Seven years ago nothing was known in Egypt which could be attributed to a Greek origin before the Alexandrine times; the early notices on the monuments, which seemed to refer to the peoples of the Mediterranean, stood alone, and their relation to what was known on Greek soil appeared vague and unreal. But now the main light on the chronology of the civilizations of the Aegean comes from Egypt; and it is Egyptian sources that must be thanked by classical scholars for revealing the real standing of the antiquities of Greece. Without the foreign colonies on the Nile, they would still be groping in speechless remains, which might cover either a century or a thousand years, for aught that could be determined in Greek excavations. Egypt has done for the pre-historic ages the same great office of conservator which she has performed for the historic period. To Egypt we are indebted for the manuscripts, the paintings, and the textiles of the Greek and Roman times; from Egypt have just come the fragments of Plato and Euripides which show the original text, and the letters and private papers which tell of the daily life of the Greeks dwelling there.