taken by them (however inadequately and ignorantly) in the literature of the past, the fragments of this literature which have been preserved for to-day would have been much less considerable and more fragmentary than they are. As I understand history, the literary interests of the world owe very much to the fostering care given to them by the Church, or by certain portions of the Church, during the troublous centuries of the early Middle Ages. Throughout these centuries the Church not only supplied a standard of morality, but kept in existence whatever intellectual life there was."[64] XVII THE LITERARY PREËMINENCE OF ALEXANDRIA The fact that, for hundreds of years, Alexandria held the preëminence as the center and source of literary achievement--down to the culmination of her distinguishing history in 642 A. D.--will not blind our eyes to the recognition of the earlier and narrower centers and sources of intellectual activity. The fact must not be overlooked that, long before the imperial City was founded at the northern extremity of Egypt in 332 B. C., there were other important centers of learning and well-known depositories of written records. Perhaps the very earliest extensive depository of written documents of any character which have survived for millenniums of years was at ancient _Nippur_, in the region of Babylon and between the Euphrates and the Tigris. This Nippur, or the modern _Nuffar_, is spoken of in the old Sumerian legends as the oldest city of the earth, and the influence of which has been felt by all classes of Babylonian peoples for fully four thousand years. Through explorations, patiently and hazardously prosecuted--at Nippur and elsewhere in Babylonia--a long-forgotten world has slowly risen from its sealed entombment for multiplied centuries into resurrection life and reality. The Babylonian Expedition, organized and equipped for the purpose by the University of Pennsylvania, has carried on a succession of expeditions, with some interruptions, from 1889, forward, on the site of this ancient forgotten city. As part results of its excavations, there have been unearthed, not only temple walls with their contents of sarcophagi, bas-relief, vases, playthings, weapons, objects and ornaments in gold, silver, bronze, iron, clay, and stone, together with human bones, but also more than 32,000 cuneiform tablets. These tablets, the first-fruits of the vast literary deposits of this ancient city, are of a manifold character and consist of syllabaries, letters, chronological lists, historical fragments, religious texts, and the like. The tablets already examined indicate the probable value of many of these records from that far-off age. The oldest of them, according to Professor Hilprecht, have an antiquity of about 2800 years B. C.,--one particular fragment, containing a part of the deluge story more ancient by a thousand years than any yet found, antedates Abraham's leaving Ur of the Chaldees full two hundred years.