ABSTRACT
THE culmination of the materi~l glories of the New Empire came in the reign of Amenhotep I I I. The whole situation of the nation curiously resembles that of France during the latter half of the reign of Louis XIV., just as the king himself resembles the magnificent Louis -without his energy and force of character. I t is one of the times of pause, which now and again occur in history, when all the tendencies which have been uniting to produce a great result have accomplished their work, and the finished product stands for a brief space complete and splendid before the eyes of the world before the inevitable decline and decay lay all its glories in the dust.
Of the things that really make a nation great, the Egypt of Amenhotep's day was probably barren-probably, for no great emergency ever tested the question of the existence or absence of such qualities; but in all the material results of past greatness, in all the flash and glitter of the riches that have been bought, and the art that has been made possible by the stress and strain of the past and the energy and sacrifice of the great men of the past, she was supreme. The nation stood before the eyes of the other nations of the ancient east, the
