First Sentence

"UNTIL within the last few years the writer who set out to gather together the facts concerning the various great periods of Egyptian history, with the view of placing before his readers a connected sketch of the most important events which took place in the Valley of the Nile between the Fourth Cataract and the Mediterranean Sea, was compelled to state unhesitatingly that Egyptological science possessed no exact knowledge concerning the origin of the people who have been universally called "Egyptians.""