For the study of the moral character of the ancient Egyptian, a document, of which a mutilated copy is found on a papyrus preserved in the Royal Library in Berlin, is of peculiar importance.  As the opening lines are wanting it is impossible to know what the title of the work was, but because the text records a conversation that took place between a man who had suffered grievous misfortunes, and was weary of the world and of all in it, and wished to kill himself, it is generally called the “TALK OF A MAN WHO WAS TIRED OF LIFE WITH HIS SOUL.”  The general meaning of the document is clear.  The man weary of life discusses with his soul, as if it were a being wholly distinct from himself, whether he shall kill himself or not.  He is willing to do so, but is only kept from his purpose by his soul’s observation that if he does there will be no one to bury him properly, and to see that the funerary ceremonies are duly performed.  This shows that the man who was tired of life was alone in the world, and that all his relations and friends had either forsaken him, or had been driven away by him.  His soul then advised him to destroy himself by means of fire, probably, as has been suggested, because the ashes of a burnt body would need no further care.  The man accepted the advice of his soul, and was about to follow it literally, when the soul itself drew back, being afraid to undergo the sufferings inherent in such a death for the body.  The man then asked his soul to perform for him the last rites, but it absolutely refused to do so, and told him that it objected to death in any form, and that it had no desire at all to depart to the kingdom of the dead.  The soul supports its objection to suffer by telling the man who is tired of life that the mere remembrance of burial is fraught with mourning, and tears, and sorrow.  It means that a man is torn away from his house and thrown out upon a hill, and that he will never go up again to see the sun.  And after all, what is the good of burial?  Take the case of those who have had granite tombs, and funerary monuments in the form of pyramids made for them, and who lie in them in great state and dignity.  If we look at the slabs in their tombs, which have been placed there on purpose to receive offerings from the kinsfolk and friends of the deceased, we shall find that they are just as bare as are the tablets for offerings of the wretched people who belong to the Corvee, of whom some die on the banks of the canals, leaving one part of their bodies on the land and the other in the water, and some fall into the water altogether and are eaten by the fish, and others under the burning heat of the sun become bloated and loathsome objects.  Because men receive fine burials it does not follow that offerings of food, which will enable them to continue their existence, will be made by their kinsfolk.  Finally the soul ends its speech with the advice that represented the view of the average Egyptian in all ages, “Follow after the day of happiness, and banish care,” that is to say, spare no pains in making thyself happy at all times, and let nothing that concerns the present or the future trouble thee.