Simonds, J: Panorama of the World

Excerpt from A Panorama of the World: An Historical Review of the Social, Political and Industrial Condition of the People of All Nations

It has not been well determined by ethnologists to what family of men the ancient Egyptians belonged. It is clear, however, that they are to be classified with the Ruddy peoples rather than with the Black, or Ethiopian, family. But if we cross the Mediterranean to the Cyclades and the peninsula of Hellas, we shall come into contact with a better known and more familiar aspect of national life. Doubtless the old Greeks derived a considerable part of their industrial history, as well as their letters and arts, from the people of Egypt; but they were certainly of a different race and genius. Of them it may be truthfully said that they present the most intellectual, if not the most rational, form of human existence ever yet manifested on our globe.

It is to be regretted that the pen of history and the harp of the hard have been so exclusively concerned to depict the intellectual and artistic life of the Greeks, and so neglectful of their industrial career. The same remark may apply to the story of nearly all the ancient peoples. The common life of man was neglected for the glamour and glory of its heroic aspects; and the writer of to-day is many times obliged to grope in uncertainty, in his endeavor to delineate the social and industrial condition of the ancient peoples. Nevertheless, much is known respect ing the forms of labor which were practiced among the gresco-italic races; and it is believed that to this important branch of the subject full justice has been done by the authors, in the chapters devoted to this branch of the inquiry.

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