As the riches of Egypt depended on the inundation of the Nile, all the circumstances and different degrees of its increase had been carefully considered; and by a long series of regular observations, made during many years, the inundation itself discovered what kind of harvest the ensuing year was likely to produce.(292) The kings had placed at Memphis a measure on which these different increases were marked; and from thence notice was given to all the rest of Egypt, the inhabitants of which knew, by that means, beforehand, what they might fear or promise themselves from the harvest. Strabo speaks of a well on the banks of the Nile near the town of Syene, made for that purpose.(293)

The same custom is observed to this day at Grand Cairo. In the court of a mosque there stands a pillar, on which are marked the degrees of the Nile's increase; and common criers every day proclaim, in all parts of the city, how high it is risen. The tribute paid to the Grand Signior for the lands, is regulated by the inundation. The day on which it rises to a certain height, is kept as a grand festival, and solemnized with fire-works, feastings, and all the demonstrations of public rejoicing; and in the remotest ages, the overflowing of the Nile was always attended with an universal joy throughout all Egypt, that being the fountain of its happiness.

The heathens ascribed the inundation of the Nile to their god Serapis; and the pillar on which was marked the increase, was preserved religiously in the temple of that idol.(294) The emperor Constantine having ordered it to be removed into the church of Alexandria, the Egyptians spread a report, that the Nile would rise no more by reason of the wrath of Serapis; but the river overflowed and increased as usual the following years. Julian the apostate, a zealous protector of idolatry, caused this pillar to be replaced in the same temple, out of which it was again removed by the command of Theodosius.

6. The Canals of the Nile and Spiral Pumps.—Divine Providence, in giving so beneficent a river to Egypt, did not thereby intend that the inhabitants of it should be idle, and enjoy so great a blessing without taking any pains. One may naturally suppose, that as the Nile could not of itself cover the whole country, great labour was to be used to facilitate the overflowing of the lands; and numberless canals cut, in order to convey the waters to all parts. The villages, which stand very thick on the banks of the Nile on eminences, have each their canals, which are opened at proper times, to let the water into the country. The more distant villages have theirs also, even to the extremities of the kingdom. Thus the waters are successively conveyed to the most remote places. Persons are not permitted to cut the trenches to receive the waters, till the river is at a certain height; nor to open them all at once; because otherwise some lands would be too much overflowed, and others not covered enough. They begin with opening them in Upper, and afterwards in Lower Egypt, according to the rules prescribed in a roll or book, in which all the measures are exactly set down. By this means the water is husbanded with such care, that it spreads itself over all the lands. The countries overflowed by the Nile are so extensive, and lie so low, and the number of canals so great, that of all the waters which flow into Egypt during the months of June, July, and August, it is believed that not a tenth part of them reaches the sea.

But as, notwithstanding all these canals, there are still abundance of high lands which cannot receive the benefit of the Nile's overflowing; this want is supplied by spiral pumps, which are turned by oxen, in order to bring the water into pipes, which convey it to these lands. Diodorus speaks of a similar engine invented by Archimedes in his travels into Egypt, which is called Cochlea AEgyptia.(295)

7. The Fertility caused by the Nile.—There is no country in the world where the soil is more fruitful than in Egypt; which is owing entirely to the Nile. For whereas other rivers, when they overflow lands, wash away and exhaust their vivific moisture; the Nile, on the contrary, by the excellent slime it brings along with it, fattens and enriches them in such a manner, as sufficiently compensates for what the foregoing harvest had impaired.(296) The husbandman, in this country, never tires himself with holding the plough, or breaking the clods of earth. As soon as the Nile retires, he has nothing to do but to turn up the earth, and temper it with a little sand, in order to lessen its rankness; after which he sows it with great ease, and with little or no expense. Two months after, it is covered with all sorts of corn and pulse. The Egyptians generally sow in October and November, according as the waters draw off; and their harvest is in March and April.

The same land bears, in one year, three or four different kinds of crops. Lettuces and cucumbers are sown first; then corn; and, after harvest, several sorts of pulse which are peculiar to Egypt. As the sun is extremely hot in this country, and rains fall very seldom in it, it is natural to suppose that the earth would soon be parched, and the corn and pulse burnt up by so scorching a heat, were it not for the canals and reservoirs with which Egypt abounds; and which, by the drains from thence, amply supply wherewith to water and refresh the fields and gardens.

The Nile contributes no less to the nourishment of cattle, which is another source of wealth to Egypt. The Egyptians begin to turn them out to grass in November, and they graze till the end of March. Words could never express how rich their pastures are; and how fat the flocks and herds (which, by reason of the mildness of the air, are out night and day) grow in a very little time. During the inundation of the Nile, they are fed with hay and cut straw, barley and beans, which are their common food.

A man cannot, says Corneille de Bruyn in his Travels,(297) help observing the admirable providence of God towards this country, who sends at a fixed season such great quantities of rain in Ethiopia, in order to water Egypt, where a shower of rain scarce ever falls; and who, by that means, causes the driest and most sandy soil to become the richest and most fruitful country in the universe.

Another thing to be observed here is, that (as the inhabitants say) in the beginning of June, and the four following months, the north-east winds blow constantly, in order to keep back the waters, which otherwise would draw off too fast; and to hinder them from discharging themselves into the sea, the entrance to which these winds bar up, as it were, from them. The ancients have not omitted this circumstance.

The same Providence, whose ways are wonderful and infinitely various, displayed itself after a quite different manner in Palestine, in rendering it exceeding fruitful;(298) not by rains, which fall during the course of the year, as is usual in other places; nor by a peculiar inundation like that of the Nile in Egypt; but by sending fixed rains at two seasons, when his people were obedient to him, to make them more sensible of their continual dependence upon him. God himself commands them, by his servant Moses, to make this reflection: "The land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: but the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven."(299) After this, God promises to give his people, so long as they shall continue obedient to him, "the former" and "the latter rain:" the first in autumn, to bring up the corn; and the second in the spring and summer, to make it grow and ripen.

8. The different Prospects exhibited by the Nile.—There cannot be a finer sight than Egypt at two seasons of the year. For if a man ascends some mountain, or one of the largest pyramids of Grand Cairo, in the months of July and August, he beholds a vast sea, in which numberless towns and villages appear, with several causeys leading from place to place; the whole interspersed with groves and fruit trees, whose tops only are visible; all which forms a delightful prospect.(300) This view is bounded by mountains and woods, which terminate, at the utmost distance the eye can discover, the most beautiful horizon that can be imagined. On the contrary, in winter, that is to say, in the months of January and February, the whole country is like one continued scene of beautiful meadows, whose verdure, enamelled with flowers, charms the eye. The spectator beholds, on every side, flocks and herds dispersed over all the plains, with infinite numbers of husbandmen and gardeners. The air is then perfumed by the great quantity of blossoms on the orange, lemon, and other trees; and is so pure, that a wholesomer or more agreeable is not found in the world; so that nature, being then dead, as it were, in all other climates, seems to be alive only for so delightful an abode.

9. The Canal formed by the Nile, by which a communication in made between the two Seas.—The canal, by which a communication was made between the Red-Sea and the Mediterranean, ought to have a place here, as it was not one of the least advantages which the Nile procured to Egypt.(301) Sesostris, or, according to others, Psammetichus, first projected the design, and began this work. Necho, successor to the last prince, laid out immense sums upon it, and employed a prodigious number of men. It is said, that above six score thousand Egyptians perished in the undertaking. He gave it over, terrified by an oracle, which told him that he would thereby open a door for Barbarians (for by this name they called all foreigners) to enter Egypt. The work was continued by Darius, the first of that name; but he also desisted from it, upon his being told, that as the Red-Sea lay higher than Egypt, it would drown the whole country. But it was at last finished under the Ptolemies, who, by the help of sluices, opened or shut the canal as there was occasion. It began not far from the Delta, near the town of Bubastus. It was a hundred cubits, that is, twenty-five fathoms broad, so that two vessels might pass with ease; it had depth enough to carry the largest ships; and was about a thousand stadia, that is, above fifty leagues long. This canal was of great service to the trade of Egypt. But it is now almost filled up, and there are scarce any remains of it to be seen.



Chapter III. Lower Egypt.

I am now to speak of Lower Egypt. Its shape, which resembles a triangle, or Delta, Δ, gave occasion to its bearing the latter name, which is that of one of the Greek letters. Lower Egypt forms a kind of island; it begins at a place where the Nile is divided into two large canals, through which it empties itself into the Mediterranean: the mouth on the right hand is called the Pelusian, and the other the Canopic, from two cities in their neighbourhood, Pelusium and Canopus, now called Damietta and Rosetta. Between these two large branches, there are five others of less note. This island is the best cultivated, the most fruitful, and the richest part of Egypt. Its chief cities (very anciently) were Heliopolis, Heracleopolis, Naucratis, Sais, Tanis, Canopus, Pelusium; and, in latter times, Alexandria, Nicopolis, &c. It was in the country of Tanis that the Israelites dwelt.

There was at Sais,(302) a temple dedicated to Minerva, who is supposed to be the same as Isis, with the following inscription: "I am whatever hath been, and is, and shall be; and no mortal hath yet pierced through the veil that shrouds me."

Heliopolis, that is, the city of the sun, was so called from a magnificent temple there dedicated to that planet.(303) Herodotus, and other authors after him, relate some particulars concerning the Phoenix and this temple, which, if true, would indeed be very wonderful. Of this kind of birds, if we may believe the ancients, there is never but one at a time in the world. He is brought forth in Arabia, lives five or six hundred years, and is of the size of an eagle. His head is adorned with a shining and most beautiful crest; the feathers of his neck are of a gold colour, and the rest of a purple; his tail is white, intermixed with red, and his eyes sparkling like stars. When he is old, and finds his end approaching, he builds a nest with wood and aromatic spices, and then dies. Of his bones and marrow, a worm is produced, out of which another Phoenix is formed. His first care is to solemnize his parent's obsequies, for which purpose he makes up a ball in the shape of an egg, with abundance of perfumes of myrrh, as heavy as he can carry, which he often essays beforehand; then he makes a hole in it, where he deposits his parent's body, and closes it carefully with myrrh and other perfumes. After this he takes up the precious load on his shoulders, and flying to the altar of the sun, in the city of Heliopolis, he there burns it.

Herodotus and Tacitus dispute the truth of some of the circumstances of this account, but seem to suppose it true in general. Pliny, on the contrary, in the very beginning of his account of it, insinuates plainly enough, that he looks upon the whole as fabulous; and this is the opinion of all modern authors.

This ancient tradition, though grounded on an evident falsehood, hath yet introduced into almost all languages, the custom of giving the name of phoenix to whatever is singular and uncommon in its kind: Rara avis in terris, says Juvenal,(304) speaking of the difficulty of finding an accomplished woman in all respects. And Seneca observes the same of a good man.(305)

What is reported of swans, viz. that they never sing but in their expiring moments, and that then they warble very melodiously, is likewise grounded merely on a vulgar error; and yet it is used, not only by the poets, but also by the orators, and even the philosophers. O mutis quoque piscibus donatura cycni, si libeat, sonum,(306) says Horace to Melpomene. Cicero compares the excellent discourse which Crassus made in the Senate, a few days before his death, to the melodious singing of a dying swan: Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini hominis vox et oratio. De Orat. l. iii. n. 6. And Socrates used to say, that good men ought to imitate swans, who, perceiving by a secret instinct, and a sort of divination, what advantage there is in death, die singing and with joy: Providentes quid in morte boni sit, cum cantu et voluptate moriuntur. Tusc. Qu. l. i. n. 73. I thought this short digression might be of service to youth; and return now to my subject.

It was in Heliopolis, that an ox, under the name of Mnevis, was worshipped as a god.(307) Cambyses, king of Persia, exercised his sacrilegious rage on this city; burning the temples, demolishing the palaces, and destroying the most precious monuments of antiquity in it. There are still to be seen some obelisks which escaped his fury; and others were brought from thence to Rome, to which city they are an ornament even at this day.

Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, from whom it had its name, vied almost in magnificence with the ancient cities in Egypt. It stands four days' journey from Cairo, and was formerly the chief mart of all the trade of the East. The merchandises were unloaded at Portus Murius,(308) a town on the western coast of the Red-Sea;(309) from whence they were brought upon camels to a town of Thebais, called Copht, and afterwards conveyed down the Nile to Alexandria, whither merchants resorted from all parts.

It is well known that the trade of the East hath, at all times, enriched those who carried it on. This was the chief source of the vast treasures that Solomon amassed, and which enabled him to build the magnificent temple of Jerusalem. David, by conquering Idumaea, became master of Elath and Esiongeber, two towns situated on the eastern shore of the Red-Sea.(310) From these two ports,(311) Solomon sent fleets to Ophir and Tarshish, which always brought back immense riches.(312) This traffic, after having been enjoyed some time by the Syrians, who regained Idumaea, passed from them into the hands of the Tyrians. These got all their merchandise conveyed, by the way of Rhinocolura (a sea-port town lying between the confines of Egypt and Palestine) to Tyre, from whence they distributed them all over the western world.(313) Hereby the Tyrians enriched themselves exceedingly, under the Persian empire, by the favour and protection of whose monarchs they had the full possession of this trade. But when the Ptolemies had made themselves masters of Egypt, they soon drew all this trade into their kingdom, by building Berenice and other ports on the western side of the Red-Sea, belonging to Egypt; and fixed their chief mart at Alexandria, which thereby rose to be the city of the greatest trade in the world. There it continued for a great many centuries after; and all the traffic which the western parts of the world from that time had with Persia, India, Arabia, and the eastern coasts of Africa, was wholly carried on through the Red-Sea and the mouth of the Nile, till a way was discovered, a little above two hundred years since, of sailing to those parts by the Cape of Good Hope. After this, the Portuguese for some time were masters of this trade; but now it is in a manner engrossed wholly by the English and Dutch. This short account of the East-India trade, from Solomon's time, to the present age, is extracted from Dr. Prideaux.(314)

For the convenience of trade, there was built near Alexandria, in an island called Pharos, a tower which bore the same name.(315) At the top of this tower was kept a fire, to light such ships as sailed by night near those dangerous coasts, which were full of sands and shelves, from whence all other towers, designed for the same use, have derived their name, as, Pharo di Messina, &c. The famous architect Sostratus built it by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who expended eight hundred talents upon it.(316) It was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. Some, through a mistake, have commended that prince, for permitting the architect to put his name in the inscription, which was fixed on the tower, instead of his own.(317) It was very short and plain, according to the manner of the ancients. Sostratus Cnidius Dexiphanis F. Diis Servatoribus pro navigantibus: i.e. Sostratus the Cnidian, son of Dexiphanes, to the protecting deities, for the use of sea-faring people. But certainly Ptolemy must have very much undervalued that kind of immortality which princes are generally so fond of, to suffer, that his name should not be so much as mentioned in the inscription of an edifice so capable of immortalizing him. What we read in Lucian concerning this matter, deprives Ptolemy of a modesty, which indeed would be very ill placed here.(318) This author informs us that Sostratus, to engross in after-times the whole glory of that noble structure to himself, caused the inscription with his own name to be carved in the marble, which he afterwards covered with lime, and thereon put the king's name. The lime soon mouldered away; and by that means, instead of procuring the architect the honour with which he had flattered himself, served only to discover to future ages his mean fraud and ridiculous vanity.

Riches failed not to bring into this city, as they usually do in all places, luxury and licentiousness; so that the Alexandrian voluptuousness became a proverb.(319) In this city arts and sciences were also industriously cultivated, witness that stately edifice, surnamed the Museum, where the literati used to meet, and were maintained at the public expense; and the famous library, which was augmented considerably by Ptolemy Philadelphus; and which, by the magnificence of the kings his successors, at last contained seven hundred thousand volumes. In Caesar's wars with the Alexandrians, part of this library, (situate in the Bruchion,(320)) which consisted of four hundred thousand volumes, was unhappily consumed by fire.(321)



Part The Second. Of the Manners and Customs of the Egyptians.

Egypt was ever considered, by all the ancients, as the most renowned school for wisdom and politics, and the source from whence most arts and sciences were derived. This kingdom bestowed its noblest labours and finest arts on the improvement of mankind; and Greece was so sensible of this, that its most illustrious men, as Homer, Pythagoras, Plato; even its great legislators, Lycurgus and Solon, with many more whom it is needless to mention, travelled into Egypt, to complete their studies, and draw from that fountain whatever was most rare and valuable in every kind of learning. God himself has given this kingdom a glorious testimony, when praising Moses, he says of him, that "He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."(322)

To give some idea of the manners and customs of Egypt, I shall confine myself principally to these particulars: its kings and government; priests and religion; soldiers and war; sciences, arts, and trades.

The reader must not be surprised if he sometimes finds, in the customs I take notice of, a kind of contradiction. This circumstance is owing either to the difference of countries and nations, which did not always follow the same usages; or to the different way of thinking of the historians whom I copy.



Chapter I. Concerning The Kings And Government.

The Egyptians were the first people who rightly understood the rules of government. A nation so grave and serious immediately perceived, that the true end of politics is, to make life easy, and a people happy.

The kingdom was hereditary; but, according to Diodorus,(323) the Egyptian princes conducted themselves in a different manner from what is usually seen in other monarchies, where the prince acknowledges no other rule of his actions than his own arbitrary will and pleasure. But here, kings were under greater restraint from the laws than their subjects. They had some particular ones digested by a former monarch, that composed part of what the Egyptians called the sacred books. Thus every thing being settled by ancient custom, they never sought to live in a different way from their ancestors.

No slave nor foreigner was admitted into the immediate service of the prince; such a post was too important to be intrusted to any persons, except those who were the most distinguished by their birth, and had received the most excellent education; to the end that, as they had the liberty of approaching the king's person day and night, he might, from men so qualified, hear nothing which was unbecoming the royal majesty; nor have any sentiments instilled into him but such as were of a noble and generous kind. For, adds Diodorus, it is very rarely seen that kings fly out into any vicious excess, unless those who approach them approve their irregularities, or serve as instruments to their passions.

The kings of Egypt freely permitted, not only the quality and proportion of what they ate and drank to be prescribed them, (a thing customary in Egypt, whose inhabitants were all sober, and whose air inspired frugality,) but even that all their hours, and almost every action, should be under the regulation of the laws.

In the morning at day break, when the head is clearest, and the thoughts most unperplexed, they read the several letters they received; to form a more just and distinct idea of the affairs which were to come under their consideration that day.

As soon as they were dressed, they went to the daily sacrifice performed in the temple; where, surrounded with their whole court, and the victims placed before the altar, they assisted at the prayer pronounced aloud by the high priest, in which he asked of the gods, health and all other blessings for the king, because he governed his people with clemency and justice, and made the laws of his kingdom the rule and standard of his actions. The high priest entered into a long detail of his royal virtues; observing, that he was religious to the gods, affable to men, moderate, just, magnanimous, sincere; an enemy to falsehood; liberal; master of his passions; punishing crimes with the utmost lenity, but boundless in rewarding merit. He next spoke of the faults which kings might be guilty of; but supposed at the same time that they never committed any, except by surprise or ignorance; and loaded with imprecations such of their ministers as gave them ill council, and suppressed or disguised the truth. Such were the methods of conveying instruction to their kings. It was thought that reproaches would only sour their tempers; and that the most effectual method to inspire them with virtue, would be to point out to them their duty in praises conformable to the sense of the laws, and pronounced in a solemn manner before the gods. After the prayers and sacrifices were ended, the councils and actions of great men were read to the king out of the sacred books, in order that he might govern his dominions according to their maxims, and maintain the laws which had made his predecessors and their subjects so happy.

I have already observed, that the quantity as well as quality of what he ate or drank were prescribed, by the laws, to the king: his table was covered with nothing but the most common food; because eating in Egypt was designed, not to tickle the palate, but to satisfy the cravings of nature. One would have concluded, (observes the historian,) that these rules had been laid down by some able physician, who was attentive only to the health of the prince, rather than by a legislator. The same simplicity was seen in all other things; and we read in Plutarch of a temple in Thebes, which had one of its pillars inscribed with imprecations against that king who first introduced profusion and luxury into Egypt.(324)

The principal duty of kings, and their most essential function, is the administering justice to their subjects. Accordingly the kings of Egypt cultivated more immediately this duty; convinced that on this depended not only the ease and comfort of individuals, but the happiness of the state; which would be a herd of robbers rather than a kingdom, should the weak be unprotected, and the powerful enabled by their riches and influence to commit crimes with impunity.

Thirty judges were selected out of the principal cities, to form a body for dispensing justice through the whole kingdom. The prince, in filling these vacancies, chose such as were most renowned for their honesty; and put at their head, him who was most distinguished for his knowledge and love of the laws, and was had in the most universal esteem. They had revenues assigned them, to the end that, being freed from domestic cares, they might devote their whole time to the execution of the laws. Thus honourably maintained by the generosity of the prince, they administered gratuitously to the people, that justice to which they have a natural right, and which ought to be equally open to all; and, in some sense, to the poor more than the rich, because the latter find a support within themselves; whereas the very condition of the former exposes them more to injuries, and therefore calls louder for the protection of the laws. To guard against surprise, affairs were transacted by writing in the assemblies of these judges. That false eloquence was dreaded, which dazzles the mind, and moves the passions. Truth could not be expressed with too much plainness, as it alone was to have the sway in judgments; because in that alone the rich and poor, the powerful and weak, the learned and the ignorant, were to find relief and security. The president of this senate wore a collar of gold set with precious stones, at which hung a figure represented blind, this being called the emblem of truth. When the president put this collar on, it was understood as a signal to enter upon business. He touched the party with it who was to gain his cause, and this was the form of passing sentence.

The most excellent circumstance in the laws of the Egyptians, was, that every individual, from his infancy, was nurtured in the strictest observance of them. A new custom in Egypt was a kind of miracle.(325) All things there ran in the old channel; and the exactness with which little matters were adhered to, preserved those of more importance; and consequently no nation ever retained their laws and customs longer than the Egyptians.

Wilful murder was punished with death,(326) whatever might be the condition of the murdered person, whether he was free-born or otherwise. In this the humanity and equity of the Egyptians were superior to that of the Romans, who gave the master an absolute power of life and death over his slave. The emperor Adrian, indeed, abolished this law; from an opinion, that an abuse of this nature ought to be reformed, let its antiquity or authority be ever so great.

Perjury was also punished with death,(327) because that crime attacks both the gods, whose majesty is trampled upon by invoking their name to a false oath, and men, by breaking the strongest tie of human society, viz. sincerity and veracity.

The false accuser was condemned to undergo the punishment which the person accused was to have suffered, had the accusation been proved.(328)

He who had neglected or refused to save a man's life when attacked, if it was in his power to assist him, was punished as rigorously as the assassin:(329) but if the unfortunate person could not be succoured, the offender was at least to be impeached; and penalties were decreed for any neglect of this kind. Thus the subjects were a guard and protection to one another; and the whole body of the community united against the designs of the bad.

No man was allowed to be useless to the state;(330) but every one was obliged to enter his name and place of abode in a public register, that remained in the hands of the magistrate, and to describe his profession, and his means of support. If he gave a false account of himself, he was immediately put to death.

To prevent borrowing of money, the parent of sloth, frauds, and chicane, king Asychis made a very judicious law.(331) The wisest and best regulated states, as Athens and Rome, ever found insuperable difficulties, in contriving a just medium, to restrain, on one hand, the cruelty of the creditor in the exaction of his loan; and on the other, the knavery of the debtor, who refused or neglected to pay his debts. Now Egypt took a wise course on this occasion; and, without doing any injury to the personal liberty of its inhabitants, or ruining their families, pursued the debtor with incessant fears of infamy in case he were dishonest. No man was permitted to borrow money without pawning to the creditor the body of his father, which every Egyptian embalmed with great care; and kept reverentially in his house, (as will be observed in the sequel,) and therefore might be easily moved from one place to another. But it was equally impious and infamous not to redeem soon so precious a pledge; and he who died without having discharged this duty, was deprived of the customary honours paid to the dead.(332)

Diodorus remarks an error committed by some of the Grecian legislators.(333) They forbid, for instance, the taking away (to satisfy debts) the horses, ploughs, and other implements of husbandry employed by peasants; judging it inhuman to reduce, by this security, these poor men to an impossibility of discharging their debts, and getting their bread: but, at the same time, they permitted the creditor to imprison the peasants themselves, who alone were capable of using these implements, which exposed them to the same inconveniences, and at the same time deprived the government of persons who belong, and are necessary, to it; who labour for the public emolument, and over whose person no private man has any right.

Polygamy was allowed in Egypt, except to the priests, who could marry but one woman.(334) Whatever was the condition of the woman, whether she was free or a slave, her children were deemed free and legitimate.

One custom that was practised in Egypt, shows the profound darkness into which such nations as were most celebrated for their wisdom have been plunged; and this is the marriage of brothers with their sisters, which was not only authorized by the laws, but even, in some measure, originated from their religion, from the example and practice of such of their gods as had been the most anciently and universally adored in Egypt, that is, Osiris and Isis.(335)

A very great respect was there paid to old age.(336) The young were obliged to rise up for the old; and on every occasion, to resign to them the most honourable seat. The Spartans borrowed this law from the Egyptians.

The virtue in the highest esteem among the Egyptians, was gratitude. The glory which has been given them of being the most grateful of all men, shows that they were the best formed of any nation for social life. Benefits are the band of concord, both public and private. He who acknowledges favours, loves to confer them; and in banishing ingratitude, the pleasure of doing good remains so pure and engaging, that it is impossible for a man to be insensible of it. But it was particularly towards their kings that the Egyptians prided themselves on evincing their gratitude. They honoured them whilst living, as so many visible representations of the Deity; and after their death lamented for them as the fathers of their country. These sentiments of respect and tenderness proceeded from a strong persuasion, that the Divinity himself had placed them upon the throne, as he distinguished them so greatly from all other mortals; and that kings bore the most noble characteristics of the Supreme Being, as the power and will of doing good to others were united in their persons.



Chapter II. Concerning the Priests And Religion Of The Egyptians.

Priests, in Egypt, held the second rank to kings. They had great privileges and revenues; their lands were exempted from all imposts; of which some traces are seen in Genesis, where it is said, "Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's."(337)

The prince usually honoured them with a large share in his confidence and government, because they, of all his subjects, had received the best education, had acquired the greatest knowledge, and were most strongly attached to the king's person and the good of the public. They were at one and the same time the depositaries of religion and of the sciences; and to this circumstance was owing the great respect which was paid them by the natives as well as foreigners, by whom they were alike consulted upon the most sacred things relating to the mysteries of religion, and the most profound subjects in the several sciences.

The Egyptians pretend to be the first institutors of festivals and processions in honour of the gods.(338) One festival was celebrated in the city of Bubastus, whither persons resorted from all parts of Egypt, and upwards of seventy thousand, besides children, were seen at it. Another, surnamed the feast of the lights, was solemnized at Sais. All persons, throughout Egypt, who did not go to Sais, were obliged to illuminate their windows.

Different animals were sacrificed in different countries, but one common and general ceremony was observed in all sacrifices, viz. the laying of hands upon the head of the victim, loading it at the same time with imprecations; and praying the gods to divert upon that victim all the calamities which might threaten Egypt.(339)

It is to Egypt that Pythagoras owed his favourite doctrine of the Metempsychosis or transmigration of souls.(340) The Egyptians believed, that at the death of men their souls transmigrated into other human bodies; and that, if they had been vicious, they were imprisoned in the bodies of unclean or ill-conditioned beasts, to expiate in them their past transgressions; and that after a revolution of some centuries they again animated other human bodies.

The priests had the possession of the sacred books, which contained, at large, the principles of government, as well as the mysteries of divine worship. Both were uncommonly involved in symbols and enigmas, which, under these veils, made truth more venerable, and excited more strongly the curiosity of men.(341) The figure of Harpocrates, in the Egyptian sanctuaries, with his finger upon his mouth, seemed to intimate, that mysteries were there enclosed, the knowledge of which was revealed to very few. The sphinxes, placed at the entrance of all temples, implied the same. It is very well known that pyramids, obelisks, pillars, statues, in a word, all public monuments, were usually adorned with hieroglyphics; that is, with symbolical writings; whether these were characters unknown to the vulgar, or figures of animals, under which was couched a hidden and parabolical meaning. Thus, by a hare, was signified a lively and piercing attention, because this creature has a very delicate sense of hearing.(342) The statue of a judge without hands, and with eyes fixed upon the ground, symbolized the duties of those who were to exercise the judiciary functions.(343)

It would require a volume to treat fully of the religion of the Egyptians. But I shall confine myself to two articles, which form the principal part of it; and these are the worship of the different deities, and the ceremonies relating to funerals.

SECT. I. THE WORSHIP OF THE VARIOUS DEITIES.—Never were any people more superstitious than the Egyptians; they had a great number of gods, of different orders and degrees, which I shall omit, because they belong more to fable than to history. Among the rest, two were universally adored in that country, and these were Osiris and Isis, which are thought to be the sun and moon; and, indeed, the worship of those planets gave rise to idolatry.

Besides these gods, the Egyptians worshipped a great number of beasts; as the ox, the dog, the wolf, the hawk, the crocodile, the ibis,(344) the cat, &c. Many of these beasts were the objects of the superstition only of some particular cities; and whilst one people worshipped one species of animals as gods, their neighbours held the same animals in abomination. This was the source of the continual wars which were carried on between one city and another; and this was owing to the false policy of one of their kings, who, to deprive them of the opportunity and means of conspiring against the state, endeavoured to draw off their attention, by engaging them in religious contests. I call this a false and mistaken policy; because it directly thwarts the true spirit of government, the aim of which is, to unite all its members in the strictest ties, and to make all its strength consist in the perfect harmony of its several parts.

Every nation had a great zeal for their gods. "Among us," says Cicero,(345) "it is very common to see temples robbed, and statues carried off, but it was never known that any person in Egypt ever abused a crocodile, an ibis, a cat; for its inhabitants would have suffered the most, extreme torments, rather than be guilty of such sacrilege." It was death for any person to kill one of these animals voluntarily; and even a punishment was decreed against him who should have killed an ibis, or cat, with or without design.(346) Diodorus relates an incident,(347) to which he himself was an eye-witness during his stay in Egypt. A Roman having inadvertently, and without design, killed a cat, the exasperated populace ran to his house; and neither the authority of the king, who immediately detached a body of his guards, nor the terror of the Roman name, could rescue the unfortunate criminal. And such was the reverence which the Egyptians had for these animals, that in an extreme famine they chose to eat one another, rather than feed upon their imagined deities.

Of all these animals, the bull Apis, called Epaphus by the Greeks, was the most famous.(348) Magnificent temples were erected to him; extraordinary honours were paid him while he lived, and still greater after his death. Egypt went then into a general mourning. His obsequies were solemnized with such a pomp as is hardly credible. In the reign of Ptolemy Lagus, the bull Apis dying of old age,(349) the funeral pomp, besides the ordinary expenses, amounted to upwards of fifty thousand French crowns.(350) After the last honours had been paid to the deceased god, the next care was to provide him a successor; and all Egypt was sought through for that purpose. He was known by certain signs, which distinguished him from all other animals of that species; upon his forehead was to be a white spot, in form of a crescent; on his back, the figure of an eagle; upon his tongue, that of a beetle. As soon as he was found, mourning gave place to joy; and nothing was heard, in all parts of Egypt, but festivals and rejoicings. The new god was brought to Memphis, to take possession of his dignity, and there installed with a great number of ceremonies. The reader will find hereafter, that Cambyses, at his return from his unfortunate expedition against Ethiopia, finding all the Egyptians in transports of joy for the discovery of their new god Apis, and imagining that this was intended as an insult upon his misfortunes, killed, in the first impulse of his fury, the young bull, who, by that means, had but a short enjoyment of his divinity.

It is plain, that the golden calf set up near mount Sinai by the Israelites, was owing to their abode in Egypt, and an imitation of the god Apis; as well as those which were afterwards set up by Jeroboam (who had resided a considerable time in Egypt) in the two extremities of the kingdom of Israel.

The Egyptians, not contented with offering incense to animals, carried their folly to such an excess, as to ascribe a divinity to the pulse and roots of their gardens. For this they are ingeniously reproached by the satirist:

Who has not heard where Egypt's realms are nam'd, What monster-gods her frantic sons have fram'd? Here Ibis gorg'd with well-grown serpents, there The Crocodile commands religious fear: Where Memnon's statue magic strings inspire With vocal sounds, that emulate the lyre; And Thebes, such, Fate, are thy disastrous turns! Now prostrate o'er her pompous ruins mourns; A monkey-god, prodigious to be told! Strikes the beholder's eye with burnish'd gold: To godship here blue Triton's scaly herd, The river-progeny is there preferr'd: Through towns Diana's power neglected lies, Where to her dogs aspiring temples rise: And should you leeks or onions eat, no time Would expiate the sacrilegious crime Religious nations sure, and blest abodes, Where ev'ry orchard is o'errun with gods.(351)

It is astonishing to see a nation, which boasted its superiority above all others with regard to wisdom and learning, thus blindly abandon itself to the most gross and ridiculous superstitions. Indeed, to read of animals and vile insects, honoured with religious worship, placed in temples, and maintained with great care, and at an extravagant expense;(352) to read, that those who murdered them were punished with death; and that these animals were embalmed, and solemnly deposited in tombs assigned them by the public; to hear that this extravagance was carried to such lengths, as that leeks and onions were acknowledged as deities; were invoked in necessity, and depended upon for succour and protection; are absurdities which we, at this distance of time, can scarce believe; and yet they have the evidence of all antiquity. "You enter," says Lucian,(353) "into a magnificent temple, every part of which glitters with gold and silver. You there look attentively for a god, and are cheated with a stork, an ape, or a cat;" "a just emblem," adds that author, "of too many palaces, the masters of which are far from being the brightest ornaments of them."

Several reasons are assigned for the worship paid to animals by the Egyptians.(354)

The first is drawn from fabulous history. It is pretended that the gods, in a rebellion made against them by men, fled into Egypt, and there concealed themselves under the form of different animals; and that this gave birth to the worship which was afterwards paid to those animals.

The second is taken from the benefit which these several animals procure to mankind:(355) oxen by their labour; sheep by their wool and milk; dogs by their service in hunting, and guarding houses, whence the god Anubis was represented with a dog's head: the ibis, a bird very much resembling a stork, was worshipped, because he put to flight the winged serpents, with which Egypt would otherwise have been grievously infested; the crocodile, an amphibious creature, that is, living alike upon land and water, of a surprising strength and size,(356) was worshipped, because he defended Egypt from the incursions of the wild Arabs; the ichneumon was adored, because he prevented the too great increase of crocodiles, which might have proved destructive to Egypt. Now the little animal in question does this service to the country two ways. First, it watches the time when the crocodile is absent, and breaks his eggs, but does not eat them. Secondly, when the crocodile is asleep upon the banks of the Nile, (and he always sleeps with his mouth open,) the ichneumon, which lies concealed in the mud, leaps at once into his mouth; gets down to his entrails, which he gnaws; then piercing his belly, the skin of which is very tender, he escapes with safety; and thus, by his address and subtilty, returns victorious over so terrible an animal.

Philosophers, not satisfied with reasons which were too trifling to account for such strange absurdities as dishonoured the heathen system, and at which themselves secretly blushed, have, since the establishment of Christianity, supposed a third reason for the worship which the Egyptians paid to animals, and declared, that it was not offered to the animals themselves, but to the gods, of whom they are symbols. Plutarch, in his treatise where he examines professedly the pretensions of Isis and Osiris, the two most famous deities of the Egyptians, says as follows:(357) "Philosophers honour the image of God wherever they find it, even in inanimate beings, and consequently more in those which have life. We are therefore to approve, not the worshippers of these animals, but those who, by their means, ascend to the Deity; they are to be considered as so many mirrors, which nature holds forth, and in which the Supreme Being displays himself in a wonderful manner; or, as so many instruments, which he makes use of to manifest outwardly his incomprehensible wisdom. Should men therefore, for the embellishing of statues, amass together all the gold and precious stones in the world; the worship must not be referred to the statues, for the Deity does not exist in colours artfully disposed, nor in frail matter destitute of sense and motion." Plutarch says in the same treatise,(358) "that as the sun and moon, heaven, earth, and the sea, are common to all men, but have different names, according to the difference of nations and languages; in like manner, though there is but one Deity, and one providence which governs the universe, and which has several subaltern ministers under it; men give to the Deity, which is the same, different names, and pay it different honours, according to the laws and customs of every country."

But were these reflections, which offer the most rational vindication that can be suggested of idolatrous worship, sufficient to cover the absurdity of it; could it be called a raising of the divine attributes in a suitable manner, to direct the worshipper to admire and seek for the image of them in beasts of the most vile and contemptible kinds, as crocodiles, serpents, and cats? Was not this rather degrading and debasing the Deity, of whom even the most stupid usually entertain a much greater and more august idea?

And even these philosophers were not always so just, as to ascend from sensible beings to their invisible Author. The Scriptures tell us, that these pretended sages deserved, on account of their pride and ingratitude, to be "given over to a reprobate mind; and whilst they professed themselves wise, to become fools, for having changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."(359) To show what man is when left to himself, God permitted that very nation, which had carried human wisdom to its greatest height, to be the theatre in which the most ridiculous and absurd idolatry was acted. And, on the other side, to display the almighty power of his grace, he converted the frightful deserts of Egypt into a terrestrial paradise; by peopling them, in the time appointed by his providence, with numberless multitudes of illustrious hermits, whose fervent piety and rigorous penance have done so much honour to the Christian religion. I cannot not forbear giving here a famous instance of it; and I hope the reader will excuse this kind of digression.

"The great wonder of Lower Egypt," says Abbe Fleury, in his Ecclesiastical History,(360) "was the city of Oxyrinchus, peopled with monks, both within and without, so that they were more numerous than its other inhabitants. The public edifices and idol temples had been converted into monasteries, and these likewise were more in number than the private houses. The monks lodged even over the gates and in the towers. The people had twelve churches to assemble in, exclusive of the oratories belonging to the monasteries. There were twenty thousand virgins and ten thousand monks in this city, every part of which echoed night and day with the praises of God. By order of the magistrates, sentinels were posted at the gates, to take notice of all strangers and poor who came into the city; and the inhabitants vied with each other who should first receive them, in order to have an opportunity of exercising their hospitality towards them."

SECT. II. THE CEREMONIES OF THE EGYPTIAN FUNERALS.—I shall now give a concise account of the funeral ceremonies of the Egyptians.

The honours which have been paid in all ages and nations to the bodies of the dead, and the religious care which has always been taken of sepulchres, seem to insinuate an universal persuasion, that bodies were lodged in sepulchres merely as a deposit or trust.

We have already observed, in our mention of the pyramids, with what magnificence sepulchres were built in Egypt for, besides that they were erected as so many sacred monuments, destined to transmit to future times the memory of great princes; they were likewise considered as the mansions where the body was to remain during a long succession of ages: whereas common houses were called inns, in which men were to abide only as travellers, and that during the course of a life which was too short to engage their affections.

When any person in a family died, all the kindred and friends quitted their usual habits, and put on mourning, and abstained from baths, wine, and dainties of every kind. This mourning continued forty or seventy days, probably according to the quality of the person.

Bodies were embalmed three different ways.(361) The most magnificent was bestowed on persons of distinguished rank, and the expense amounted to a talent of silver, or three thousand French livres.(362)

Many hands were employed in this ceremony.(363) Some drew the brain through the nostrils, by an instrument made for that purpose. Others emptied the bowels and intestines, by cutting a hole in the side, with an Ethiopian stone that was as sharp as a razor; after which the cavities were filled with perfumes and various odoriferous drugs. As this evacuation (which was necessarily attended with some dissections) seemed in some measure cruel and inhuman, the persons employed fled as soon as the operation was over, and were pursued with stones by the standers-by. But those who embalmed the body were honourably treated. They filled it with myrrh, cinnamon, and all sorts of spices. After a certain time, the body was swathed in lawn fillets, which were glued together with a kind of very thin gum, and then crusted over with the most exquisite perfumes. By this means, it is said, that the entire figure of the body, the very lineaments of the face, and even the hairs on the lids and eye-brows were preserved in their natural perfection. The body, thus embalmed, was delivered to the relations, who shut it up in a kind of open chest, fitted exactly to the size of the corpse; then they placed it upright against the wall, either in their sepulchres (if they had any) or in their houses. These embalmed bodies are what we now call Mummies, which are still brought from Egypt, and are found in the cabinets of the curious. This shows the care which the Egyptians took of their dead. Their gratitude to their deceased relations was immortal. Children, by seeing the bodies of their ancestors thus preserved, recalled to mind those virtues for which the public had honoured them; and were excited to a love of those laws which such excellent persons had left for their security. We find that part of these ceremonies were performed in the funeral honours paid to Joseph in Egypt.

I have said that the public recognised the virtues of deceased persons, because that, before they could be admitted into the sacred asylum of the tomb, they underwent a solemn trial. And this circumstance in the Egyptian funerals, is one of the most remarkable to be found in ancient history.

It was a consolation among the heathens, to a dying man, to leave a good name behind him; and they imagined that this is the only human blessing of which death cannot deprive us. But the Egyptians would not suffer praises to be bestowed indiscriminately on all deceased persons. This honour was to be obtained only from the public voice. The assembly of the judges met on the other side of a lake, which they crossed in a boat. He who sat at the helm was called Charon, in the Egyptian language; and this first gave the hint to Orpheus, who had been in Egypt, and after him, to the other Greeks, to invent the fiction of Charon's boat. As soon as a man was dead, he was brought to his trial. The public accuser was heard. If he proved that the deceased had led a bad life, his memory was condemned, and he was deprived of burial. The people admired the power of the laws, which extended even beyond the grave; and every one, struck with the disgrace inflicted on the dead person, was afraid to reflect dishonour on his own memory, and his family. But if the deceased person was not convicted of any crime, he was interred in an honourable manner.

A still more astonishing circumstance, in this public inquest upon the dead, was, that the throne itself was no protection from it. Kings were spared during their lives, because the public peace was concerned in this forbearance; but their quality did not exempt them from the judgment passed upon the dead, and even some of them were deprived of sepulture. This custom was imitated by the Israelites. We see, in Scripture, that bad kings were not interred in the monuments of their ancestors. This practice suggested to princes, that if their majesty placed them out of the reach of men's judgment while they were alive, they would at last be liable to it when death should reduce them to a level with their subjects.

When therefore a favourable judgment was pronounced on a deceased person, the next thing was to proceed to the ceremonies of interment. In his panegyric, no mention was made of his birth, because every Egyptian was deemed noble. No praises were considered as just or true, but such as related to the personal merit of the deceased. He was applauded for having received an excellent education in his younger years; and in his more advanced age, for having cultivated piety towards the gods, justice towards men, gentleness, modesty, moderation, and all other virtues which constitute the good man. Then all the people besought the gods to receive the deceased into the assembly of the just, and to admit him as a partaker with them of their everlasting felicity.

To conclude this article of the ceremonies of funerals, it may not be amiss to observe to young pupils the different manners in which the bodies of the dead were treated by the ancients. Some, as we observed of the Egyptians, exposed them to view after they had been embalmed, and thus preserved them to after-ages. Others, as the Romans, burnt them on a funeral pile; and others again, laid them in the earth.

The care to preserve bodies without lodging them in tombs, appears injurious to human nature in general, and to those persons in particular to whom respect is designed to be shown by this custom; because it exposes too visibly their wretched state and deformity; since, whatever care may be taken, spectators see nothing but the melancholy and frightful remains of what they once were. The custom of burning dead bodies has something in it cruel and barbarous, in destroying so hastily the remains of persons once dear to us. That of interment is certainly the most ancient and religious. It restores to the earth what had been taken from it; and prepares our belief of a second restitution of our bodies, from that dust of which they were at first formed.



Chapter III. Of The Egyptian Soldiers And War.

The profession of arms was in great repute among the Egyptians. After the sacerdotal families, the most illustrious, as with us, were those devoted to a military life. They were not only distinguished by honours, but by ample liberalities. Every soldier was allowed twelve Arourae, that is, a piece of arable land very near answering to half a French acre,(364) exempt from all tax or tribute. Besides this privilege, each soldier received a daily allowance of five pounds of bread, two of flesh, and a quart of wine.(365) This allowance was sufficient to support part of their family. Such an indulgence made them more affectionate to the person of their prince, and the interests of their country, and more resolute in their defence of both; and as Diodorus observes,(366) it was thought inconsistent with good policy, and even common sense, to commit the defence of a country to men who had no interest in its preservation.

Four hundred thousand soldiers were kept in continual pay;(367) all natives of Egypt, and trained up in the exactest discipline. They were inured to the fatigues of war, by a severe and rigorous education. There is an art of forming the body as well as the mind. This art, lost by our sloth, was well known to the ancients, and especially to the Egyptians. Foot, horse, and chariot races, were performed in Egypt with wonderful agility, and the world could not show better horsemen than the Egyptians. The Scripture in several places speaks advantageously of their cavalry.(368)

Military laws were easily preserved in Egypt, because sons received them from their fathers; the profession of war, as all others, being transmitted from father to son. Those who fled in battle, or discovered any signs of cowardice, were only distinguished by some particular mark of ignominy; it being thought more advisable to restrain them by motives of honour, than by the terrors of punishment.(369)

But notwithstanding this, I will not pretend to say, that the Egyptians were a warlike people. It is of little advantage to have regular and well-paid troops; to have armies exercised in peace, and employed only in mock fights; it is war alone, and real combats, which form the soldier. Egypt loved peace, because it loved justice, and maintained soldiers only for its security. Its inhabitants, content with a country which abounded in all things, had no ambitious dreams of conquest. The Egyptians extended their reputation in a very different manner, by sending colonies into all parts of the world, and with them laws and politeness. They triumphed by the wisdom of their counsels, and the superiority of their knowledge; and this empire of the mind appeared more noble and glorious to them, than that which is achieved by arms and conquest. But, nevertheless, Egypt has given birth to illustrious conquerors, as will be observed hereafter, when we come to treat of its kings.



Chapter IV. Of Their Arts And Sciences.

The Egyptians had an inventive genius, but directed it only to useful projects. Their Mercuries filled Egypt with wonderful inventions, and left it scarcely ignorant of any thing which could contribute to accomplish the mind, or procure ease and happiness. The discoverers of any useful invention received, both living and dead, rewards worthy of their profitable labours. It is this which consecrated the books of their two Mercuries, and stamped them with a divine authority. The first libraries were in Egypt; and the titles they bore inspired an eager desire to enter them, and dive into the secrets they contained. They were called the remedy for the diseases of the soul,(370) and that very justly, because the soul was there cured of ignorance, the most dangerous, and the parent of all other maladies.

As their country was level, and the sky always serene and unclouded, the Egyptians were among the first who observed the courses of the planets. These observations led them to regulate the year(371) from the course of the sun; for as Diodorus observes, their year, from the most remote antiquity, was composed of three hundred sixty-five days and six hours. To adjust the property of their lands, which were every year covered by the overflowing of the Nile, they were obliged to have recourse to surveys; and this first taught them geometry. They were great observers of nature, which, in a climate so serene, and under so intense a sun, was vigorous and fruitful.

By this study and application they invented or improved the science of physic. The sick were not abandoned to the arbitrary will and caprice of the physician. He was obliged to follow fixed rules, which were the observations of old and experienced practitioners, and written in the sacred books. While these rules were observed, the physician was not answerable for the success; otherwise, a miscarriage cost him his life. This law checked, indeed, the temerity of empirics; but then it might prevent new discoveries, and keep the art from attaining to its just perfection. Every physician, if Herodotus may be credited,(372) confined his practice to the cure of one disease only; one was for the eyes, another for the teeth, and so on.

What we have said of the pyramids, the labyrinth, and that infinite number of obelisks, temples, and palaces, whose precious remains still strike the beholder with admiration, and in which the magnificence of the princes who raised them, the skill of the workmen, the riches of the ornaments diffused over every part of them, and the just proportion and beautiful symmetry of the parts, in which their greatest beauty consisted, seemed to vie with each other; works, in many of which the liveliness of the colours remains to this day, in spite of the rude hand of time, which commonly deadens or destroys them: all this, I say, shows the perfection to which architecture, painting, sculpture, and all other arts, had arrived in Egypt.

The Egyptians entertained but a mean opinion of those gymnastic exercises, which did not contribute to invigorate the body, or improve health;(373) as well as of music, which they considered as a diversion not only useless but dangerous, and only fit to enervate the mind.(374)



Chapter V. Of Their Husbandmen, Shepherds, and Artificers.

Husbandmen, shepherds, and artificers, formed the three classes of lower life in Egypt, but were nevertheless had in very great esteem, particularly husbandmen and shepherds.(375) The body politic requires a superiority and subordination of its several members; for as in the natural body, the eye may be said to hold the first rank, yet its lustre does not dart contempt upon the feet, the hands, or even on those parts which are less honourable. In like manner, among the Egyptians, the priests, soldiers, and scholars were distinguished by particular honours; but all professions, to the meanest, had their share in the public esteem, because the despising any man, whose labours, however mean, were useful to the state, was thought a crime.

A better reason than the foregoing might have inspired them at the first with these sentiments of equity and moderation, which they so long preserved. As they all descended from Cham,(376) their common father, the memory of their still recent origin occurring to the minds of all in those first ages, established among them a kind of equality, and stamped, in their opinion, a nobility on every person derived from the common stock. Indeed the difference of conditions, and the contempt with which persons of the lowest rank are treated, are owing merely to the distance from the common root; which makes us forget that the meanest plebeian, when his descent is traced back to the source, is equally noble with those of the most elevated rank and titles.

Be that as it will, no profession in Egypt was considered as grovelling or sordid. By this means arts were raised to their highest perfection. The honour which cherished them mixed with every thought and care for their improvement. Every man had his way of life assigned him by the laws, and it was perpetuated from father to son. Two professions at one time, or a change of that which a man was born to, were never allowed. By this means, men became more able and expert in employments which they had always exercised from their infancy; and every man, adding his own experience to that of his ancestors, was more capable of attaining perfection in his particular art. Besides, this wholesome institution, which had been established anciently throughout Egypt, extinguished all irregular ambition, and taught every man to sit down contented with his condition, without aspiring to one more elevated, from interest, vain-glory, or levity.

From this source flowed numberless inventions for the improvement of all the arts, and for rendering life more commodious, and trade more easy. I once could not believe that Diodorus was in earnest, in what he relates concerning the Egyptian industry,(377) viz. that this people had found out a way, by an artificial fecundity, to hatch eggs without the sitting of the hen; but all modern travellers declare it to be a fact, which certainly is worthy our investigation, and is said to be practised also in Europe. Their relations inform us, that the Egyptians stow eggs in ovens, which are heated to such a temperament, and with such just proportion to the natural warmth of the hen, that the chickens produced by these means are as strong as those which are hatched the natural way. The season of the year proper for this operation is, from the end of December to the end of April; the heat in Egypt being too violent in the other months. During these four months, upwards of three hundred thousand eggs are laid in these ovens, which, though they are not all successful, nevertheless produce vast numbers of fowls at an easy rate. The art lies in giving the ovens a due degree of heat, which must not exceed a fixed proportion. About ten days are bestowed in heating these ovens, and very near as much time in hatching the eggs. It is very entertaining, say these travellers, to observe the hatching of these chickens, some of which show at first nothing but their heads, others but half their bodies, and others again come quite out of the egg: these last, the moment they are hatched, make their way over the unhatched eggs, and form a diverting spectacle. Corneille le Bruyn, in his Travels,(378) has collected the observations of other travellers on this subject. Pliny likewise mentions it;(379) but it appears from him, that the Egyptians, anciently, employed warm dung, not ovens, to hatch eggs.

I have said, that husbandmen particularly, and those who took care of flocks, were in great esteem in Egypt, some parts of it excepted, where the latter were not suffered.(380) It was, indeed, to these two professions that Egypt owed its riches and plenty. It is astonishing to reflect what advantages the Egyptians, by their art and labour, drew from a country of no great extent, but whose soil was made wonderfully fruitful by the inundations of the Nile, and the laborious industry of the inhabitants.

It will be always so with every kingdom whose governors direct all their actions to the public welfare. The culture of lands, and the breeding of cattle, will be an inexhaustible fund of wealth in all countries, where, as in Egypt, these profitable callings are supported and encouraged by maxims of state and policy: and we may consider it as a misfortune, that they are at present fallen into so general a disesteem; though it is from them that the most elevated ranks (as we esteem them) are furnished, not only with the necessaries, but even the luxuries of life. "For," says Abbe Fleury, in his admirable work, Of the manners of the Israelites, where the subject I am upon is thoroughly examined, "it is the peasant who feeds the citizen, the magistrate, the gentleman, the ecclesiastic: and whatever artifice and craft may be used to convert money into commodities, and these back again into money; yet all must ultimately be owned to be received from the products of the earth, and the animals which it sustains and nourishes. Nevertheless, when we compare men's different stations of life together, we give the lowest place to the husbandman: and with many people a wealthy citizen, enervated with sloth, useless to the public, and void of all merit, has the preference, merely because he has more money, and lives a more easy and delightful life.

"But let us imagine to ourselves a country where so great a difference is not made between the several conditions; where the life of a nobleman is not made to consist in idleness and doing nothing, but in a careful preservation of his liberty; that is, in a due subjection to the laws and the constitution; by a man's subsisting upon his estate without a dependence on any one, and being contented to enjoy a little with liberty, rather than a great deal at the price of mean and base compliances: a country, where sloth, effeminacy, and the ignorance of things necessary for life, are held in just contempt; and where pleasure is less valued than health and bodily strength: in such a country, it will be much more for a man's reputation to plough, and keep flocks, than to waste all his hours in sauntering from place to place, in gaming and expensive diversions."

But we need not have recourse to Plato's commonwealth, for instances of men who have led these useful lives. It was thus that the greatest part of mankind lived during near four thousand years; and that not only the Israelites, but the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, that is to say, nations the most civilized, and most renowned for arms and wisdom. They all inculcate the regard which ought to be paid to agriculture, and the breeding of cattle: one of which (without saying any thing of hemp and flax so necessary for our clothing) supplies us by corn, fruits, and pulse, with not only a plentiful but delicious nourishment; and the other, besides its supply of exquisite meats to cover our tables, almost alone gives life to manufactures and trade, by the skins and stuffs it furnishes.

Princes are commonly desirous, and their interest certainly requires it, that the peasant who, in a literal sense, sustains the heat and burden of the day, and pays so great a proportion of the national taxes, should meet with favour and encouragement. But the kind and good intentions of princes are too often defeated by the insatiable and merciless avarice of those who are appointed to collect their revenues. History has transmitted to us a fine saying of Tiberius on this head. A prefect of Egypt having augmented the annual tribute of the province, and, doubtless, with the view of making his court to the emperor, remitted to him a much larger sum than was customary; that prince, who, in the beginning of his reign, thought, or at least spoke justly, answered, "that it was his design not to flay, but to shear his sheep."(381)



Chapter VI. Of The Fertility Of Egypt.

Under this head, I shall treat only of some plants peculiar to Egypt, and of the abundance of corn which it produced.

Papyrus. This is a plant, from the root of which shoot out a great many triangular stalks, to the height of six or seven cubits. The ancients writ at first upon palm leaves;(382) next, on the inside of the bark of trees, from whence the word liber, or book, is derived; after that, upon tables covered over with wax, on which the characters were impressed with an instrument called Stylus, sharp-pointed at one end to write with, and flat at the other, to efface what had been written; which gave occasion to the following expression of Horace:

Saepe stylum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint Scripturus:

Sat. lib. i. x. ver. 72.

Oft turn your style, if you desire to write Things that will bear a second reading——

The meaning of which is, that a good performance is not to be expected without many erasures and corrections. At last the use of paper(383) was introduced, and this was made of the bark of Papyrus, divided into thin flakes or leaves, which were very proper for writing; and this Papyrus was likewise called Byblus.

Nondum flumineas Memphis contexere byblos Noverat.

Lucan.

Memphis as yet knew not to form in leaves The wat'ry Byblos.

Pliny calls it a wonderful invention,(384) so useful to life, that it preserves the memory of great actions, and immortalizes those who achieved them. Varro ascribes this invention to Alexander the Great, when he built Alexandria; but he had only the merit of making paper more common, for the invention was of much greater antiquity. The same Pliny adds, that Eumenes, king of Pergamus, substituted parchment instead of paper, in emulation of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, whose library he was ambitious to excel by this invention, which had the advantage over paper. Parchment is the skin of a sheep dressed and made fit to write upon. It was called Pergamenum from Pergamus, whose kings had the honour of the invention. All the ancient manuscripts are either upon parchment, or vellum, which is calf-skin, and a great deal finer than the common parchment. It is very curious to see white fine paper wrought out of filthy rags picked up in the streets. The plant Papyrus was useful likewise for sails, tackling, clothes, coverlets, &c.(385)

Linum. Flax is a plant whose bark, full of fibres or strings, is useful in making fine linen. The method of making this linen in Egypt was wonderful, and carried to such perfection, that the threads which were drawn out of them, were almost too small for the observation of the sharpest eye. Priests were always habited in linen, and never in woollen; and all persons of distinction generally wore linen clothes. This flax formed a considerable branch of the Egyptian trade, and great quantities of it were exported into foreign countries. The manufacture of flax employed a great number of hands in Egypt, especially of the women, as appears from that passage of Isaiah, in which the prophet menaces Egypt with a drought of so terrible a nature, that it should interrupt every kind of labour. "Moreover, they that work in fine flax, and they that weave network, shall be confounded."(386) We likewise find in Scripture, that one effect of the plague of hail, called down by Moses upon Egypt, was the destruction of all the flax which was then bolled.(387) This storm was in March.

Byssus. This was another kind of flax extremely fine and delicate, which often received a purple dye.(388) It was very dear; and none but rich and wealthy persons could afford to wear it. Pliny, who gives the first place to the Asbeston or Asbestinum, (i.e. the incombustible flax,) places the Byssus in the next rank; and says, "that the dress and ornaments of the ladies were made of it."(389) It appears from the Holy Scriptures, that it was chiefly from Egypt that cloth made of this fine flax was brought: "fine linen with broidered work from Egypt."(390)

I take no notice of the Lotus, a very common plant, and in great request among the Egyptians, of whose berries, in former times, they made bread. There was another Lotus in Africa, which gave its name to the Lotophagi or Lotus-eaters; because they lived upon the fruit of this tree, which had so delicious a taste, if Homer may be credited, that it made those who ate it forget all the sweets of their native country,(391) as Ulysses found to his cost in his return from Troy.

In general, it may be said, that the Egyptian pulse and fruits were excellent; and might, as Pliny observes,(392) have sufficed singly for the nourishment of the inhabitants, such was their excellent quality, and so great their plenty. And, indeed, working men lived then almost upon nothing else, as appears from those who were employed in building the pyramids.

Besides these rural riches, the Nile, from its fish, and the fatness it gave to the soil for the feeding of cattle, furnished the tables of the Egyptians with the most exquisite fish of every kind, and the most succulent flesh. This it was which made the Israelites so deeply regret the loss of Egypt, when they found themselves in the wilderness: "Who," say they, in a plaintive, and at the same time, seditious tone, "shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the flesh which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers and melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick.(393) We sat by the flesh-pots, and we did eat bread to the full."(394)

But the great and matchless wealth of Egypt arose from its corn, which, even in an almost universal famine, enabled it to support all the neighbouring nations, as it particularly did under Joseph's administration. In later ages, it was the resource and most certain granary of Rome and Constantinople. It is a well-known story, how a calumny raised against St. Athanasius, viz. of his having threatened to prevent in future the importation of corn into Constantinople from Alexandria, incensed the emperor Constantine against that holy bishop, because he knew that his capital city could not subsist without the corn which was brought to it from Egypt. The same reason induced all the emperors of Rome to take so great a care of Egypt, which they considered as the nursing mother of the world's metropolis.

Nevertheless, the same river which enabled this province to subsist the two most populous cities in the world, sometimes reduced even Egypt itself to the most terrible famine: and it is astonishing that Joseph's wise foresight, which in fruitful years had made provision for seasons of sterility, should not have taught these so much boasted politicians, to adopt similar precautions against the changes and inconstancy of the Nile. Pliny, in his panegyric upon Trajan, paints with wonderful strength the extremity to which that country was reduced by a famine under that prince's reign, and his generous relief of it. The reader will not be displeased to read here an extract of it, in which a greater regard will be had to Pliny's thoughts, than to his expressions.

"The Egyptians," says Pliny, "who gloried that they needed neither rain nor sun to produce their corn, and who believed they might confidently contest the prize of plenty with the most fruitful countries of the world, were condemned to an unexpected drought, and a fatal sterility; from the greatest part of their territories being deserted and left unwatered by the Nile, whose inundation is the source and sure standard of their abundance. 'They then implored that assistance from their prince which they had been accustomed to expect only from their river.'(395) The delay of their relief was no longer than that which employed a courier to bring the melancholy news to Rome; and one would have imagined, that this misfortune had befallen them only to display with greater lustre the generosity and goodness of Caesar. It was an ancient and general opinion, that our city could not subsist without provisions drawn from Egypt.(396) This vain and proud nation boasted, that though conquered, they nevertheless fed their conquerors; that, by means of their river, either abundance or scarcity were entirely in their own disposal. But we now have returned the Nile his own harvests, and given him back the provisions he sent us. Let the Egyptians be then convinced, by their own experience, that they are not necessary to us, and are only our vassals. Let them know that their ships do not so much bring us the provision we stand in need of, as the tribute which they owe us. And let them never forget that we can do without them, but that they can never do without us. This most fruitful province had been ruined, had it not worn the Roman chains. The Egyptians, in their sovereign, found a deliverer, and a father. Astonished at the sight of their granaries, filled without any labour of their own, they were at a loss to know to whom they owed this foreign and gratuitous plenty. The famine of a people, though at such a distance from us, yet so speedily stopped, served only to let them feel the advantage of living under our empire. The Nile may, in other times, have diffused more plenty on Egypt, but never more glory upon us.(397) May Heaven, content with this proof of the people's patience, and the prince's generosity, restore for ever back to Egypt its ancient fertility!"

Pliny's reproach to the Egyptians, for their vain and foolish pride with regard to the inundations of the Nile, points out one of their most peculiar characteristics, and recalls to my mind a fine passage of Ezekiel, where God thus speaks to Pharaoh, one of their kings, "Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great Dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself."(398) God perceived an insupportable pride in the heart of this prince: a sense of security and confidence in the inundations of the Nile, independent entirely on the influences of heaven; as though the happy effects of this inundation had been owing to nothing but his own care and labour, or those of his predecessors: "the river is mine, and I have made it."

Before I conclude this second part, which treats of the manners of the Egyptians, I think it incumbent on me to bespeak the attention of my readers to different passages scattered in the history of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses, which confirm and illustrate part of what we meet with in profane authors upon this subject. They will there observe the perfect polity which reigned in Egypt, both in the court and the rest of the kingdom; the vigilance of the prince, who was informed of all transactions, had a regular council, a chosen number of ministers, armies ever well maintained and disciplined, both of horse, foot, and armed chariots; intendants in all the provinces; overseers or guardians of the public granaries; wise and exact dispensers of the corn lodged in them; a court composed of great officers of the crown, a captain of his guards, a chief cup-bearer, a master of his pantry; in a word, all things that compose a prince's household, and constitute a magnificent court. But above all these, the readers will admire the fear in which the threatenings of God were held, the inspector of all actions, and the judge of kings themselves; and the horror the Egyptians had for adultery, which was acknowledged to be a crime of so heinous a nature, that it alone was capable of bringing destruction on a nation.(399)



Part The Third. The History of the Kings of Egypt.

No part of ancient history is more obscure or uncertain, than that of the first kings of Egypt. This proud nation, fondly conceited of its antiquity and nobility, thought it glorious to lose itself in an abyss of infinite ages, which seemed to carry its pretensions backward to eternity. According to its own historians,(400) first, gods, and afterwards demigods or heroes, governed it successively, through a series of more than twenty thousand years. But the absurdity of this vain and fabulous claim is easily discovered.