barbaric people to progress in the art which we propose to study. II. THE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT. The history of Egypt is divided into five periods, from the earliest ages down to its conquest by the Romans at the beginning of the Christian era. The first period comprises the first fourteen dynasties of ancient kings, among whom the most important are: Menes, founder of Memphis, Shoofoo or Cheops, Shafra or Chephren, and Mycerinus, builders of the pyramids of Gizeh, and the two Theban monarchs, Osirtasen I. and Amenemha III., by whom the tombs at Beni Hassan, the Labyrinth and Lake Moeris were constructed. According to Bunsen these fourteen dynasties date from 3623 to 2547 B.C. The second period is marked by the invasion of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, of whom there were three dynasties. They remained in power until 1625 B.C. and were a warlike and destructive race, leaving no permanent traces of their occupation. The third period is the most brilliant in Egyptian history, extending from 1625 to 525 B.C., and comprising nine dynasties of great conquerors and builders. The best known of these are: Amosis, Thothmes III., Sethi I., Rameses II. (the Great), called also Sesostris, and Rameses III. Under these kings the great temples of Luxor, Abydus, and Karnak were erected and the arts were assiduously cultivated. The Persians under Cambyses occupied the country in the year 525 B.C. They were expelled a century later, but were again victorious in 340 B.C., and remained in possession until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332. This fourth period was as unproductive in works of art as had been that of the Hyksos dominion. After Alexander, the Ptolemys ruled until the close of the first century before Christ. Their government promoted the cultivation of the arts and industries and formed the fifth and last period in the history of ancient Egypt as an independent state. Of these five epochs there are, therefore, only three—namely, the first, third, and fifth—during which architecture flourished, and these three in reality form but one long period in the history of an art which remained almost unaltered, scarcely either improving or receding, from the remotest times to its last day. Our knowledge of ancient Egypt has been chiefly derived from bass-reliefs, mural paintings and hieroglyphics. The latter were unintelligible until the discovery of the Rosetta stone by the French consul Champollion, in 1798. This was part of a stone tablet bearing three inscriptions, one in hieroglyphics, one in the Cursive letters used by the lower classes, and the third in Greek. By means of this the old alphabet was reconstructed and all the ancient inscriptions deciphered. _TOMBS_. The most important monuments of the first period are the pyramids, the oldest of which were built between three and four thousand years before Christ.