"
THE END
AUTHOR'S NOTE
When the Chaldeans prostrated themselves before Nebuchadnezzar, they
cried: "O King, live forever!" When patrician Rome hailed Nero in the
Circus, the acclaim was: "Vivat Imperator!" When the faithful saluted
the Caliph, they said: "May thy shadow never grow less."
Humanity, living in eternal contemplation of the tomb, offers its
highest tribute in bespeaking immortality for its great.
But Egypt did not invoke the gift of deathlessness upon the Pharaoh;
she declared it. He was an Immortal and died not. Though he more
nearly justified the confident declaration of his people, he but proved
that there is no sublunar immortality, though in Egypt--almost.
The Pharaoh lived with a triple purpose: the perpetuity of his empire,
of his dynasty, of his individuality. He steeped his body in
indestructibility and wrote his name in adamant. He employed the
manifold means at the command of his era, and whether his monument were
a colossus, a temple or a city, he builded well.
While Europe was yet a vast tract of gloomy forests, and morasses, and
plains, while the stone that was to rear Troy was yet scattered on the
slopes of Ida, Mena, the first Pharaoh of the first Dynasty, deflected
the Nile against the Arabian hills and built Memphis in its bed.
Pages:
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714