Italy, compared with what had been accomplished on the same field in Germany. It went off excellently, and amongst his hundred auditors appeared officials of high rank and military men. As his lectures proceeded he took advantage on their account of the collection intrusted to his care, and we remember with pleasure the weekly lectures which he read amongst the monuments in the halls of the museum. The special discourses delivered in the directors room were usually succeeded by rambles through the museum, as instructive as they were interesting.
The public lectures in the museum attractedstudents from all the faculties, but the private lectures, which he delivered at his own house to a few youthful scholars who desired to devote themselves to the study of Egyptology, were models as regarded the well-considered arrangement of the material. Amongst them we must praise as especially instructive the historical and chronological lectures. These were attended with profit by many young students of history. The purely grammatical lectures were confined to the ancient Egyptian grammar, and only incidentally touched upon the hieratic or the later linguistic forms of speech of the demotic and Coptic. His delivery was always simple, and nevertheless the surpassing faculty of judgment and the severe critical method of the teacher always enchained the attention of his hearers. The material was always as copious as the arrangement was excellent.
Lepsius gave to the writer of this biography the strongest proof of the seriousness with which he regarded his office of instructor and the lovely benevolence which was united with his other great qualities. When a young and enthusiastic student I was obliged by illness to keep the house during a whole winter term, and I shall be forever grateful to Lepsius for the great and rare kindness with which he visited me on a certain day of every week, and went over the essential parts of the lectures of which my illness had deprived me. These private lectures, or rather these lessons when the pupil worked under the direction of the master, for which of course no material equivalent could be given, are among my most delightful memories, and amore liberal gift I have never received. Those of his scholars who afterwards rendered special service to Egyptology were J. Dümichen, professor at Strasburg, and E. Naville, the eminent Genoese Egyptologist. A. Erment, professor at Berlin, and A. Wiedemann, private lecturer at Bonn, attended his lectures during subsequent terms. The younger Egyptologists educated by me at Leipsic, he liked to call his “grandpupils.”
At that time, and indeed in 1856, there was submitted to the Berlin Academy and offered to it for sale, by professor Dindorf of Leipsic, a palimpsest containing the work of Uranius mentioned by Stephen of Byzantium, Αἰγυπτίων βασιλέων ἀναγραφῶν βίβλοι τρεῖς, (three books of lists of the Egyptian kings). Up to that time this had been supposed lost. On the first examination, at which Lepsius was present, there appeared to be no reason to doubt the genuineness of the manuscript. It was written between the lines of a genuine text of the twelfth century. The traits of the Greek uncial writing, skilfully reproduced in the style of the first centuries after Christ, would not be suspected by a palaeographer of the present day, although it is now proved that the codex is a counterfeit. When it was learned that the manuscript belonged to the Greek Simonides of ill-repute, some doubts were raised, and yet the rediscovery of the Uranius would have been of such eminent importance for the historical and chronological studies in which Lepsius was then engaged, that he furnished from his own pocket half the price, as a deposit in order to secure it for Berlin and forhimself. Dindorf had declared that in consequence of an agreement with Simonides he could not leave the manuscript behind in Berlin for closer inspection without such a deposit. This examination was committed to Lepsius, and on searching more thoroughly the lists of kings which Simonides represented to be those of Uranius, he soon found there could be no question but that he had before him a bold and unprecedently skilful counterfeit. Indisputable arguments were soon added to the internal reasons which had led Lepsius to this conviction, and it then became a question of recovering from the counterfeiter his plunder of twenty-five thousand thalers. In this Lepsius was successful, owing to the cleverness and prudence of Stieber, the chief of police, who accompanied him to Leipsic. Thus the Berlin library was protected from loss and imposition, and science from unspeakable confusion, through the sagacity of our friend. Lepsius himself furnished information as to the particulars of this affair in a clear and exhaustive explanation.[74]Simonides appears to have continued to drive his trade as a counterfeiter, for it is hardly possible that it was any one else than he who produced the manuscript of the Persians of Aeschylus, which reached Leipsic by way of Egypt, and (not without our own humble coöperation) was recognized by Ritschl as a forgery.[75]
During his life in Berlin as a Master Workman, Lepsius also addressed himself to those metrological studies which he continued to pursue up to the time of his death. If we look over the Transactions of the Berlin Academy of Sciences we shall also find that he was faithful to research in the department of languages. This was entirely apart from his special and unceasing labors on the Nubian Grammar and in the examination of the fundamental laws of construction of the other African languages.
During his sojourn in Egypt amongst the monuments of the Pharaonic period, his attention had been specially called to the measures of the ancient Egyptians. He had subjected many of the monuments to measurement, and also found certain stamps of linear measure, with accompanying figures, upon some of those of the Old Kingdom. These he studied according to the same method which had already approved itself to him throughout his previous labors. He collected all existing material from the monuments with a thoroughness and in an abundance thitherto unknown, and subjected all previous investigations and measurements to severe criticism. From the information thus gained he sagaciously and cautiously deduced positive inferences. In his investigations he also included the kindred measures of other ancient peoples.
In his fine work on the ancient Egyptian ell and its subdivisions[76]he arrived at the conclusion that the small ell of 0.450 of a meter “was the true unitunder-lying the whole system.” The great royal ell, which was in use at the same time, he considered a special ell, distinct from the common one and added to the measures at a very early date. The cause of the increase of the small ell used in private life appeared to him to have been “that the kings or priests paid the same compensation for the great ell, in building, as formerly for the small ell, as the overplus of labor was considered as compulsory service, and not paid for.” In addition to all the greater and lesser units of the Egyptian linear measure[77]he also directed his attention to other measures of the ancient Egyptians,[78]and after familiarizing himself with the results obtained in Assyriology, (which at that time was making rapid progress), he occupied himself with comprehensive researches into the linear measures of the ancient nations in general. He took special pains to subject the celebrated tablet of Senkereh,[79]in which he discerned one of the most important bases of Asiatic metrology, to a searching examination, and in doing so he received the assistance of the most eminent Assyriologists. He restored the whole tablet, and recognized it as a table of comparison, by the aid of which Babylonian-Assyrian measures could be reduced to ells, which were reckoned according to the sexagesimal system. He proved that the metrical systems of the Assyrians,Babylonians and Persians were entirely distinct from each other, although he could grant them one point in common, the building ell of 0.525 of a meter, which was regularly in use in Egypt in the fourth century before Christ, and was employed in the building of the pyramids.
Although Lepsius had worked with sagacity and caution in the realm of metrology, yet his conclusions in that field were not to remain unchallenged, and he found himself forced to defend the results of his investigations, first against the distinguished Assyriologist Jules Oppert, and then against the attacks of the architect Dörpfeld. This young scholar, who had distinguished himself by his very excellent work in his own special province, attempted to tax Lepsius with a fundamental error, and to prove that the small ell which the latter considered, and was obliged to consider, as a special unit of measure, was in fact nothing of the sort, but should only be regarded as a subdivision of the great royal ell. But the grey-haired scholar, although he had been struck by apoplexy, still rejoiced in a keenness of mind which many a younger man might have envied, and defended himself bravely. He not only opposed his adversary in a controversial treatise scarcely a year before his death, but he also energetically refuted Dörpfeld’s reply in the last of his works, “The Linear Measures of the Ancients.”[80]This appeared a few days before his decease. We have examined both opinions impartially, and cannot butrange ourselves on the side of the Master, Lepsius, who had the advantage of his opponent in a knowledge of all the monuments and an understanding of hieroglyphic writing. It was in his favor in the controversy that his adversary partly relied upon perverted translations and on dubious authorities, or those which he was obliged to take at second hand. The old warrior knew how to bring such errors skilfully into the foreground, and thus, at the very beginning, compromise his adversary, who in other respects had worked with good faith in the correctness of his cause. The controversial paper of Lepsius has not the least appearance of being written by an old man suffering from illness. He may have drawn the force of his reply from the conviction that he was in the right. Besides, the vigorous grey-beard saw all that he had won by painful and conscientious labor unexpectedly endangered, and “therefore,” thus he says himself in his last book—“I both desired and was obliged to make a plain answer in a matter which but few understand. Otherwise the greatest confusion might be occasioned in the minds of half-instructed readers by the influence of such an extensive, bold, and yet entirely unfounded attack from a man otherwise estimable, and who, in his own department, has decided merit.”
Lepsius’ last work, on the linear measures of the ancients, included all the results of his metrological studies. In it he took a high standpoint from which it was possible to survey all the multitude of details asone great whole. He considered the linear measures of the Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Assyrians and Persians, and the Philetarian system. This latter he found to be employed in Egypt, especially in the temple of Denderah. But he was not contented with treating them monographically, but also investigated the relations of all these systems to each other, and showed that in all probability a historical connection existed between them.
The treatises on language written by Lepsius were all published in the transactions and monthly reports of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and the greater number of them have been already cited.
Up to the year 1866 he remained in Berlin, occupied with ceaseless labors, and only in the autumn holidays did he undertake long journeys for recreation or in pursuit of his scientific aims. Several times he went to London, especially on account of affairs relating to his standard alphabet. He was always attracted towards Paris, and once went there (1857) on a commission from the government to bid at an auction of Egyptian antiquities for the Berlin museum. He also reaped a fresh scientific harvest in the year 1852, during a second and longer visit to the museum at Leyden, where he was most cordially received by the Leemans and the mother of the excellent Director.
In the beginning of 1866, he undertook his second journey to Egypt, and was again accompanied by his faithful hierogrammatist, E. Weidenbach. On the second of April he left for Cairo, and this time withthe design of visiting the Eastern Delta and the localities of the ruins there. These were of special importance for Biblical geography. He first inspected the Persian-Egyptian monuments which had just been excavated by the workmen on the Suez Canal. According to his views these had been dug up from the canal constructed by Darius, and were memorials intended to adorn that great undertaking. After also examining the other monuments found in the neighborhood of the excavations of De Lesseps, together with their surroundings, he proceeded in quest of the site of ancient Pelusium.[81]The shingle bed which covers the whole Gesiret-el-Farama is bounded towards the east by a continuous bank, which can be traced till beyond the western Tell-el-Her, and whose fortress-like curves separate the shingle field upon its declivity from the sand dunes of the desert. Lepsius believed that he had found there the locality of the ancient Hauaris (auaris), so often sought for, and thus proved that this was not to be looked for in Tanis, but on the site or in the neighborhood of the later Pelusium. In the Herin Tell-el-Her he thought might perhaps be recognized a remnant of the old name Ha-uar, the ancient Egyptian form of Auaris. These conjectures have not been shaken by any later investigations, but on the other hand Lepsius’ opinion, previously expressed, that Tell el-Maschuta, which he visited before Pelusium, was the Ramses of the Bible, seems to be disproved by the latest excavations of Naville, and this place must nowbe regarded as the Biblical Pithom and Succoth, in spite of the opposition which that view afterwards encountered from the Master.[82]
His greatest prize was to fall into his hands at San, the Tanis of the Greeks, the Zo’an of the Bible, whither he was accompanied by the Viennese Egyptologist Reinisch. This acquisition was of such great and epoch-making importance as to throw into the shade all the other gains of the journey. The discovery of the decree of Tanis, or the Tablet of Canopus, amongst the ruins of San, is one of the most important discoveries made in Egypt since the finding of the Rosetta stone. It furnishes proof of the correctness of the results which had been obtained up to 1866, by the Egyptologists with the aid of the Rosetta key and Champollion’s method of deciphering hieroglyphics.
This rare monument consists of a stela of solid limestone, and has on its front surface a hieroglyphic inscription of thirty-seven lines, and the Greek translation of the same in seventy-six closely written lines. On the edge of the tablet, though Lepsius did not notice it at first, is the same text in demotic writing, that is, in the popular dialect of the later heathen Egyptians. The whole stone, including the rounded upper surface, is 2.16 meters high and 0.78 of a meter wide, and is at present kept in the museum of Bulak. It is in excellent preservation, and Lepsius could easily read both texts at the first trial.
The translation of the hieroglyphic decree, whichwas made on the basis of Champollion’s method of deciphering and by the aid of the grammars and lexicons published between the time when that was discovered and the year 1866, agreed perfectly with the Greek version thereof upon the same stone. With this valuable monument for a basis it was thus once for all positively determined that the study of the Egyptian language was being pursued according to the correct method.
The decree discovered by Lepsius was dated in the ninth year of Ptolemy Euergetes I. Like the decree upon the Rosetta stone it had been passed by priests, who had assembled at Canopus for the celebration of the birthday of the king. In the first part of it were enumerated the benefits conferred by the ruler of the land, which had caused the hierarchy to accord to him many new honors in addition to those conferred upon his predecessor. In the part establishing a new popular festival to be celebrated in honor of Euergetes in all the temples of the country, there occurred certain arrangements of the calendar from which, as Lepsius immediately perceived, it must be inferred that a mutable year had been in use at an early period, in addition to the fixed year. It was also evident that in the ninth year of Euergetes I. the fixed Julian year had already come into use in the civil affairs of Egypt.
The hieroglyphic names for Canopus, Syria, Phœnicia, the island of Cyprus and Persia, could be determined with the aid of the Greek translation. This weighty document also furnished much important information regarding history, chronology and the calendar. Egyptian philology is indebted to these inscriptions for confirmation only, if we except a few additions to the dictionary, and some peculiarities of the dialect of Lower Egypt in which they were written.
Lepsius immediately made the monument which he had discovered the common property of science, in a model publication[83]containing both texts, which he accompanied by thorough translations and most important explanations. In so doing he gave an example worthy of imitation to Mariette, the great autocrat of all the monuments in Egypt, who always published the inscriptions which he excavated long after their discovery.
Invested with a new and illustrious honorary title,[84]Lepsius returned to Berlin, and there resumed his old labors with all his energy.
Henry Brugsch, a scholar who, quite independently of Lepsius, had become one of the most eminent leaders in the science of Egyptology, had in 1863 founded an organ of his own for Egyptological research, under the name of “Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde” [Journal of Egyptian Language and Archaeology:] A profound estrangement, increased by adverse casualties and incidents, had up to this time kept these two eminent men asunder. But Brugsch, after successfully conductingthe new journal to the end of its first year, obtained a place in Egypt in the Prussian consular service, and left Europe. The relations between him and Lepsius at this time became more friendly, and Lepsius undertook, “with the coöperation of H. Brugsch at Cairo,” the management of this journal of Egyptology. Scholars from all countries furnished contributions to it, and for some time it remained the chief organ for the special investigations of Egyptologists. It also received Assyriological works. It had afterwards as competitors, first in France the Vieweg “Recueil”[85]and then the “Revue Égyptilogique”[86]founded in 1880, by Revillont and Brugsch, and in England the “Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.”[87]Yet, in spite of the rivals mentioned, the German journal maintained its rank and its importance. This was the case even after Lepsius, overwhelmed by his official duties and with enfeebled health, resigned the lion’s share of the editorial work to the distinguished young Egyptologist, A. Erman. Erman taught as a private lecturer at the Berlin University in the time of Lepsius, and has lately been appointed professor there.
H. Brugsch-Pasha still worked for the “Zeitschrift,” even after he had founded the “Revue Égyptologique” in conjunction with Revillout, and his relation to his older colleague became more friendly with time. After the death of Lepsius, Brugsch again became editor of the “Zeitschrift” and dedicated to the senior master an obituary which was couched in the warmest terms.
In the autumn of the year 1869, Lepsius undertook his third and last journey to Egypt, and was present at the opening of the Suez Canal. His hasty trip to Upper Egypt could yield little fruit to science, but it served to give him great pleasure, and in his letters to his wife he could not sufficiently praise the amiability of the Crown Prince, to whom, as cicerone, he showed the monuments.
A great number of distinctions were conferred upon the Master during the latter portion of his life, but in consequence thereof, at a time of life when others feel the desire for rest, he was induced to assume a burden of duties which would have oppressed many a man in his prime.
In 1873, he was appointed privy counsellor to the government, and was entrusted with the temporary direction of the Berlin library. We were witness to the extreme and careful deliberation with which he considered the matter before assuming this onerous office. He did not conceal from himself that it would hinder the completion of many an enterprise which he had already begun and which was very dear to him; but on the other hand he told himself that he was the right man to regulate and carry through numerous affairswhich he knew would be of benefit to the important institution which he was to conduct.
The broad and firm foundation of his education, his prolonged work as a student at Paris, Rome and London, and his practical intelligence, specially fitted him for the place of a chief librarian. He entered upon the post on the twenty-fifth of March, 1874.
Pertz had formerly been a very useful man, but had now become enfeebled by age, and was difficult to manage. We learn from the most authoritative of all sources that Lepsius, at the instance of Delbrück, then vice-chancellor, undertook to induce Pertz first to resign the management of the collection of the archives of the German people, (the Monumenta Germaniae), and afterwards to retire from his office of chief librarian. After Lepsius had succeeded in this—the wits of Berlin called him Propertz, as the successor of the aged Pertz,—the Minister, Falk, invited him in April, 1873 to assume the management of the Royal Library. The place was at first provisional, but when he definitively assumed the office in March, 1874, he did it under the condition that the Budget for the library should be considerably increased, and that provision should be made for erecting a new building. Of this there was and is urgent need, for the limited amount of space in the old “roccoco-cabinet of Frederick II.,” produced, and still produces, incredible disadvantages. After inspecting many large foreign libraries during the long vacation of 1873, and taking into consideration everything which he found there suitable for the endin view, Lepsius looked over the plans of the grounds available for this purpose. As the result of his reflections a bold idea saw the light of day. The place which he chose for the future library of the capital city was the great square enclosed by Unter den Linden, Charlotten, Dorotheen and Universitäts streets. This was a bold but extraordinarily happy project, which might perhaps have been adopted, had it been earlier laid before the Government and the chambers. But the golden days of flood in the Prussian treasury were passing away. Lepsius succeeded in arranging that the rear portion of the Dutch palace, towards Behren Street, should be specially appropriated as journal rooms, whereby space was procured for from one to two hundred thousand volumes more. But he did not live to see the realization of his project. Nevertheless, the impulse given by him is still working, and the day cannot be far distant when a worthy domicile will be provided for the treasures of the Berlin library.
Lepsius did much for the internal regulation of the library. He spoke with special pleasure of the system introduced by him for the disposal of newly-procured books as well as of the cataloguing, and the following innovations: Here, as elsewhere, the titles of the books desired by different individuals were written upon cards and handed in. If it was impossible to satisfy the demand thus expressed, the card was simply returned, and such returns were far more frequent in the Berlin library than in any other. Lepsius therefore directed that thenceforth the cards containing suchdemands as could not be complied with should be kept, and he made it the duty of the higher officials of the library to find out whether the refusal was owing to any negligence of the subordinate employees. The cards requiring books which could not be furnished were preserved, and it was soon evident that certain books were repeatedly called for. These were naturally such as were particularly important for students, and Lepsius caused several copies of them to be immediately procured. He also invited the most experienced professors to supply him with the names of those works which were of special weight in their own departments, but too costly to be procured by individuals of narrow means. He proceeded upon the correct principle that precisely those books which students could not buy for themselves should be at their disposal in the library. According to his own reckoning, up to that time a third of the books demanded had not been delivered, while a year after he took the management only one-twelfth were not delivered. The scant courtesy, indeed the incivility, of the Berlin library under Pertz, had been really notorious, and presented a glaring contrast to the obliging spirit encountered in the other large German libraries, especially those of Göttingen, Munich and Leipsic. This bad reputation was in some measure improved under the administration of Lepsius.
The multitude of duties which devolved upon the chief librarian did not hinder him from continuing to hold the office of president of the board of directors ofthe Archaeological Institute. This, although it conferred honor, yet consumed much time. Lepsius had held the post since Gerhard’s death in 1867, and when he became manager of the library the directors were no less men than Haupt, Curtius, Mommsen, Kirchhoff, and afterwards Hercher. Under his presidency the Institute had been enlarged from a Prussian institution to a scientific institution of the whole German empire. The construction of a stately building at the capital had been authorized and completed. It was also largely owing to Lepsius that the scholarships for young archaeologists were increased in number and amount. The application for them constantly became more numerous, and among the archaeologists were many philologists, who wished to participate in the benefits of the Institute. The archaeologists generally received the preference, but Lepsius specially and rightly interested himself for the young private professors of the university and the teachers at the gymnasiums. He desired that they might acquire more elevated views of art, and a more enlightened conception of science and of life, by a sojourn on the classical soil of Italy, where the whole spiritual existence of a well-prepared and susceptible youth is so easily broadened and ennobled. Entirely apart from whatever scientific gains he may have won, the memory of Italy must illumine the teacher’s life, his academical discourses, and even his dryest teaching, and lend to all a higher inspiration. Lepsius was also enthusiastically interested in the founding of asubordinate branch of the Roman Institute at Athens, and exerted all the influence in his power in favor of it. Ernest Curtius, “whose intellectual Fatherland is Greece,” showed himself most active in carrying out this project. The correspondence which Lepsius had to conduct, as president of the board of directors in Berlin, had so increased that in 1874 he was obliged to write about eighty letters in a quarter of a year. Since 1833 he had belonged to the Institute as a corresponding member, since 1835 as a regular member, since 1836, first as a director, and finally as presiding member of the central board. When he retired in 1880 the Institute awarded him the well-deserved honor by electing him an honorary member.
He had been made a Doctor of the Theological Faculty in Leipsic in 1859.
Since 1850 he had been a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and since 1858 a corresponding member of theInstitut de France. He had besides been elected member of almost half a hundred learned societies. After the death of Trendelenburg, when the office of secretary of the Berlin Academy of Sciences was vacant, he was asked if he would be inclined to assume it, and only after his decided refusal, and at his suggestion, was E. Curtius chosen. In 1872 he received the most honorable of all German decorations, the orderpour le méritefor science and the arts. He had already, in 1869, been appointed a knight of the Bavarian order of Maximilian, which was closely related to the foregoing. In 1883 he was appointedGovernment Upper Privy Councellor. The unusual and numerous ovations which he received during the same year upon the occasion of his Doctor’s Jubilee of fifty years, were such as have fallen to the lot of but few scholars.
His later works on Egyptian art and the oldest texts of the “Book of the Dead” have been already mentioned. Connected with these were a series of valuable monographs[88]published in the Transactions and Monthly Reports of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and in the “Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde.” In his seventieth year, after an apoplectic attack which slightly crippled his arm, he presented his long-expected Nubian Grammar[89]to science.
This work, which marked an epoch, comprised the results of many years of study. Throughout his whole life as a master workman he had been engaged in arranging the philological material which he had acquired while in Ethiopia and on the Blue Nile. He had illuminated this mass of knowledge by profound study, and so greatly added to it that, as far as the works then in existence permitted, he had gained a mastery over all branches of language upon the African continent.
The introduction to this book, consisting of a hundred and twenty-six pages, is in itself a colossal achievement. We devoted a special treatise[90]to it soon after its appearance. By means of it the reader is as it were raised upon a hovering cloud, whence he can survey all Africa, and pass in review a portion of the early history of its peoples. He is able, under the guidance of the most skillful of commentators, to obtain thence a general view of all the African nations and their languages. These are presented to him classified into zones and groups, and in fact, in all those stages of their historical existence which are accessible to investigation. This is particularly the case with regard to those peoples with whom the book is especially concerned. The author had recognized in the Nubians a branch of the original African population, who never possessed a historical literature in their own language, and it was no slight matter, from the records of the Egyptians and the occasional reports of the Greeks, Romans and Arabians, to construct the general outlines of a history which begins at such an early period as the building of the pyramids, and ends with the destruction of the great Christian Nubian kingdom at the end of the thirteenth century after Christ.