In this strait, men sought help from Nature, and found in the huge rocks and bowlders shaped by her mighty forces a means of perpetuating notable events in the histories of nations and the lives of individuals. From the setting up of stones to commemorate great deeds and solemn covenants, it was but a step to the hewing of obelisks, upon which the early races carved their hieroglyphs, rude pictures of birds and men, of beasts and plants. As early as four thousand years before Christ, these slender shafts of stone were reared against the deep blue of the Egyptian sky, and for ages their shadows passed with the sun over the restless, shifting sands of the desert. Most of the ancient obelisks have crumbled to dust beneath Time’s unsparing hand, but a few fragmentary specimens are still in existence, while the British Museum is so fortunate as to be in possession of one shaft of black basalt that is in perfect condition. A part of it is covered with writing, a part with bas-reliefs. In Egypt these hieroglyphs were employed almost exclusively for religious writings--a purpose suggested by the derivation of the word itself, which comes from the Greek, _ieros_, a priest, and _glypha_, a carving. ♦Inscriptions on stone and clay♦ As the obelisk had taken the place of the rude stones and unwieldy bowlders which marked man’s first effort to solve an ever-recurring problem, so it in turn was superseded. The temples were sacred places, and especially fitted to become the repositories of the records that were to preserve for coming generations the deeds of kings and priests. Accordingly, the pictured stories of great events were graven on stone panels in the temple walls, or on slabs or tablets of the same enduring material. Then came a forward step to the easier and cheaper method of writing on soft clay. The monarchs, not being obliged to take into consideration questions of ease or economy, continued to make use of the stone tablets, but private individuals usually employed clay, not only for literary and scientific writings, but in their business transactions as well. A careful baking, either by artificial heat or in the burning rays of a tropic sun, rendered the clay tablets very enduring, so that many which have been dug from ancient ruins are now in a remarkable state of preservation, bearing letters and figures as clear as any of the inscriptions on marble, stone, or metal that have come to us from the splendid days of Greece or Rome. The people of Assyria and Chaldea recorded almost every transaction, whether public or private in character, upon tablets of clay, forming thus a faithful transcript of their daily lives and occupations, which may be read to-day by those who hold the key; thus it is we bridge the gulf of centuries. From the ruins of ancient Nineveh and Babylon, records of almost every sort have been unearthed, all inscribed on indestructible terra-cotta. There are bank-notes and notes of hand, deeds of property,