The Interdependence of Literature | Page 8

soul is an emanation from His
essence, and will ultimately be restored to Him, and that the supreme
object of life should be a daily approach to the eternal spirit, so as to
form as perfect a union with the divine nature as possible. How nearly
this belief approaches the Christian doctrine, will be easily seen.
Persian poetry is nearly all in the form of love stories, of which the
"Misfortunes of Mejnoun and Leila" represent the Eastern Romeo and
Juliet, and may have been known to Shakespeare in the writing of his
own drama.
EGYPTIAN.
Egypt shared with ancient Babylon and Assyria in the civilization of its
primitive literature. It is from five of its Pyramids, opened in 1881, that
valuable writings have been brought to light that carry us back one
thousand years before the time of Moses.
Their famous "Book of the Dead,"of which many copies are found in
our museums of antiquities, is one instance of their older civilization.
These copies of the original, in the form of scrolls, are some of them
over a hundred feet long, and are decorated with elaborate pictures and
ornamentation. The book gives conclusive proof of the teaching of the
Egyptians of a life beyond this. Their belief in the journey of the soul
after death to the Underworld, before it is admitted to the Hall of Osiris,
or the abode of light, is akin to the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory and
Heaven. The Egyptian literature is painted or engraved on monuments,
written on papyrus, and buried in tombs, or under the ruins of temples,
hence, as has been said elsewhere, much of it remained hidden until
nineteenth century research brought it to light. Even at the present time
many inscriptions are still undeciphered.
Geometry originated with the Egyptians, and their knowledge of
hydrostatics and mechanics (shown in the building of the Pyramids),
and of astronomy and medicine, is of remotest antiquity. The Greeks
borrowed largely from them, and then became in turn their teacher. The
Egyptian priests, from the earliest age, must have preserved the annals

of their country; but they were destroyed by Cambyses (500 B.C.), who
burned the temples where they were stored.
In the fourth century B.C., Egypt was conquered by Alexander the
Great, who left it under the rule of the Ptolemies. The next century after
the Alexandrian age the philosophy and literature of Athens was
transferred to Alexandria. The Alexandrian library, completed by
Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the third century before Christ, was formed
for the most part of Greek books and it also had Greek librarians; so
that in the learning and philosophy of Alexandria at this time, the
Eastern and Western systems were combined. During the first century
of the Christian era Egypt passed from the control of the Greek Kings
to that of the Roman Emperors, under whom it continued to flourish. In
the seventh century the country was conquered by the Saracens, who
burned the great Alexandrian library. Following them came the Arabian
Princes, who protected literature, and revived the Alexandrian schools,
establishing also other seats of learning. But in the thirteenth century
the Turks conquered Egypt, and all its literary glory henceforth
departed. It has had no further development, and no influence in
shaping the literature of foreign nations. What it might have been if the
literary treasures of Egypt had not been destroyed by Cambyses and the
Saracens, we can only guess. Great literary monuments must have been
lost, which would shed more light on the civilization of the ancient
world.
GREEK.
A modern writer says of the Greeks:
"All that could beautify the meagre, harmonize the incongruous,
enliven the dull, or convert the crude material of metaphysics into an
elegant department of literature, belongs to the Greeks themselves, for
they are preeminently the 'nation of beauty.' Endowed with profound
sensibility and a lively imagination, surrounded by all the
circumstances that could aid in perfecting the physical and intellectual
powers, the Greeks early acquired that essential literary and artistic
character which produced their art and literature."
Whatever the Greeks learned or borrowed from others, by the skill with
which they improved, and the purposes to which they applied it,
became henceforth altogether their own. If they were under any
obligation to those who had lived before them for some few ideas and

hints, the great whole of their intellectual refinement was undoubtedly
the work of their own genius; for the Greeks are the only people who
may be said in almost every instance to have given birth to their own
literature. Their creations stand almost entirely detached from the
previous culture of other nations. At the same time it is possible to trace
a thread running back to remote antiquity, to show that their first hints
of a literature came from