priests of Memphis were always styled (according to the nomenclature of the Greeks) priests of Vulcan; those of Thebes, priests of the Theban Jove; those of Sais, priests of the Sun, &c. These head-temples mark the first settlements of the sacerdotal colonies as they gradually descended the valley of the Nile. The number of deities to whom temples were erected, in Upper Egypt at least, seem to have been always very limited. In this quarter we hear merely of the temples of Ammon, Osiris, Isis, and Typhon. In Middle and Lower Egypt, the number appears to have been gradually enlarged.—The next subject of inquiry has reference to the revenues of the sacerdotal order. Here also we must dismiss the too common opinion, that the priests of Egypt were a class supported by the monarch or the state. They were, on the contrary, the principal landholders of the country, and, besides them, the right of holding lands was enjoyed only by the king and the military caste. Changes, of course, must have ensued amid the various political revolutions to which the state has been subject, in this important branch of the sacerdotal power, yet none of such a nature as materially to affect the right itself; and hence we find that a large, if not the largest and fairest, portion of the lands of Egypt, remained always in the hands of the priests. To each temple, as has al

And yet, even in the statements which we obtain from | local or patron deity of the adjacent country. The this quarter, traces may easily be found of what the Egyptian hierarchy once was; so that from these, when taken together, we are enabled to form a tolerably accurate idea of the earlier power which this remarkable order had enjoyed. The sacerdotal caste was spread over the whole of Egypt their chief places of abode, however, were the great cities, which, at one time or other, had been the capitals of the land, or else had held a high rank among the other Egyptian cities. These were Thebes, Memphis, Sais, Heliopolis, &c. Here, too, were the chief temples, which are so often mentioned in the accounts of Herodotus and other writers. Every Egyptian priest had to belong to the service of some particular deity, or, in other words, to be attached to some temple. The number of priests for any deity was never determined; nor could it indeed have been subjected to any regulations on this | head, since priesthood was hereditary in families, and these must have been more or less numerous according to circumstances. Not only was the priestly caste hereditary in its nature, but also the priesthoods of individual deities. The sons, for example, of the priests of Vulcan at Memphis, could not enter as members into the sacerdotal college at Heliopolis; nor could the offspring of the priests of Heliopolis belong to the college of Memphis. Strange as this regulation may appear, it was nevertheless a natural one." Each tem-ready been remarked, were attached extensive dople had extensive portions of land attached to it, the mains, the common possession of the whole fraternity, revenues of which, belonging as they did to those and their original place of settlement. These lands whose forefathers had erected the temple, were receiv- were let out for a moderate sum, and the revenue deed by the priests as matters of hereditary right, and rived from them went to the common treasury of the made those who tilled these lands be regarded as their temple, over which a superintendent, or treasurer, was dependants or subjects. Hence, as both the temple- placed, who was also a member of the sacerdotal body. lands and revenues were inherited, the sacerdotal col- From this treasury were supplied the wants of the va leges had of consequence to be kept distinct. The rious families that composed the sacred college. They priesthood, moreover, of each temple was carefully had also a common table in their respective temples, organized. They had a high-priest over them, whose which was daily provided with all the good things, not office was likewise hereditary. It need hardly be re- excepting imported wines, that their rules allowed. marked. that there must have been gradations also So that no part of their private property was required among the various high-priests, and that those of for their immediate support. For that they possessed Thebes, Memphis, and the other chief cities of the coun- private property is not only apparent from the circumtry, must have stood at the head of the order. These stance of their marrying and having families, but it is were, in a certain sense, a species of hereditary princes, also expressly asserted by Herodotus. From all that who stood by the side of the monarchs, and enjoyed al- has been said then, it follows, that the sacerdotal fammost equal privileges. Their Egyptian title was Pi-ilies of Egypt were the richest and most distinguished romis, which Herodotus translates by kaλòç kayalóç, in the land, and that the whole order formed, in fact, i. e., "noble and good," and which points not so much a highly privileged nobility. The priests of Egypt to moral excellence as to nobility of origin. (Com- were distinguished for great cleanliness of person and pare Welker, Theognidis Reliquiæ, p. xxiv.) Their peculiarity of attire. It cannot be doubted but that statues were placed in the temples. Whenever they the nature of the climate and the character of the are mentioned in the history of the country, they ap- country exercised a great influence, not only on these pear as the first persons in the state, even in the Mo-points, but also on their general mode of life; though, saic age. When Joseph was to be elevated to power, he had to connect himself by marriage with the sacerdotal caste, and was united to the daughter of the high-priest at On, or Heliopolis. The organization of the inferior priesthood was different probably in different cities, according to the situation and wants of the surrounding country. They formed not only the ruling caste, and supplied from their number all the of fices of government, but were in possession likewise of all the learning and knowledge of the land, and the exercise of this last had always immediate reference to the wants of the adjacent population. We must banish the idea, then, that the priests of Egypt were merely the ministers of religion, or that religious observances constituted their principal employment. | 125, seqq.) They were, on the contrary, judges also, physicians, astronomers, architects; in a word, they had charge of every department that was in any way connected with learning and science. It appears, from the whole tenour of Egyptian history, that each of the great cities of the land possessed originally one chief temple, which, in process of time, became the head temple of the surrounding district, and the deity worshipped in it the G

independent of this, they would seem to have been well aware how important agents general cleanliness and frequent ablutions become in producing and establishing the blessings of health, both in individuals and communities. Hence the conspicuous example of external cleanliness which they made a point of showing the lower orders. They wore garments of linen, not, as some think, of fine cotton (Schmidt, de Sacerdotibus Egypt., p. 26), fresh washed, taking particular care to have them always clean. They shaved all parts of their body once in three days. They wore shoes made of byblus, bathed themselves twice in cold water by day and twice by night, and entirely rejected the use of woollen garments. (Heeren's Ideen, 2, 2,

14. Motives for Embalming Bodies. It has often been observed, that the practice of embalming the dead, and preserving them with so much care and in so costly a manner, seems to indicate some peculiarity in the opinions of the Egyptian philosophers respecting the fate of the soul. On this subject we have no precise and satisfactory information. The an

49

as the time of Moses, this class of manufactures had attained a very great perfection (Goguet, Origin of Laws, &c., vol. 2, p. 86, seqq.); and, at a still more distant period, the time of Joseph (Genesis, 45, 22), fine vestments were among the articles most usually bestowed as presents. We have no necessity, however, to go back to these authorities; the monuments

cient writers have left us only a few hints, more or less obscure, which scarcely afford anything beyond a mere foundation for conjectures. The President de Goguet, relying on a statement of Servius, supposes that the Egyptians embalmed their dead for the sake of maintaining the connexion between the soul and the body, and preventing the former from transmigrating. (Origin of Laws, &c., vol. 3, p. 68, Eng. transl.) Ac-speak a language that cannot be misunderstood. Both cording to the Egyptian doctrine of transmigration, as explained by Herodotus (2, 127), the soul of a man passed through the bodies of living creatures, and returned to inhabit a human form at the expiration of three thousand years. The cycle, however, does not commence until the body begins to perish, and the second human habitation of the soul is a new one. The pains and torments, therefore, of passing through this cycle of three thousand years, and through animals innumerable, might be reserved for those whose actions in life did not entitle them to be made into mummies, and whose bodies would therefore be exposed to decay. In a second trial in the world, the unfortunate penitent might avoid his former errors. Hence, say the advocates for this opinion, the body of a father or ancestor was often given as a pledge or security, and it was one that was valued more highly than any other. It was the most sacred of all the obligations which a man could bind himself by, and the recovery of the pledge, by performing the stipulated condition, was an indispensable duty. (Long's Anc. Geogr., p. 61.) Others have imagined, that the views with which the Egyptians embalmed their dead bodies were more akin to those which rendered the Greeks and Romans so anxious to perform the usual rites of sepulture to their departed warriors, namely, an idea that these solemnities expedited the journey of the soul to the appointed region, where it was to receive judgment for its former deeds, and to have its future doom fixed accordingly. This, they maintain, is implied by the prayer, said to have been uttered by the embalmers in the name of the deceased, entreating the divine powers to receive his soul into the regions of the gods. (Porphyr. de Abstinent., 4, 10.—Prichard's Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, p. 200.) Perhaps, however, the practice of embalming in Egypt was the result more of necessity than of choice, and, like many other of the customs of the land, may have been identified by the priests with the national religion, in order to ensure its continuance. The rites of sepulture in Egypt grew out of circumstances peculiar to that country. The scarcity of fuel precluded the use of the funeral pile; the rocks which bounded the valley denied a grave; and the sands of the deserts afforded no protection from outrage by wild beasts; while the valley, regularly inundated, forbade it to be used as a charnel-house, under penalty of pestilence to the living. Hence grew the use of antiseptic substances, in which the nation became so skilled, as to render the bodies of their dead inaccessible to the ordinary process of decay.

in the plates accompanying the great French work on Egypt, as well as the drawings obtained by Belzoni from the tombs of the kings at Thebes, and those given by Minutoli, we see these vestments in all their gay colours, and of various degrees of fineness. Some are so fine that the limbs appear through them. (Compare, in particular, the vestment of the king, as given in the Description de l'Egypt, Planches, vol. 2, pl. 31, and Belzoni's plates.) Others, on the contrary, are of a thicker texture. The kings and warriors commonly wear short garments; the agricultural and working classes, merely a kind of white apron. The priests have long vestments, sometimes white, at other times with white and red stripes: sometimes adorned with stars, at other times with flowers, and again glittering with all the colours of the East. Whether silk vestments can be found among them remains still undecided. (Heeren's Ideen, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 368, seqq.) The Egyptians, from a most remote era, were celebrated for their manufacture of linen. The quantity, indeed, that was manufactured and used in Egypt was truly surprising; and, independently of that made up into articles of dress, the great abundance used for enveloping the mummies, both of men and animals, show how large a supply must have been kept ready for the constant demand at home, as well as for that of the foreign market. That the bandages employed in wrapping the dead are of linen, and not, as some have imagined, of cotton, has been ascertained by the most satisfactory tests. (Wilkinson, vol. 3, p. 115.) That the skill of the Egyptians in the application of colours kept pace with that displayed in the art of weaving, is evident from what has already been remarked. We find among them all colours; white, yellow, red, blue, green, and black. What the colouring materials themselves were, how far they were obtained from Egypt, or to what extent they were brought from Babylonia and India, cannot be clearly determined. That the Tyrians had a share in these will appear more than probable, when we call to mind that they were per mitted to have an establishment or factory at Memphis. Pliny (35, 42) extols the beautiful pigments of the Egyptians, and the testimony of all modern travellers is in full accordance with his statements. The Egyptians mixed their paint with water, and it is probable that a little portion of gum was sometimes added, to render it more tenacious and adhesive. In most instances we find red, green, and blue adopted; a union which, for all subjects and in all parts of Egypt, was a particular favourite. When black was introduced, yellow was added to counteract or harmonize with it; and, in 15. Arts and Manufactures of the Egyptians. like manner, they sought for every hue its congenial The topics on which we intend here to touch, derive companion. The following analysis of Egyptian colno small degree of elucidation from the paintings dis-ours, that were brought by Wilkinson from Thebes, covered in the tombs of Egypt. Weaving appears to is given by Dr. Ure. "The colours are green, blue, have been the employment of a large majority of the red, black, yellow, and white. 1. The green pigment, nation. According to Herodotus (2, 35), it was an scraped from the painting in distemper, resists the soloccupation of the men, and, therefore, not merely a do- vent action of muriatic acid, but becomes thereby of a mestic employment, but a business carried on also in brilliant blue colour, in consequence of the abstraction large establishments or manufactories. The process of a small portion of yellow ochreous matter. of weaving is frequently the subject of Egyptian paint-residuary blue powder has a sandy texture; and, when It is depicted in the most pleasing manner in the drawing given by Minutoli (pl. 24, 2) from the tombs of Beni Hassan. The loom is here of very simple construction, and is fastened to four props or supports driven into the ground. The finished part of the work is checkered green and yellow, the byssus being generally dyed before weaving. Even as early

ngs.

The

viewed in the microscope, is seen to consist of small particles of blue glass. On fusing this vitreous matter with potash, digesting the compound in diluted muriatic acid, and treating the solution with water of ammonia in excess, the presence of copper becomes manifest. A certain portion of precipitate fell, which, being dissolved in muriatic acid and tested, proved to

be the oxyde of iron. We may hence conclude, that salts, were perfectly known to them. They made the green pigment is a mixture of a little ochre, with a wine, vinegar, and even beer. Their method of empulverulent glass, made by vitrifying the oxydes of cop- balming, whatever it was, may be reckoned among per and iron with sand and soda. 2. The blue pigment the evidences of their chemical knowledge. The is a pulverulent blue glass, of like composition, without statements on this subject by Herodotus and Diodorus the ochreous admixture, brightened with a little of the Siculus are very unsatisfactory; and there is reason chalky matter used in the distemper preparation. 3. to believe, as it was the object of the embalmers to The red pigment is merely a red earthy bole. 4. The shroud their art in mystery, that those writers were black is bone black, mixed with a little gum, and con- either totally deceived, or, at least, that the mummitaining some traces of iron. 5. The white is nothing fying drug was artfully concealed from their knowledge. but a very pure chalk, containing hardly any alumina, Another important branch of the domestic arts was and a mere trace of iron. 6. The yellow pigment is Pottery, in which the Egyptians displayed a skill not a yellow iron ochre." (Wilkinson, vol. 3, p. 301.) at all inferior to that of the Greeks; and they who supNext in importance to weaving must be ranked Metal- pose that graceful forms in pottery, porcelain, bronze, lurgy. As far as we can judge from the colour, which or even more precious materials, were indigenous is always green, brass seems to have been constantly to Greece alone, will find many things to undeceive employed where in other nations iron would be. The them in the paintings of Egypt. The country poswar-chariots appear to be entirely of the former metal. sessed a species of clay extremely well adapted to Their green colour, as well as their shape, and the this purpose, and which is still found there. (Reylightness and elegance of their wheels, are thought nier, Economies des Egypt., p. 274.) Coptos was clearly to indicate this. The arms, moreover, of the the chief seat of this branch of industry, as Keft Egyptians appear to be nearly all of brass, and not (or Kuft), in its immediate vicinity, is at the present only the swords, but the bows also, and quivers are day. The vases thus manufactured served for holdmade of it. These, together with the instruments for ing the water of the Nile, to which they were believed cutting that are found depicted among the hieroglyph- to impart an agreeable coolness, an opinion that pre ics, are always green. In the infancy of the arts and vails even in modern times. Besides, however, being sciences, the difficulty of working iron might long applied to household purposes, they were used also for withhold the secret of its superiority over copper or the purpose of holding the mummies of the sacred bronze; but it cannot reasonably be supposed that a animals, such as the ibis and others. The vases na tion so far advanced, and so eminently skilled in the depicted on the monuments of Egypt are sometimes art of working metals as the Egyptians, should have adorned with the most brilliant colours. As to the rernained ignorant of its use, even if we had no evi- elegance of forin and ornament in domestic and other dence of its having been known to the Greeks and articles, the Egyptians can stand comparison with any other people; and the constant employment of bronze other nation of antiquity, the Greeks not excepted. arms and implements is not a sufficient argument Their couches and seats might serve as patterns even against their knowledge of iron, since we find the for our own; their silver tripods, beautiful baskets, Greeks and Romans made the same things of bronze, and distaffs, as we see them in paintings, were known long after the period when iron was universally known. even in the days of the Odyssey (4, 128), and their If we reject this view of the question, we must come musical instruments exceed those of modern times in at once to the conclusion that the Egyptians possessed the beauty and variety of their shape. Those who an art of hardening copper and bronze which is now wish to examine more fully into this branch of our lost to the world. The skill of the Egyptians in com- subject are referred to Rossellini's great work, or the pounding metals is abundantly proved by the vases, more accessible one of Wilkinson. The productions mirrors, arms, and implements of bronze discovered at of the goldsmiths and silversmiths of Thebes are exThebes; and the numerous methods they adopted for hibited by Rossellini, and they fully demonstrate the varying the composition of bronze by a judicious high pitch of refinement to which they had brought mixture of alloys, are shown in the many qualities the working of the precious metals. He exhibits gold of the metal. They had even the secret of giving to and silver tureens, urns, vases, banqueting cups, &c., bronze or brass blades a certain degree of elasticity, of the most exquisitely beautiful workmanship, and of as may be seen in the dagger of the Berlin museum. the most tasteful as well as elegant forms. Another remarkable feature in their bronze is the re- veying them, the classical reader will be convinced sistance it offers to the effects of the atmosphere; that Homer drew little on his imagination in describing some continuing smooth and bright, though buried for the gift of plate made to Helen by the wife of the ages, and since exposed to the damp of European Egyptian king Thone. But Homer ascribes still climates. (Wilkinson, vol. 3, p. 253.) Other lost more extraordinary wonders to the goldsmiths of the arts in metallurgy may be evidenced by the well-known same time. They must have succeeded in uniting the fact, that the Hebrew legislator inferentially ascribes most skilful mechanical clockwork with the workmanto the Egyptian chemists the art of making gold liquid, ship of gold; for he describes golden statues, thrones, and of retaining it in that state. This we have not and footstools moving about as if instinct with life. the power to do. Still, however, it must be confessed, It would appear, indeed, that we had made, at the that the Egyptians cannot properly be considered as at present day, little or perhaps no improvement on the any time acquainted with the science of chemistry; forms of the vases and vessels to which we have above though they were early made aware of various chemi-referred, and that an Egyptian buffet or sideboard, with cal facts, and many and indubitable proofs of this have been collected in one or two not inconsiderable works devoted to the subject. Their progress in the manufacture of not only white but coloured glass may also be instanced. Seneca informs us that they made artificial gems of extraordinary beauty. (Epist., 90.) They had a method of purifying natron, and of extracting potash from cinders. They prepared lime by the calcination of calcareous stones, and had an intimate knowledge of the uses to which it may be applied, as also that it renders the carbonate of soda caustic. Litharge, together with the vitriolic and many other

In sur

all its details, not excluding dishes, plates, knives, and spoons, near four thousand years ago, bore a striking resemblance to the sideboards of modern palaces and villas. Still farther, a survey of the trades and manufactures of Egypt, as afforded by the ancient paintings, exhibits, in a great degree, the same tools, implements, and processes, as are employed in workshops and manufactories at the present day. The whole process of manufacturing silk and cotton, with all its details of reeling, carding, weaving, dying, and patterning, may be more especially named. (Foreign Quarterly Rericw, No 32, p. 208, scq7.)

U. OF ILL. LID.

16. Trade of Egypt.

themselves, they could procure from the Phoenicians of the Greeks. Neco, the successor of Psammetichus, and the conqueror of Jerusalem (Herod., 2, 159.-Compare Kings, book 2, ch. 23, and Jeremiah, ch. 46), formed the project of uniting the Nile to the Red Sea by a canal: this canal was not completed till the time of Darius I., the Persian king. The object of the Pharaohs and the monarchs of Persia was to facilitate the transportation of commodities from the Red Sea to Egypt; for the Egyptians had long been accustomed to receive the products of India and Arabia up this gulf. This artificial channel was neglected on account of the difficulty of navigating the northern part of the Red Sea; it existed under the Ptolemies, but a land communication was also formed between Coptos and the ports of Myos-hormos and Berenice on the gulf, and this remained for a long time the great commercial road between the western and the eastern world. In Upper Egypt, the city of Thebes was once the centre of commerce for Africa and Arabia: under its colossal porticoes and market-houses, the wares of southern Africa, and the products of Arabia and India, were collected. Its fame had spread, probably through the Phoenician traders, as far as the country of the Homeric poems (Il., 9, 381). A modern traveller, Denon,

ject to fewer restraints; the exchange of Egyptian commodities was extended; and, as Herodotus exNature has destined Egypt, by its products, its gen-pressly remarks, agriculture and individual wealth eral character, and its geographical position, for one of were never so much improved in Egypt as under this the principal trading countries of the globe. Neither system of free trade. The Egyptian kings now acthe despotism under which it has groaned for centu-quired a fleet, the materials for which, or the vessels ries, nor the bloody feuds and wars of which it has so often been the scene, have operated, for any length of time, to deprive it of these advantages; the purposes of Nature may be impeded, but they cannot be wholly destroyed. The situation of Egypt, a fertile district, abounding in the first necessaries of life, between the arid deserts of Asia and Africa, has in all ages given it a value which, in another position, it could not have. From the time of Jacob to the present day, it has been the granary of the less fertile neighbouring countries. The natural facilities for internal communication were, at an early period, increased by the formation of canals, which united the various arms of the river that bound or flow through the Delta. From Syene to about lat. 31° N. there is one uninterrupted boat-navigation, which is seldom impeded for want of water. The conveyance of articles up the stream is favoured at certain seasons by the steady winds from the north. A description of the Nile-boat, called Baris, is given by Herodotus (2, 96). One of the great national festivals, that of Artemis at Bubastis, was celebrated during the annual inundation: the people, in boats, sailed from one town to another, and their numbers were increased by the inhabitants of every town that was visited. As it was an idle time for the agriculturists, like the winter of other climates, it was spent in carousing and drunk-standing amid the ruins of Thebes, could feel and enness. The quantity of wine consumed was immense, and the whole of it was procured by giving in exchange Egyptian commodities. The Egyptians were never a nation of sailors, for their country furnished no materials for building large vessels. Till the time of Psammetichus, foreigners, though allowed to trade there, were subject to many strict regulations, and were regarded as suspicious persons. Egypt, being a grain-country, would be more likely to receive the visits of foreigners, than to make, herself, any active commercial speculations. The later Pharaohs, after Psammetichus, as also the Ptolemies, could only then build fleets when the woods of Phoenicia were under their control; and it is well known what bloody wars were carried on for the possession of these regions between the Ptolemies and Seleucidæ. It may be easily imagined, too, that the Tyriaus and Sidonians were never anxious to make the Egyptians a maritime people, even if the latter had possessed the inclination to become such. The true reason why the Egyptians forbade all foreigners to approach their coast, is to be found in the peculiar character of early commerce. All the nations that trafficked on the Mediterranean were at that time pirates, with whom the carrying away the inhabitants from the coasts and selling them for slaves had become a lucrative branch of commerce. It was natural, then, that a people who had no ships of their own to oppose to such visitants, should forbid them, under any pretext, to approach their coasts. Passages occur, it is true, in the ancient writers, which render it doubtful whether there were not some exceptions to what has just been remarked. Homer makes Menelaus to have sailed to Egypt, and Diodorus Siculus mentions a maritime city, named Thonis, to which he assigns a great antiquity. The colonies, too, that are said to have sailed from Egypt to Greece, as, for example, those of Danaus and Cecrops, suppose an acquaintance with the art of navigation. The ques- The same veneration for ancient usage and the stern tion, however, admits of a serious consideration, wheth- regulations of the priesthood, which forbade any innoer the Phoenicians were not in these cases the agents of vation in the form of the human figure, particularly in commerce and transportation. The reign of Psam-subjects connected with religion, fettered the genius metichus and his successors changed the character of of the Egyptian artists, and prevented its developement. the Egyptians, or at least altered the old and settled The same formal outline, the same attitudes and pos polity of the country. Foreign merchants were sub-tures of the body, the same conventional mode of rep

comprehend the advantages of its situation; he could compute the number of days' journey which separated him from the towns of Arabia, the emporium of Meroë, and the cities of central Africa. In the mountains east of Thebes, the precious metals were once found: the mines were worked by prisoners of war or by slaves. Agatharchides, a Greek geographer (Geogr. Gr. Min., vol. 1, p. 212, ed. Hudson), in the time of the sixth Ptolemy, visited these mines, of which he has given a most exact description. Thus Thebes possessed, in the precious metals, one of those articles of commerce which invite strangers. Memphis, in Lower Egypt, was the centre of commerce when Herodotus visited Egypt. The gold, the ivory, and the slaves of Africa, the salt of the desert, wine imported from Greece and Phoenicia twice a year, with the products of India and Yemen, were collected in this market. In exchange, the merchants received the precious metals, grain, and linen (or perhaps cotton) cloths, which Herodotus compares with those of Colchis. Amasis, who was a usurper, and a prince fond of foreign luxuries, did not scruple to make great innovations. He admitted foreigners more freely into Lower Egypt, and appointed Naucratis, on the Canopic branch, as the residence of the Greek merchants. He carried his liberality so far as to permit non-resident Greeks to build temples to their national gods, and use the precincts as market-places: several Ionian and Dorian cities of Asia, together with the town of Mytilene, built a noble temple, calied the Hellenium, and, by their joint votes, appointed the superintendents of the market and the commercial establishment. Some other Greek towns also followed their example. (Long's Anc. Geogr., p. 64, seqq.-Heeren's Ideen, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 373, seqq.)

17. Style of Egyptian Art.

the same rigid style; but genius once cramped can scarcely be expected to make any great effort to rise, or to succeed in the attempt; and the same union of parts into a whole, the same preference for profile, are observable in these as in the human figure. It must, however, be allowed, that, in general, the character and form of animals were admirably portrayed; the parts were put together with greater truth; and the same license was not resorted to as in the shoulders and other portions of the human body. (Wilkinson, vol. 3, p. 263, seqq.)

18. Egyptian Architecture.

resenting the different parts, were adhered to at the latest as at the earliest periods. No improvements, resulting from experience and observation, were admitted in the mode of drawing the figure; no attempt was made to copy nature, or to give proper action to the limbs. Certain rules, certain models, had been established by law, and the faulty conceptions of earlier times were copied and perpetuated by every successive artist. Egyptian bas-relief appears to have been, in its origin, a mere copy of painting, its predecessor. The first attempt to represent the figures of the gods, sacred emblems, and other subjects, consisted in painting simple outlines of them on a flat surface, the details being afterward put in with colour. But, in process of The earliest inhabitants of Egypt appear to have time, these forms were traced on stone with a tool, and been of Troglodytic habits, or, in other words, to the intermediate space between the various figures have inhabited caves. The mountain ranges on either being afterward cut away, the once level surface as- side of the stream would easily supply them with sumed the appearance of a bas-relief. It was, in fact, abodes of this kind. From the site of ancient Mema pictorial representation on stone, which is evidently phis, until we ascend the Nile beyond Thebes, these the character of all the bas-reliefs on Egyptian monu-mountains are composed of stratified limestone, full of ments, and which readily accounts for the imperfect organic remains. Such rocks, it is well known, abound arrangement of their figures. Deficient in conception, in natural caverns in all eastern countries; and although and, above all, in a proper knowledge of grouping, they no cavities are now found in Egypt that do not bear were unable to form those combinations which give marks of human skill, we have no right to assert that true expression. Every picture was made up of iso- it was not in many cases merely called in for the aid lated parts, put together according to some general of nature, to smooth and embellish abodes originally notions, but without harmony or preconceived effect. provided by her. Much of this rock, too, was of a The human face, the whole body, and everything they highly sectile and friable nature, and easily worked, introduced, were composed, in the same manner, of therefore, by the hand of man. When the natural separate members, placed together one by one, accord- caverns then became insufficient for the growing poping to their relative situations: the eye, the nose, and ulation, the artificial formation of others would be no other features, composed a face; but the expression difficult task. With the demand, the skill of workof feelings and passions was entirely wanting; and the manship would naturally increase; harder limestone countenance of the king, whether charging an enemy's would be worked, then the flinty but friable sandstones phalanx in the heat of battle, or peaceably offering in- of the quarries of Selseleh, and, finally, the hard and cense in a sombre temple, presented the same outline, imperishable rock that still bears the name of the city and the same inanimate look. The peculiarity of the of Syene. To understand fully the causes which led front view of an eye, introduced in a profile, is thus ac- to the erection of such enormous works by the Egyp counted for; it was the ordinary representation of that tians, as still astonish and have for ages astonished the feature added to a profile, and no allowance was made world, we must investigate other circumstances besides for any change in the position of the head. It was the those of climate and position. The government of same with drapery. The figure was first drawn, and Egypt was monarchical from the very earliest date; the drapery was then added, not as a part of the whole, and a monarchical and despotic government, if it be but as an accessory. They had no general conception, only stable, is incontestibly more favourable to the exno previous idea of the effect required to distinguish ecution of magnificent structures than one more free. the warrior or the priest, beyond the impression re- Hence one cause for the vast structures of Egypt. ceived from costume, or from the subject of which they The population, too, of the country was probably reformed a part; and the same figure was dressed accord- dundant beyond any modern parallel. Considered as ing to the character it was intended to perform. Every a grain country alone, it was capable of supporting a portion of a picture was conceived by itself, and in- population three times as great as one of equal extent serted as it was wanted to complete the scene; and in a less favoured climate. It produces, besides, those when the walls of a building, where a subject was to tropical plants which yield more fruit on a given space be drawn, had been accurately ruled with squares, the of ground than any of the vegetables of the temperate figures were introduced, and fitted to this mechanical zone, and which grow where, from the aridity of the arrangement. The members were appended to the soil, the cereal gramina cannot vegetate. Domestic body, and these squares regulated their form and dis-animals, too, multiply with great rapidity, and the protribution, in whatever posture they might be placed.lific influence of the waters of the Nile is said to extend In the paintings of the tombs, greater license was al- to the human race. With a population created and lowed in the representation of subjects relating to private life, the trades, or the manners and occupations of the people; and some indications of perspective in the position of the figures may occasionally be observed; but the attempt was imperfect, and, probably, to an Egyptian eye, unpleasing; for such is the force of habit, that, even where nature is copied, a conventional style is sometimes preferred to a more accurate representation. In the battle scenes on the temples of Thebes, some of the figures representing the monarch pursuing the flying enemy, despatching a hostile chief with his sword, and drawing his bow, as his horses carry his car over the prostrate bodies of the slain, are drawn with much spirit; but still the same imperfections of style and want of truth are observed: there is action, but no sentiment, no expression of the passions, or life in the features. In the representation of animals they appear not to have been restricted to

supported by such causes, we cannot wonder that a government, commanding without fear of accountability the whole resources of the country, could project and execute works, at which the richest and most powerful nations of modern times would hesitate. Many causes must have conspired to induce the abandonment of the cavern habitations of the early inhabitants. Besides the necessity which existed of providing recep tacles for the embalmed bodies of the dead, and for which purpose these caverns would admirably answer, a growing and improving people could not long endure to be shut up in rocky grottoes during the inundation, or to pursue their agricultural labours at other seasons, far from a fixed abode. A remedy for these inconveniences was found in the erection of mounds in the plain, and quays upon the banks of the river, exceeding in elevation its utmost rise, and extended with the increase of population until they could contain important