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Chapter 4
第四章
Hieroglyphics
象形文字
These earliest ancestors of ours who lived in the great European wilderness were rapidly learning many new things.
我們這些最早的祖先生活在歐洲的荒野上，他們迅速學習著許多新事物。
It is safe to say that in due course of time they would have given up the ways of savages and would have developed a civilisation of their own.
可以肯定，到某個時候，他們必將脫離野蠻人的生活，發展出一種屬于自己的文明。
But suddenly there came an end to their isolation. They were discovered.
不出所料，他們與世隔絕的狀態完結了。他們被發現了。
A traveller from an unknown southland who had dared to cross the sea and the high mountain passes had found his way to the wild people of the European continent.
一個來自神秘南方的旅行者，勇敢地跨過海洋，越過沿途的高山，來到歐洲大陸的野蠻人中間。
He came from Africa. His home was in Egypt.
此人來自非洲，他的故鄉名叫“埃及”。
The valley of the Nile had developed a high stage of civilisation thousands of years before the people of the west had dreamed of the possibilities of a fork or a wheel or a house.
在西方人看見刀叉、車輪、房屋等等文明之物前的幾千年，位于尼羅河谷的埃及便已發展出一種高級的文明。
And we shall therefore leave our great-great-grandfathers in their caves,
現在，我們要離開自己尚處穴居階段的祖先，
while we visit the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, where stood the earliest school of the human race.
去拜訪一下地中海南岸和東岸的人們。那里是人類文明的第一個搖籃。
The Egyptians have taught us many things.
古埃及人教會了我們許多東西。
They were excellent farmers. They knew all about irrigation.
他們是優秀的農夫，精通灌溉術。
They built temples which were afterwards copied by the Greeks and which served as the earliest models for the churches in which we worship nowadays.
他們建造的神廟不僅被后來的希臘人仿效，而且還是我們現代教堂的最初藍本。
They had invented a calendar which proved such a useful instrument for the purpose of measuring time that it has survived with a few changes until today.
他們發明的日歷能精確地計量時間，稍加修改后，一直沿用至今。
But most important of all, the Egyptians had learned how to preserve speech for the benefit of future generations. They had invented the art of writing.
最重要的是，古埃及人發明了為后人保存語言的方法—一文字。
We are so accustomed to newspapers and books and magazines that we take it for granted that the world has always been able to read and write.
最重要的是，古埃及人發明了為后人保存語言的方法—一文字。
As a matter of fact, writing, the most important of all inventions, is quite new.
可事實上；作為人類最重要的發明，書寫和文字是人類歷史上最近才出現的創舉。
