Ancient Egypt.

James Grant, Bey, the eminent Egyptian scholar, delivered an address on Ancient Egypt in Boylston Hall last evening. He was briefly introduced by Prof. Cook as the most eminent authority of present time on the language, literature and art of the ancient Egyptians, and who is now in this country as a delegate to the medical conference in Washington. James Grant, Bey, replied to this introduction thanking Prof. Cook for his kindness and then commenced on the subject of the lecture, "No history in the world is so fascinating as bible history on account of its close connection with history of other nations of antiquity, and in this respect Egypt plays a most important part. The source of Egyptian history is chiefly derived from the inscriptions on the old temples and tombs. Many attempts were made in the 16th century to read these hieroglyphics, but no one made any headway. In the 17th century a book was published purporting to translate an inscription on one of the tombs, but the translations were entirely false as every figure was thought to represent an idea, while some of them are only letters. The first part of the 18th century saw much time uselessly wasted, but in the latter part great progress was made and the final stroke was given by the discovery of the famous Rosetta Stone in 1799, which had an inscription in three languages, the Egyptian, Grecian, and Demotic. By means of the Greek, the other characters were easily deciphered. The second source of our knowledge of ancient Egypt is derived from the writings of the historian Manatho. He divided its history into dynasties, the first two being those of the gods, the second two of the demi-gods, and then the prehistoric kings. The 11th and 12th dynasties mark the era of the pyramids, from the 13th to the 18th dynasty, the obelisks. The mathematical genius of Egyptians was wonderful.

Until about six years ago nothing was known of the religion of the people of the first dynasties. Every dead person had a double, which was subject to hunger, fatigue and mortality. The double was very similar to the manes of the Romans and food and raiment was set aside to appease their wants. One of the first laws was that without divine help man could rise above animal brutishness.

With the Phonemes, ancient Egyptian art began to give place to the Hellenie."

A very interesting collection of linen taken from mummies, papyrus, figures of gods, etc., was exhibited to those present.