Excerpt from Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol. 1: Historical Documents From the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest In no particular have modern historical studies made greater progress than in the reproduction and publication of documentary sources from which our knowledge of the most varied peoples and periods is drawn. In American history whole libraries of such sources have appeared or are promised. These are chiefly in English, although the other languages of Europe are of course often largely represented. The employment of such sources from the early epochs of the world's history involves either a knowledge of ancient languages on the part of the user, or a complete rendition of the documents into English. No attempt has ever been made to collect and present all the sources of Egyptian history in a modern language. A most laudable beginning in this direction, and one that has done great service, was the Records of the Past; but that series never attempted to be complete, and no amount of editing could make con sistent with themselves the uncorrelated translations of the large number of contributors to that series.