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2.- Pt. 3, vol. 2, p. 239, ed. Bekker). They had, in | decisive testimony of his general fidelity by the interthe second place, epic traditions, a kind of poetic chron-pretation of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the existicles, embracing the succession of high priests, and ing monuments; so much so, that, by the accordance the dynasties of the Pharaohs, or monarchs of the of the facts attested by these monuments with the reccountry. Such were the volumes of papyrus, which ord of the historian, we have reason to expect the enthe priests unrolled to satisfy the questions of Herod- tire restoration of the annals of the Egyptian monarchy otus (2, 100). We would err greatly, however, were antecedent to the Persian conquest, and which, indeed, we to suppose that these were actual histories. They is already accomplished in part. (Quarterly Journal were rather a species of heroic tales, intermingled with of Science, New Series, vol. 1, p. 180.) The next religious legends, and where allegory still played the authority after Manetho is Eratosthenes. He was chief part, as in the Ramayan and Mahabharat of the keeper of the Alexandrean library in the reign of PtolHindus, the Schahnamch of the Persians, and the tra- emy Euergetes, the successor to Ptolemy Philadelditions of the Greeks previous to the return, or inva- phus. Among the few fragments of his works which sion, of the Heraclide. These originals are unfortu- have reached us, transmitted through the Greek histonately lost for us. In their stead we have the sacred rians, is a catalogue of thirty-eight or thirty-nine kings books of the Hebrews, which offer a great number of Thebes, commencing with Menes (who is mentioned of recitals on this subject, but fragmentary in their by the other authorities also as the first monarch of nature, without development, and often extremely Egypt), and occupying by their successive reigns 1055 vague. Hence it is difficult to conciliate these recit- years. (Foreign Quarterly, No. 24, p. 358.) These als with those of the Greeks, which are in general names are stated to have been compiled from original more circumstantial and extended. Some time before records existing at Thebes, which city Eratosthenes Herodotus, Hippys of Rhegium and other travellers visited expressly to consult them. The names of the had visited Egypt. Among these Hecatæus of Miletus first two kings of the first dynasty of Manetho are the is the most conspicuous. He travelled thither about same with those of the first two kings in the catalogue the 59th Olympiad, and described particularly the up- of Eratosthenes; but the remainder of the catalogue per part of Egypt, bestowing especial attention on the presents no farther accordance, either in the names or state or city of Thebes, and the history of its kings. in the duration of the reigns. Next to Herodotus, Hence the reason why Herodotus says so little on Manetho, and Eratosthenes, the most important authorthese points. (Creuzer, fragm. Hist. Græc. antiquis-ity, in relation to Egypt and its institutions, is Diodosim., p. 16, seqq.-Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., 2, 135, seqq.) rus Siculus, who lived under Cæsar and Augustus, and About the same period, Hellanicus of Lesbos also who, independent of his own observations and his regave a description of Egypt. (Hellanici fragm., ed. searches on the spot, refers frequently, in this part of Sturz., p. 39, seqq.) Herodotus succeeded. Visiting his work, to the old Greek historians, and particularly the country about seventy years after its conquest by to Hecatæus of Miletus, after whom he describes the the Persians, he traversed the whole extent, and con- ancient kingdom of Thebes, and gives an account of signed to his great work all that he had seen, ail that the monuments of this famous city, with surprising he had heard from the priests, as well with regard to fidelity. (Description de l'Egypte, 2, 59, seqq.-Comthe monuments as the history of Egypt, and added to pare Heyne, de fontibus Diod. Sic. in Comment. Soc. these his own opinions on what had passed under his Gött., 5, 104, seqq.) Strabo, the celebrated geograview or been related to him by others. (Herod., lib. pher, visited Egypt in the suite of Ælius Gallus, about 2 et 3) The state or city of Memphis is the principal the commencement of our era. He does not content subject of his narrative. After him came Theopom- himself, however, with merely recounting what fell pus of Chios, Ephorus of Cuma (Fragm., ed. Marx, under his own personal observation, but frequently rep. 213, seqq.), Eudoxus of Cnidus, and Philistus of fers to the earlier writers. Plutarch, in many of his Syracuse. But their works have either totally perish- biographies, and especially in his treatise on Isis and ed, or at best only a few fragments remain. At a la- Osiris; Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius; Porter period, and subsequent to the founding of Alexan-phyry, Iamblichus, Horapollo, and many other writers, drea, Hecatæus of Abdera travelled to Thebes. This have preserved for us a large number of interesting took place under the first Ptolemy. (Creuzer, fragm., particulars relative to the antiquities and the religion &c., p. 28, seqq. —Schöll, Hist. Lit. Gr., 3, 211, seqq.) of Egypt.-We have already alluded to the quarter In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, two centuries whence the germe of Egyptian civilization is supposed and a half before the Christian era, Manetho, an Egyp- to have been derived. The first impression having tian priest, of Heliopolis in Lower Egypt, wrote, by been one of a sacerdotal character, we find the beginorder of that prince, the history of his own country in nings of Egyptian history partaking, in consequence, the Greek language, translating it, as he states himself, of the same. Hence the tradition, emanating from out of the sacred records. His work is, most unfor- the priests of Egypt, according to which the supreme tunately, lost; but the fragments which have been deities first reigned over the country; then those of the preserved to us by the writings of Josephus, in the second class; after these the inferior deities; then the first century of the Christian era, as well as by the demigods; and, last of all, men. The first deity that Christian chronographists, are, if entitled to confidence, reigned was Kneph: this embraces the most ancient of the highest historical value. What we have re- period, of an unknown duration. To Kneph succeedmaining of the work of Manetho presents us with a ed Phtha, who has for his element, fire, and whose chronological list of the successive rulers of Egypt, reign it is impossible to calculate. Next came the from the first foundation of the monarchy to the time Sun, his offspring, who reigned thirty thousand years. of Alexander of Macedon, who succeeded the Per- After him, Cronos (Saturn) and the other gods occusians. This list is divided into thirty dynasties. It py, by their respective rules, a period of three thouoriginally contained the length of reign as well as the sand nine hundred and eighty-four years. Then sucname of every king; but, in consequence of successive ceeded the Cabiri, or planetary gods of the second transcriptions, variations have crept in, and some few class. After these came the demigods, to the number omissions also occur in the record, as it has reached of eight, of whom Osiris was probably regarded as the us through the medium of different authors. The first. After the gods and demigods appeared human chronology of Manetho, adopted with confidence by kings and the first dynasty of Thebes, composed of some, and rejected with equal confidence by others thirty-seven kings, who succeeded one another for the (his name and his information not being even noticed space of fourteen hundred years, or, according to othby some of the modern systematic writers on Egyptian ers, one thousand and fifty-five. (Compare Chron. history), has received the most unquestionable and | Egypt. ap. Euseb., Thes. Temp., 2, p. 7, and Maneths

ap. Syncell.) Görres thinks that these thirty-seven dynasties, a race of strangers entered from the cast kings, who are given as so many mortals, may have into Egypt. (Josephus contra Ap., 1, 14.-Compare been nothing else but the thirty-seven Decans, with Eusebius, Præp. Ev., 10, 13.) Everything yielded Menes at their head; so that, by rejecting this dynasty to these fierce invaders, who, having taken Memphis, as a continuation of the divine dynasties, those of a and fortified Avaris (or Abaris), afterward Pelusium, strictly human nature, and, with them, the historical organized a species of government, gave themselves times of Egypt, will have commenced, according to kings, and, if we believe certain traditions, founded the calculations of this ingenious and profound writer, On (the city of the Sun; Heliopolis), to the east of 2712 years before the Christian era. (Görres, My- the apex of the Delta. (Juba, cited by Pliny, 6, 34. thengeschichte, vol. 2, p. 412. - Compare Creuzer, Compare Volney, Recherches sur l'Hist. Anc., 3, 247, Symbolik, 1, 469, seqq., and Guigniaut's note, 1, 2, seqq. Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, 841.) Be this, however, as it may, the common ac- p. 66, Append. Creuzer, Commentat. Herodot., p. count makes Menes to have been the first human king 188, seqq.) More than two centuries passed under of Egypt, and his name begins the dynasties of Thebes, the dominion of this race. They are commonly called of This, and of Memphis. Menes completed the the shepherd race, and their dynasty that of the Hycsos, work of the gods, by perfecting the arts of life, and or Shepherd-kings. The sway of these invaders is dictating to men the laws he had received from the said by Manetho to have been tyrannical and cruel. skies. This Menes, or Menas, or Mines (a name They exercised the utmost atrocity towards the native which Eratosthenes makes equivalent to Dionios, i. e., inhabitants, putting the males to the sword, and reduJovialis), can hardly be an historical personage. He cing their wives and children to slavery. The conresembles a sort of intermediate king between the quest of Egypt by the Shepherds, as they are called, gods and the human kings of the lands, a divine type dates in the year 2082 B.C. Their dynasty continued of man, a symbol of intelligence descended from the to rule at Memphis 260 years, and their kings, six in skies, and creating human society upon earth; similar number, were Salatis, Boon, Apachnas, Apophis, Jato the Menou or Manou of India, the Minos of Crete, nias, and Asseth. It was during the rule of the shep&c. He is a conqueror, a legislator, and a benefac-herd race that Joseph was in Egypt. Thus we have tor of men, like Osiris-Bacchus; like him he perish-it at once explained how strangers, of whom the Egypes under the blows of Typhon, for he was killed by a tians were so jealous, should be admitted into power; hippopotamus, the emblem of this evil genius; like how the king should be even glad of new settlers, ochim, moreover, he has the ox for his symbol, Mne-cupying considerable tracts of his territory; and how vis the legislator being none other than the bull Mne- the circumstance of their being shepherds, though odivis of Heliopolis. (Compare Volney, Recherches sur ous to the conquered people, would endear them to a l'Hist. Anc., 3, 282, seqq· - - Prichard's Analysis of sovereign whose family followed the same occupation. Egyptian Mythology, p. 381. · Creuzer's Symbolik, After the death of Joseph, the Scripture tells us that a par Guigniaut, 1, 2, 780.) The successor of Menes king arose who knew not Joseph. This strong exwas Thoth, or Athothes, to whom is ascribed the in-pression could hardly be applied to any lineal succesvention of writing and many other useful arts. We have in the fragments of Manetho a full list of two dynasties seated at This, at the head of the first of which we find these two names. These two dynasties include fifteen kings, and may therefore have continued about 400 years; the duration assigned to their col-kings, were expelled from Egypt by Amosis, called on lective reigns, in Eusebius's version of Manetho, is monuments Amenophtiph, the founder of the cigh554 years, but this is probably too long, as it is a sum teenth, or Diospolitan dynasty. He would naturally that far exceeds what would be the result of a similar refuse to recognise the services of Joseph, and would series of generations of the usual length. From the consider all his family as necessarily his enemies; time of Menes to that of Moeris, Herodotus leaves us and thus, too, we understand his fears lest they should entirely in the dark. He states merely (2, 100) that join the enemies of Egypt, if any war fell out with the priests enumerated between them 330 kings. them. (Excd., 1, 10.) For the Hycsos, after their Diodorus Siculus (1, 45) counts, in an interval of 1400 expulsion, continued long to harass the Egyptians by years between Menes and Busiris, eight kings, sev- attempts to recover their lost dominion. (Rosellen of whom are nameless, but the last was Busiris m, p. 291.) Oppression was, of course, the means II. This prince is succeeded by eight descendants, employed to weaken first, and then extinguish, the six of whom are in like manner nameless, and the Hebrew population. The children of Israel were seventh and eighth are both called Uchoreus. From employed in building up the cities of Egypt. It has Uchoreus to Moeris he reckons twelve generations. been observed by Champollion, that many of the ediManetho, on the other hand, reckons between Menes fices erected by the eighteenth dynasty are upon the and the time at which we may consider his history ruins of older buildings, which had been manifestly as becoming authentic, sixteen dynasties, which in- destroyed. (2de Lett., p. 7, 10, 17.) This circumcludes nearly three thousand years. But, whatever stance, with the absence of older monuments in the opinion we may form relative to these obscure and parts of Egypt occupied by the Hycsos, confirms the conflicting statements, whether we regard these carly testimony of historians, that these conquerors destroyed dynasties as collateral and contemporary reigns (Creu- the monuments of native princes; and thus was an zer's Symbolik, par Guigniaut, 1, 2, 780), or as be- opportunity given to the restorers of a native soverlonging merely to the fabulous periods of Egyptian cignty to employ those whom they considered their enhistory, the following particulars may be regarded as emies' allies in repairing their injuries. To this pctolerably authentic. Egypt, during this interval, had riod belong the magnificent edifices of Karnac, Luxor, undergone numerous revolutions. She had detached and Medinet-Abou. At the same time we have the herself from Ethiopia; the government, wrested from express testimony of Diodorus Siculus, that it was the the priestly caste, had passed into the hands of the boast of the Egyptian kings that no Egyptian had put his military order; Thebes, now become powerful in re-hard to the work, but that foreigners Lad been comsources, and asserting her independence, had commenced, under a line probably of native princes, her career of conquests and brilliant undertakings. On a sudden, in the time of a king called, by Manetho, Timaos, but who does not appear among the names in his list of

sor of a monarch who had received such signal benefits from him. It would lead us rather to suppose, that a new dynasty, hostile to the preceding, had obtained possession of the throne. Now this is exactly the case. For a few years later, the Hycsos, or Shepherd

pelled to do it (1, 56). With regard to the opinion entertained by many learned men, that the children of Israel were themselves the shepherd race, it may be sufficient to remark, that the Hycsos, as represented on monuments, have the features, colour, and other

distinctives, not of the Jewish, but of the Scythian in the fourth year of the reign of Thothmes III. (Mat. tribes. It was under a king of the eighteenth dynasty Hicrog., p. 4.—Manners and Customs, &c., vol. 1, p. that the Israelites went out from Egypt, namely, Ram- 54.) Vast, however, as was the glory of this line of ses V., the 16th monarch of the line. We have here, kings, it was eclipsed by the greater reputation of the in this eighteenth dynasty, the commencement of what chief of the next, or nineteenth dynasty, Ramses VI., may be properly termed the second period of Egyptian the famed Sesostris (called also Sesoosis or Sethos, history. The names of the monarchs are given as fol- and likewise Egyptus, or Ramesses the Great.-Comlows by the aid of Champollion's discoveries: 1. pare Champollion, Syst. Hierogl., p. 224, seqq.) SeThoutmosis I., of whom there is a colossal statue in sostris regenerated, in some sense, his country and nathe museum at Turin. 2. Thoutmosis II. (Amon- tion, by chasing from it the last remnant of the stran Mai), whose name appears on the most ancient parts ger-races which had dwelt within the borders of Egypt, of the palace of Karnac. 3. His daughter Amensi, by giving to the Egyptian territory certain fixed limits, who governed Egypt for the space of twenty-one years, by dividing it into nomes, and by giving a powerful and erected the greatest of the obelisks of Karnac. impulse to arts, to commerce, and to the spirit of conThis vast monolith is erected in her name to the god quest. One may see in Herodotus and Diodorus what Ammon, and the memory of her father. 4. Thout- a strong remembrance his various exploits in Africa, mosis III., surnamed Meri, the Moeris of the Greeks. Asia, and perhaps even Europe, had left behind them. The remaining monuments of his reign are the pilaster His labours in Egypt are attested by numerous monuand granite halls of Karnac, several temples in Nubia, ments, not only from the Mediterranean to Syene, but the great Sphinx of the Pyramids, and the colossal ob- far beyond, in Ethiopia, which at this time probably elisk now in front of the church of St. John Lateran formed a portion of Egypt. (Champollion, Syst. Hieat Rome. 5. His successor was Amenophis I., who rogl., p. 239, 391.) The result of his military expewas succeeded by, 6. Thoutmosis IV. This king ditions was to enrich his country with the treasures of finished the temples of the Wady Alfa and Arnada, in Ethiopia, Arabia Felix, and India, and to establish a Nubia, which Amenoph had begun. 7. Amenophis communication with the countries of the East by means II., whose vocal statue, of colossal size, attracted the of fleets which he equipped on the Red Sea. That notice of the Greeks and Romans. (Vid. Memnon the history of his conquests has been exaggerated by and Memnonium.) The most ancient parts of the pal- the priests of Egypt, whose interests he favoured, canace at Luxor, the temple of Cnouphis at Elephantine, not be denied. Equally apparent is it that his history the Memnonium, and a palace at Sohled, in Nubia, are bears some resemblance to the legends of Osiris. monuments of the splendour and piety of this monarch. These assimilations, however, of their heroes to their 8. Horus, who built the grand colonnade of the palace gods, were familiar to the priests of the land. (Vid. at Luxor. 9. Queen Amencheres, or Tmau- Mot, com- Sesostris.) This nineteenth dynasty, at the head of memorated in an inscription preserved in the museum which stands Sesostris, consisted of six kings, all of at Turin. 10. Ramses I., who built the hypostyle whom bear, upon monuments, the name of Ramses, hall at Karnac, and excavated a sepulchre for himself with various distinguishing epithets. The last of these at Beban-el-Moulouk. 11 and 12. Two brothers is supposed to have been contemporary with the TroMandoucli and Ousire. They have left monuments jan war, and to be the one called Polybus by Homer. of their existence, the last in the grand obelisk now in The twentieth dynasty of Manetho also took its title the Piazza del Popolo at Rome; the first in the beau- from Thebes. Their names may still be read upon tiful palace at Kourna, and the splendid tomb discov- the temples of Egypt; but the extracts from Manetho ered by Belzoni. 13. Their successor caused the two do not give their epithets. In the failure of his testigreat obelisks at Luxor to be erected. This was the mony, Champollion Figeac has had recourse to the list second Ramses. 14. Ramses III. Of this king dedi- given by Syncellus. The chief of this dynasty is celcatory inscriptions are found in the second court of ebrated, under the name of Remphis, or Rempsinitus, the palace of Karnac, and his tomb stiil exists at for his great riches. Herodotus gives him, for his sucThebes. 15. Ramses IV., surnamed Mei-Amoun, cessor, Cheops, the builder of the largest of the Pyrabuilt the great palace of Medinet-Abou, and a temple mids. The same authority places Cephrenes, the buildnear the southern gate of Karnac. The magnificent er of the second Pyramid, next in order; and, after sarcophagus which formerly enclosed the body of this him, Mycerinus, for whom is claimed the erection of king, has been removed from the catacombs of Beban- the third Pyramid. The researches of the two Chamel-Moulouk, and is now in the Museum of the Louvre. pollions have not discovered any confirmation of He was succeeded by his son, 16. Ramses V., sur-this statement of the father of profane history. The named Amenophis, who is considered as the last of next dynasty, the twenty-first of Manetho, derived its this dynasty, and who was the father of Sesostris. name from Tanis, a city of Lower Egypt. It was The acts of none of the kings of this dynasty are com- composed of seven kings, the first of whom was the Menmemorated by the Greek historians, with the exception des of the Greek historians, the Smendis of Manetho, of Moeris. He is celebrated by them for a variety of whose name Champollion reads upon the monument useful labours, and appears to have done much to pro- of his reign, Mandouthcph. He was the builder of the mote the prosperity of Egypt, particularly by form- fabric known in antiquity by the name of the labyrinth.. ing a lake to receive the surplus waters of the Nile The other kings of this family are also commemorated. during the inundation, and to distribute them for ag- The account which has reached us of the building of ricultural purposes during its fall. (Vid. Moeris.) the labyrinth throws great light upon the state of the The reign of Ramses Amenophis is the era of the Ex-government of Egypt during the reign of Mendes and odus. The Scripture narrative describes this event as connected with the destruction of a Pharaoh, and the chronological calculation adopted by Rosellini would make it coincide with the last year of this monarch's reign. Wilkinson and Greppo, however, maintain that we need not necessarily suppose the death of a king to coincide with the exit from Egypt, as the Scripture speaks, with the exception of one poetical passage, of the destruction of Pharaoh's host rather than of the monarch's own death. But in Rosellini's scheme, this departure from the received interpretation is not wanted. Wilkinson makes the exodus to have taken place

his successors. It was divided into as many separate compartments as there were nomes in Egypt, and in them, at fixed periods, assembled deputations, from each of these districts, to decide upon the most important questions. Hence we may infer, that, in the change of dynasty, the Egyptians had succeeded in the establishment of a limited monarchy, controlled like the constitutional governments of Europe, if not by the im mediate representatives of the people, at least by the expression of the opinion of the notables. The ruins of Bubastis, in turn, present memorials of the reigns of the Bubastite kings. (Bulletin des Sciences Hist..

7,472.) These succeeded the first dynasty of Tanites; and we find Egypt again immediately connected with Judea, and its history with that of the Scriptures. Sesonchis, the head of this dynasty, was the conqueror of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and the plunderer of the treasures of David. This king, the Sesak of the second Book of Kings, built the great temple of Bubastis, which is described by Herodotus, and likewise the first court of the palace of Karnac at Thebes. His son Osorchon (Zoroch), who also led an army into Syria, continued the important works commenced by his father. But their successor Takelliothis is only known to us by a simple funereal picture, consecrated to the memory of one of his sons. This painting has been broken, and one half is preserved in the Vatican, while the other forms a part of the royal collection at Turin. Various buildings are found among the ruins of Heliopolis, and still more among those of Tanis, constructed in the reigns of the Pharaohs of the second Tanite dynasty. (Bulletin des Sciences Hist., 7, 472.) Upon these the names of three of them have been deciphered, Petubastes, Osorthos, and Psammos. Champollion considers them as having immediately preceded the great Ethiopian invasion, which gave to Egypt a race of kings from that country. Manetho, however, places Bocchoris between these two races, forming his twenty-fourth dynasty of one Saite. The yoke of these foreign conquerors does not appear to have been oppressive, as is evident from the number of monuments that exist, not only in Ethiopia, but in Egypt, bearing dedications made in the name of the kings of this race, who ruled at the same time in both countries. The names inscribed on these monuments are Schabak, Sevekotheph, Tahrak, and Amenasa, all of whom are mentioned either by Greek or sacred historians, under the names of Sabacon, Sevechus, Tharaca, and Ammeris. (Bulletin des Sciences Hist., ubi supra.) No more than three of these kings are mentioned in the list of Manetho as belonging to this dynasty, the last being included in that which follows. On the departure of the Ethiopians, the affairs of Egypt appear to have fallen into great disorder. This civil discord was at last composed by Psammiticus I. Memorials of his reign are found in the obelisk now on Monte Litorio at Rome, and in the enormous columns of the first court of the palace of Karnac at Thebes. (Bulletin des Sciences Hist., vol. 7, p. 471.) The rule of Nechao II. is commemorated by several stele and statues. It was this monarch that took Jerusalem, and carried King Jehoahaz into captivity. On the isle of Phile are found buildings bearing the legend of Psammiticus II., as well as of Apries (the Hophra of Scripture). An obelisk of his reign also exists at Rome. The greater part of the fragments of sculpture, scattered among the ruins of Sais, bear the royal legend of the celebrated Amasis, and a monolith chapel of rose granite, dedicated by him to the Egyptian Minerva, is in the museum of the Louvre. Psammenitus was the last of this dynasty of Saites. Few tokens of his short reign are extant, besides the inscription of a statue in the Vatican. He was defeated and dethroned by Cambyses nor did he long survive his misfortune. With him fell the splendour of the kingdom of Egypt; and from this date (525 B.C.), the edifices and monuments assume a character of far less importance. Still, however, we find materials for history. Even the ferocious Cambyses is commemorated in an inscription on the statue of a priest of Sais, now in the Vatican. The name of Darius is sculptured on the columns of the great temple of the Oasis; and in Egypt we still read inscriptions dated in different years of the reigns of Xerxes and Artaxerxes. (Bulletin des Sciences Hist., 7, 471.) During the reigns of the last three kings, a constant struggle was kept up by the Egyptians for their independence. The Persian yoke was for a moment shaken off by Amyrtæus and Nepheres. Two

Sphinges in the Louvre bear the legend of Nephereus and his successor Achoris, who are also commemorated by the sculptures of the temple of Eilithyia. In the institute of Bologna there is a statue of the Mendesian Nepherites; and the names of the two Nectanebi, who succeeded him in the conduct of this national war, are still extant on several buildings of the isle of Phile, and at Karnac, Kourna, and Saft. Darius Ochus, in spite of the valiant resistance of these last kings, again reduced Egypt to the condition of a Persian province; but his name is nowhere to be found among the remains yet discovered in Egypt. Thus, then, the researches of Champollion have brought to our view an almost complete succession of the kings of Egypt, from the invasion of the Hycsos to the final conquest by the Persians, whose empire fell to Alexander in 332 B.C. It tallies throughout, in a remarkable manner, with the remains of the historian Manetho; and, by the aid of his series of dynasties, the gaps still left by hieroglyphic discoveries may be legitimately filled up. Before the former era all is dark and obscure; in the next part we have little but a list of names; but, from the reign of Psammiticus I., ample materials exist in the histories of Herodotus and Diodorus; and from the reign of Darius Ochus, the annals of Egypt become incorporated with those of Greece. Any farther reference, therefore, to the history of Egypt becomes superfluous in this place. (Vid. Ptolemæus.) With regard, however, to the discoveries of Champollion, the following interesting particulars may be stated. Philip Aridaus, the brother of Alexander, is commemorated at Karnac, and on the columns of the temple at Aschmeuneim. The name of the other Alexander, the son of the conqueror by Roxana, is engraved on the granite propylæa at Elephantine. Ptolemy Soter, and his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, have left the remembrance of their prosperous reigns in various important works. Euergeies I. not only ruled over Egypt, but rendered his name celebrated by his military expeditions, both in Africa and Asia. His titles are, therefore, not only inscribed on the edifices constructed during his reign in Egypt, but are to be met with in Nubia, particularly on the temple of Dakkhé; and the basso relievos, on a triumphal gate constructed by him at Thebes, may be admired even among the ancient relics of the magnificence of the eighteenth dynasty. The temple of Antæopolis dates from the reign of Ptolemy Philopator and Arsinoë his wife. In his reign, too, the ancient palaces of Karnac and Luxor, at Thebes, were repaired. Ptolemy Epiphanes, and his wife Cleopatra of Syria, dedicated one of the many temples of Phile, as well as the temple of Edfou. Of the Roman emperors we find inscribed in hieroglyphics the names and titles of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus. last name is to be read four times among the inscriptions of the temple of Esné; which, before this discovery, was considered to have been erected in an age far more remote than is reached by any of our histories. So far from this, it is, in truth, with but one exception, the most modern of all the edifices yet discovered in the Egyptian style of architecture. Thus, then, as far down as the year 180 of our present era, the worship of the ancient Egyptian deities was publicly exercised, and preserved all its external splendour; for the temples of Dendera, Esné, and others constructed under the Roman rule, are, for size and labour, if not for their style of art, well worthy of the ages of Egyptian independence. Previous to these discoveries, it had become a matter of almost universal belief, that the arts, the writing, and even the ancient religion of Egypt, had ceased to be used from the time of the Persian conquest. (American Quarterly Rev.. No. 7, p. 34, seqq. Quarterly Journal of Science, &c., New Series, 1, 183, segg.)

This

9. Egyptian Writing.

writing which they formed, became enrirely lost, such notices of the subject as existed in the early historians being either too imperfect, or appearing too vague, to furnish a clew, although frequently and carefully studied for this purpose. The repossession of this knowledge will form, in literary history, one of the most remarkable distinctions, if not the principal one, of the age in which we live. It is due primarily to the discovery by the French, during their possession of Egypt, of the since well-known monument, called the Rosetta Stone, which, on their defeat and expulsion by the British troops, remained in the hands of the victors, was conveyed to England, and deposited in the British Museum. On this monument the same inscription is repeated in the Greek and in the Egyptian language, being written in the latter both in hieroglyphics and in the demotic or enchorial character. The words Ptolemy and Cleopatra, written in hieroglyphics, and recognised by means of the corresponding Greek of the Rosetta inscription, and by a Greek inscription on the base of an obelisk at Philæ, gave the phonetic characters of the letters which form those words: by their means the names were discovered, in hieroglyphic writing, on the monuments of all the Grecian kings and Grecian queens of Egypt, and by the comparison of these names one with another, the value of all the pho

in this great discovery was made by a distinguished scholar of England, the late Dr. Young; the key found by him has been greatly improved, and applied with indefatigable perseverance, ingenuity, and skill to the monuments of Egypt, by the celebrated Champollion. (Quarterly Journal of Science, &c., New Series, vol. 1, p. 176, seqq.-Compare Edinburgh Review, Nos 89 and 90.-American Quarterly Review, No. 2, p. 438, seqq.-Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 8, p. 438, seqq., and the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 4, pt. 1, s. v. Egypt.-Wiseman's Lectures, p. 255, seqq.)·

In writing their language, the ancient Egyptians employed three different kinds of characters. First: figurative; or representations of the objects themselves. Secondly symbolic; or representations of certain physical or material objects, expressing metaphorically, or conventionally, certain ideas; such as, a people obedient to their king, figured, metaphorically, by a bee; the universe, conventionally, by a beetle. Thirdly phonetic, or representative of sounds, that is to say, strictly alphabetical characters. The phonetic signs were also portraits of physical and material objects; and each stood for the initial sound of the word in the Egyptian language which expressed the object portrayed: thus a lion was the sound L, because a lion was called Labo; and a hand a T, because a hand was called Tot. The form in which these objects were presented, when employed as phonetic characters, was conventional and definite, to distinguish them from the same objects used either figuratively or symbolically. Thus, the conventional form of the phonetic T was the hand open and outstretched. In any other form the hand would be either a figurative or a symbolic sign. The number of distinct characters employed as phonetic signs appears to have been about 120; consequently, many were homophones, or hav-netic characters was finally ascertained. The first step ing the same signification. The three kinds of characters were used indiscriminately in the same writing, and occasionally in the composition of the same word. The formal Egyptian writing, therefore, such as we see it still existing on the monuments of the country, was a series of portraits of physical and material objects, of which a small proportion had a symbolical meaning, a still smaller proportion a figurative meaning, but the great body were phonetic or alphabetical signs and to these portraits, sculptured or painted with sufficient fidelity to leave no doubt of the object represented, the name of hieroglyphics or sacred characters has been attached from their earliest historic notice. The manuscripts of the same ancient period make us acquainted with two other forms of writing practised by the ancient Egyptians, both apparently distinct from the hieroglyphic, but which, on careful examination, are found to be its immediate derivatives; every hieroglyphic having its corresponding sign in the hieratic, or writing of the priests, in which the funeral rituals, forming a large portion of the manuscripts, are principally composed; and in the demotic, called also the enchorial, which was employed for all more ordinary and popular usages. The characters of the hieratic are, for the most part, obvious running imitations or abridgments of the corresponding hieroglyphics; but in the demotic, which is still farther removed from the original type, the derivation is less frequently and less obviously traceable. In the hieratic, fewer figurative or symbolic signs are employed than in the hieroglyphic; their absence being supplied by means of the phonetic or alphabetical characters, the words being spelt instead of figured; and this is still more the case in the demotic, which is, in consequence, almost entirely alphabetical. After the conversion of the Egyptians to Christianity, the ancient mode of writing their language fell into disuse; and an alphabet was adopted in substitution, consisting of the twenty-five Greek letters, with six additional signs expressing articulations and aspirations unknown to the Greeks, the characters for which were retained from the demotic. This is the Coptic alphabet, in which the Egyptian appears as a written language in the Coptic books and manuscripts preserved in our libraries; and in which, consequently, the language of the inscriptions on the monuments may be studied. The original mode in which the language was written having thus fallen into disuse, it happened at length that the signification of the characters, and even the nature of the system of

10. Animal Worship.

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There was no single feature in the character and customs of the ancient Egyptians which appeared to foreigners so strange and portentous as the religious worship paid to animals. The pompous processions and grotesque ceremonies of this celebrated people excited the admiration of all spectators, and their admiration was turned into ridicule on beholding the object of their devotions. It was remarked by Clemens (Pædag., lib. 3) and Origen (adv. Cels., 3, p. 121), that those who visited Egypt approached with delight its sacred groves, and splendid temples, adorned with superb vestibules and lofty porticoes, the scenes of many solemn and mysterious rites. The walls," says Clemens," shine with gold and silver, and with amber, and sparkle with the various gems of India and Ethiopia; and the recesses are concealed by splendid curtains. But if you enter the penetralia, and inquire for the image of the god for whose sake the fane was built, one of the Pastophori, or some other attendant on the temple, approaches with a solemn and mysterious aspect, and, putting aside the veil, suffers you to peep in and obtain a glimpse of the divinity. There you behold a snake, a crocodile, or a cat, or some other beasta fitter inhabitant of a cavern or a bog than a temple." The devotion with which their sacred animals were regarded by the Egyptians, displayed itself in the most whimsical absurdities. It was a capital crime to ki any of them voluntarily (Herod., 2, 65); but if an ibis or a hawk were accidentally destroyed, the unfortunate author of the deed was often put to death by the multitude, without form of law. In order to avoid suspicion of such an impious act, and the speedy fate which often ensued, a man who chanced to meet with the carcass of such a bird began immediately to wail and lament with the utmost vociferation, and to protest

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