It is very difficult for us, especially for those of us who are not familiar with Eastern civilization, to realize the great importance that was attached to the seal by the peoples of the Ancient World. It was far more of a necessity in everyday life to the people of antiquity than are our seals to us, or locks and keys to a modern householder. We still use the seal, it is true, for our legal documents, sometimes for our letters, for our post-bags, and occasionally for sealing up a room. Our Ministers of State have their Seals of Office, our Corporations and Companies have their registered official seals, and in our Coronation ceremonies there is the investiture of the Sovereign with the Royal Signet Ring. But all these uses of the seal are as ancient as the pyramid-builders of Memphis. When we use the signet for sealing our letters or our legal documents, we are but following in the footsteps of the Ancient Egyptian, who, many hundred years before the time of Moses, employed the seal for the same purpose. When our Ministers of State receive from the Sovereign their Seals of Office, they are but following a custom that prevailed in Egypt as early as the Fourth Millennium before Christ; and when Edward the Seventh was recently invested with the Royal Signet Ring at his Coronation, he was but conforming to a ceremonial act that was recorded by the rulers of the Nile Valley four thousand years before William the Norman set foot on the shores of Britain. But in ancient times the seal was used for many purposes for which later inventions have proved more convenient. At the present day, when closing our doors, we generally lock them by a spring-bolt, and only attach a seal on very rare occasions. Locks and keys, however, are comparatively modern inventions, for the most ancient in Egypt are not older than the Roman period; and what locks and keys are to us, seals were to the people of the Old World. In ancient times, whenever a man left his home he always sealed up such parts as contained stores or other valuable property, so that they might be rendered secure from the attacks of thieves or slaves. In like manner boxes containing clothes or personal ornaments, and jars containing wine or oils, were kept under seal. The words meaning “to close” and “to seal” were in Egyptian[2] synonymous; indeed, to place a thing “under seal” was an ancient expression equivalent to the modern one of keeping a thing “under lock and key.”