Thus  arose  engineering,  including  mathematics,  and
also  the  mechanics'  arts.  Agriculture,  weaving,  making
woollen  goods,  ironware,  glass,  etc.,  were  highly  devel-
oped. Commerce  made  writing  and  arithmetic  great
necessities.
Primary  Education.— In  Egypt  women  were  often
held  in  honor,  and  as  in  Turanian  lands  and  among  the
Jews,  they  were  not  wholly  excluded  from  the  privilege
of  education,  but  their  opportunities,  except  at  the
court  of  the  kings,  were  usually  meagre.
8  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION

The  state,  as  is  well  known,  provided  no  educational
system  for  the  masses.  For  them  life  itself  was  an
apprentice  school,  somewhat  as  among  the  chosen
people  in  the  early  days,  and  in  startling  harmony  with
the  modern  principle  of  education  that  the  accessible
world  of  the  child  should  be  the  school  laboratory.
The  masses,  however,  owing  to  the  interests  of  the
priests,  were  not  wholly  neglected  in  religious  and
moral  training.  The  needs  of  the  artisan  class  must
have  called  for  at  least  a  little  writing  and  arithmetic.
Higher  Education, — In  Egypt  higher  education  was
very  special — the  privilege  of  the  priests  and  the  nobles.
The  curriculum  included  writing,  mathematics,  en-
gineering, architecture,  law,  medicine,  astronomy.
Hterature,  art,  reHgion,  morals,  etc.
For  many  centuries,  up  to  the  time  of  the  empire,  as
reliable  historians  tell  us,  the  court  of  the  king  was
the  centre  of  Egyptian  life,  and  thus  became  the  place
where  the  sons  of  the  wealthy  went  to  school  with
the  sons  of  the  king.  The  curriculum  of  these  court
schools,  as  we  judge,  must  have  been  quite  complete.
