Note 201 — EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT DISCOVERIES.

Des Castes et de la Transmission héréditaire des Professions dans l'ancienne Egypte: a memoir published in the Journal général de l'Instruction publique, and in Vol. X. of the Revue Archéologique. Ampère proves by this learned étude that "there were no castes among the ancient Egyptians in the strict sense of that word, as it is used in India, for example." He very satisfactorily explains how a slight inexactness in the histories of Herodotus and Diodorus respecting hereditary transmission in the class of priests and warriors, "sufficed to found on this inheritance of pursuits and the separation of classes in Egypt, a theory that ended by becoming completely erroneous." M. Egger, in speaking of hereditary professions, says: "It is known that every degree of the social scale in ancient Egypt rested on this foundation. It was for a long time believed, according to Herodotus and Diodorus, that the Egyptian castes were absolutely exclusive; but an interesting memoir by J. J. Ampère (1848) proves the contrary, and scientific discoveries daily confirm the truth of his observations." (Bulletin de la Société d' Economie Sociale, June, 1868.)