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.
我们这些最早的祖先生活在欧洲的荒野上，他们迅速学习着许多新事物。
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，到某个时候，他们必将脱离野蛮人的生活，发展出一种属于自己的文明。
But suddenly there came an end to their isolation. They were discovered.
不出所料，他们与世隔绝的状态完结了。他们被发现了。
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.
一个来自神秘南方的旅行者，勇敢地跨过海洋，越过沿途的高山，来到欧洲大陆的野蛮人中间。
He came from Africa. His home was in Egypt.
此人来自非洲，他的故乡名叫“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.
在西方人看见刀叉、车轮、房屋等等文明之物前的几千年，位于尼罗河谷的埃及便已发展出一种高级的文明。
And we shall therefore leave our great-great-grandfathers in their caves,
现在，我们要离开自己尚处穴居阶段的祖先，
while we visit the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, where stood the earliest school of the human race.
去拜访一下地中海南岸和东岸的人们。那里是人类文明的第一个摇篮。
The Egyptians have taught us many things.
古埃及人教会了我们许多东西。
They were excellent farmers. They knew all about irrigation.
他们是优秀的农夫，精通灌溉术。
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.
他们建造的神庙不仅被后来的希腊人仿效，而且还是我们现代教堂的最初蓝本。
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.
他们发明的日历能精确地计量时间，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，古埃及人发明了为后人保存语言的方法—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，古埃及人发明了为后人保存语言的方法—一文字。
As a matter of fact, writing, the most important of all inventions, is quite new.
可事实上；作为人类最重要的发明，书写和文字是人类历史上最近才出现的创举。
