There  is  no  monumental  nation  which  can
compare  with  it  for  antiquity,  except
perhaps  Babylonia  ;  and  evidence  is  yet
required  to  determine  which  of  the  two
empires  is  the  older.  The  arts  of  Egypt
exercised  an  all-powerful  influence  011  the
ancient  world.  The  Phoenicians  copied
their  types,  and  Greece  adopted  the  early
Oriental  style  of  architecture,  for  the  Doric
style  came  from  Egypt,  the  Ionic  from
Assyria,  the  later  Corinthian  again  from
Egypt.  If  Phoenicia  conferred  an  alphabet
on  Greece,  Egypt  suggested  the  use  of
such  characters  to  Phoenicia.  Already  in


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377


the  seventh  century  B.C.,  the  hieroglyphs
represented  a -dead  form  of  the  Egyptian
language,  one  which  had  ceased  to  be
spoken  ;  and  Egyptians  introduced  a  con-
ventional mode  of  writing  simpler  than
the  older  forms,  and  better  adapted  for  the
purposes  of  vernacular  idiom.  Egyptian
philosophy,  the  transmigration  doctrine
of  Pythagoras,  that  of  the  imruortality
of  the  soul  of  Plato,  pervaded  the  Hel-
lenic mind  from  the  colleges  of  Thebes.
