called exulting the divine attributes in a suitable manner, to direct the wor shipper 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 while 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. 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 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 Abbé Fleury in his Ecclesiastical History, 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 taken to provide sepulchres for them, seem to insinuate an universal persuasion, that bodies were lodged in sepulchres nerely 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 kird. This mourning continued from forty to seventy days, probably according to the quality of the person.

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

Rom. i. v. 22, 25. Tom. v. p. 25, 26.

Diod. 1. i. p. 47.

Herod. I. ii. c. 85, &e.

|| About $610.

Many hands were employed in this ceremony." .* 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 spectators.. 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 the hair 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 sepulchres, if they had any, or in their houses. These embalmed bo dies are now what we 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, imagining 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. Ás 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

Diod 1. i. p. 81.

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 advan ced 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 shouted, and bestowed the highest eulogies on the deceased, as one who would be received for ever into the society of the virtuous in Pluto's kingdom.

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 for whom this respect is designed; 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 arouræ, that is, a piece of arable land, very nearly answering to half a French acre,* 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. 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 the defence of both; and, as Diodorus observes, 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, 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.||

*Twelve arouræ. An Egyptian aroura was 10,000 square cubits, equal to three roods, two perches, 55 1-4th square feet of our measure.

†The Greek is oivou rioσages deusñges, which some have made to signify a determinate quantity of wine, or any other liquid; others, regarding the etymology of the word deuorng, have translated it by kaustrum, a bucket, as Lucretius, lib. v. 1. 51; others, by haustus, a draught or sup Herodotus says this allowance was given only to the two thousand guards who attended annually on the kings.-Lib. ii. c. 168. Lib. i. p. 67. IIerod. l. ii. c. 164, 168. Cant. i. 8. Isa. xxxvi. 9.

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 adviseable to restrain them by motives of honour, than by the terrors of punishment.

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, and turned it to profitable specu lations. Their Mercuries filled Egypt with wonderful inventions, and left is 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," 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 air of it always serene and unclouded, they were among the first who observed the courses of the planets. These observations led them to regulate the year, from the course of the sun; for, as Diodorus observes, their year, from the most remote antiquity, was composed of three hundred and 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 em 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 obser vations of old and experienced practitioners, and written in the sacred books

* Diod. P. 76.

* ψυχῆς ἰατρεῖον.

It will not seem surprising that the Egyptians, who were the most ancient observers of the celestial motions, should have arrived to this knowledge, when it is considered, that the lunar year, made use of by the Greeks and Romans, though it appears so inconvenient and irregular, supposed nevertheless a knowledge of the solar year, such as Diodorus Siculus ascribes to the Egyptians. It will appear at first sight, by calculating their intercalations, that those who first divided the year in this manner were not ignorant, that to three hundred and sixty-five days, some hours were to be added, to keep pace with the sun. only error lay in the supposition, that only six hours were wanting; whereas an addition of almost elevén minutes more was requisite.

F

Their

122

While these rules were observed, the physician was not answerable for the success; otherwise a miscarriage cost him his life. This law checked, inderd, 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,* 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 us with admiration, and in which were displayed 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 other arts, had arrived in Egypt.

The Egyptians entertained but a mean opinion of that sort of exercise, which did not contribute to invigorate the body, or improve health;† and of music, which they considered as a useless and dangerous diversion, and only fit to enervate the mind.

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. 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 of 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, 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 title. 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

Lib. ii. c. 84.

† Diod. 1. 1. p. 73.

* Τὴν δὲ μουσικὴν νομίζουσιν ἐ μόνον ἄχρηστον ὑπάρχειν. ἀλλὰ καὶ βλαβερὰν, ὡς ἂν ἐκθηλύνουσι τὰς τῶν ἀνδρῶν ψυχάς.

Diod. l. i. p. 67, 68.

Or Ham.