in recent years, it has been found possible to make many hitherto
difficult passages clear. The translations are as literal as the
difference between the Egyptian and English idioms will permit, but it
has been necessary to insert particles and often to invert the order of
the words in the original works in order to produce a connected meaning
in English. The result of this has been in many cases to break up the
short abrupt sentences in which the Egyptian author delighted, and
which he used frequently with dramatic effect. Extraordinarily concise
phrases have been paraphrased, but the meanings given to several unknown
words often represent guess-work.

In selecting the texts for translation in this book an attempt has been
made to include compositions that are not only the best of their kind,
but that also illustrate the most important branches of Egyptian
Literature. Among these religious, mythological, and moral works bulk
largely, and in many respects these represent the peculiar bias of the
mind of the ancient Egyptian better than compositions of a purely
historical character. No man was more alive to his own material
interests, but no man has ever valued the things of this world less in
comparison with the salvation of his soul and the preservation of his
physical body. The immediate result of this was a perpetual demand on
his part for information concerning the Other World, and for guidance
during his life in this world. The priests attempted to satisfy his
craving for information by composing the Books of the Dead and the other
funerary works with which we are acquainted, and the popularity of these
works seems to show that they succeeded. From the earliest times the
Egyptians regarded a life of moral excellence upon earth as a necessary
introduction to the life which he hoped to live with the blessed in
heaven. And even in pyramid times he conceived the idea of the existence
of a God Who judged rightly, and Who set "right in the place of wrong."