ABSTRACT
THE Egyptian was in all ages a great organizer, and in that special ability of his lay the secret of the power of the nation. The bureaucracy of Egypt was a force from the days of the 1st dynasty; and it maintained the traditions and the national life with a persistency which enabled it to overcome many disasters. The native administrator under the Ptolemies, or the Copt under the Arabs, gave a vitality to the organization of the land, and a resisting power against entire dissolution, like that which the Diocletian system gave to the Byzantine Empire. And though, no doubt, a country always suffers dearly for having such a force living on it, yet this control tides over disasters which might otherwise root out all continuity, and saves a powerful people from being overthrown, as was the dominion of the Gaul, the Arab, or the Mongol. Any view which we can get into the working of a continuous organization is very enlightening; and a great study like that of Mommsen on the construction of the Roman Empire shows how much care, foresight, and restraint is involved in upholding such an instrument of civilisation.
