accompaniments of mental and material stagnation. It can be paralleled, so far as we know, from only two countries in Europe- Turkey and Greece. As examples of how far practical usefulness can be sacrificed to a literary tradition the following cases may serve. In Turkey, a few years ago, handbooks for police constables were issued in literary Turkish, a language which is ‘Greek’ to the poor Turkish policeman. In Greece, an eminent doctor, commissioned by the Government to prepare a few simple instructions teaching peasants how to combat malaria, drafted them in a language which might have been understood by Hippocrates, but certainly was not by the peasants, for whom they were intended. So it is in Egypt and will be, as long as the present tradition lasts.
8. The effect on literature is hardly less deplorable. A highly classical style and an archaic diction, which remove the work from the comprehension of the vulgar, are regarded as merits in an Egyptian writer. The possession of a “fine style” is too often synonymous with being unintelligible to all except the most educated readers. Language and not matter becomes the all- important. Egyptian literature, in short, is intended for the few, and its use as a means for spreading knowledge among the people is ignored. Not a book, not a newspaper article is published which is not an effort for all, excepting an educated minority to understand.
The only remedy which can bring about a real improvement in the mental development of the Egyptian nation is the adoption of the spoken language as the language of writing, and the creation of a vernacular literature. Such a change would be unfavourably received by the learned, the sheikhs, lawyers, and professional letter-writers, to whom the existence of the present written language is, or rather appears to be, an advantage. The arguments advanced against any such innovation are of the most various kinds. Some plead the poverty of the spoken language, and its unsuitability for literary purposes. Others deny its title to 1388 Minute of Dissent
