Men learned the art of writing, or began to express their ideas to each other by (at first) drawing little pictures of objects, about six thousand years ago, but none of the works which we call “classics” goes back to more than three thousand years ago. We should not expect to find many writings surviving from a date earlier than that, and as a matter of fact, except for business purposes writing was chiefly left to the priests. From ancient Egypt alone we have a few specimens of small books written by laymen; especially the _Maxims of Ptah-Hotep_, a very interesting series of counsels and reflections on conduct by a middle-class Egyptian of four thousand or more years ago. This, however, i…
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