And when Egypt fell from her proud estate geo graphical conditions still exercised their control on her history, and not the least of them was that same protect ing influence of the desert, for in the 4000 years during which Egypt stood alone her inhabitants so learned to trust to that protection that they never have been able to stand against opposition. When other geographical conditions produced more advanced civilizations, Egypt became indeed the broken reed that the far-sighted Hebrew prophet recognized her to be.
The particular forms of civilization which are char acteristically Egyptian also show most clearly the effect of the geographical controls. It was natural that people who inhabited the Nile Valley should have learned how energy might be saved by means of irrigation, but it was not only the material side of life that was affected. The mental attitude is perhaps better shown in another way, for it is significant that the new idea of a future to be provided for was so drilled into the people by the seasonal variation, that the chief monuments which are left of them are temples and tombs—temples, essentially means by which the living could find out when they might expect flood and drought, seedtime and harvest, and tombs in which their frail bodies might be preserved for countless ages ; while their great literary epic is the " Book of the Dead," which shows the Egyptians to be a nation given up to the consideration of the future life.
have seen that the first dawnings of civilization are found in Egypt, because there is found a protected land having abundance of water and warmth. It is uncertain at what time this land began to have anything we may call history, but by 5000 B.c. the peoples inhabit ing it had advanced a long way from the condition of primitive savages, so far, indeed, as to be able to use stone for building tombs, if not houses.
We may now look at our maps to see whether we can find any other region in the world which may have an early history because its conditions are similar to those in Egypt. We may neglect the latitudes near the poles and near the equator, because there we have found that either enough energy is not present or there is no stimu lus to use it. As we have learned that the desert forms a great protection, we naturally look at the desert belt to see whether there is any other district with a supply of water to render it fertile. West of the Nile in all the Sahara there is nothing to compare with Egypt. East ward the desert belt trends northward through the centre of Asia, which is dry because the winds have parted with their moisture on passing over the bordering mountains. But the desert is not so unmitigated as
round Egypt, nor are the climatic conditions so favour able. The advantages of Egypt are unique; elsewhere _ _ you may find protected lands, lands subject to seasonal change, lands with abundance of water or warmth, but you will find none in which they are all united so advantageously as in Egypt. Egypt stands alone.
Elsewhere there is no river like the Nile, with two sources, one in the region of constant rain, one in the region of seasonal rain, but we shall find flowing from the belt in which light winter rains fall, two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, whose sources tie in lands high enough to provide in summer water from the melting of the snows which have fallen in the previous winter. Hence, while water may be obtained at all seasons, seasonal changes do occur. It might thus seem that the con ditions are similar to those in Egypt, but there are differences which have materially affected the history. In Egypt the Nile flows in a narrow valley sunk steeply some hundreds of feet below the level of the desert ; the distance between barren waste and abounding fertility is to be measured in yards ; the lands within reach of the river produce vegetation ; elsewhere, as no rain falls, there is utter desert. The Tigris and Euphrates, on the other hand, have not valleys sunk far below the surrounding level. The lower part, indeed, from a little north of the latitude where Bagdad now stands, is a broad plain of alluvium brought down by the rivers. Nor is the whole lowland altogether rainless. Thus the Tigris and Euphrates do not flow through deserts. Deserts there are, on the one side and on the other. On the south-west, it is true, are the great stretches of the Syrian desert and of the Nefud, but it is only here and there that they approach at all close to the river; generally there is a belt of steppeland between. On the north-east we find deserts on the central portion of the Iranian plateau, but before even' the mountain margins are reached there is a stretch of steppeland, not indeed to be cultivated except in favoured spots, yet not altogether uninhabitable, while the valleys of the mountains may collectively support a considerable population. The north-western portion of the lowland is again steppeland, so dry between the rivers as to be called desert, but with more moisture under the mountains and along the valleys.