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dition to which the greater number have been doomed in almost all countries. The very edifice in which I sat had been one of the instruments by which the political degradation of the Egyptians had been effected. Priestly craft, combined with the absolute power of kings, sunk them, in many respects, below the level of the brute; and legislation, if the regulations by which despots hedge round their power deserve the name, divided them, if there be any faith in history, into castes, by which the majority were condemned to pursue from father to son, without hope or chance of a favourable change, the most sordid and servile drudgery. From the enjoyments and pleasures of science, literature, and arts, they were necessarily excluded for ever. For, since the members of one caste could not encroach on the province of another, all persons not of the sacerdotal order, which preserved the monopoly of intellectual pursuits, must necessarily have been plunged in the profoundest ignorance; which will account for the prevalence of human sacrifices so late as the age of Amasis; and of animal worship, until their bestial gods were put to flight by Christianity. Ancient Egypt, if we draw aside the veil cast over it by ignorant admiration, was nothing but a nest of priests and slaves; for despotism itself was here subordinate to the sacerdotal tyrants, who either elevated a member of their order to the throne, or, when the sceptre had passed by unavoidable accident into the hands of another, associated its possessor with themselves. Thus it happened

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that Egypt produced neither poets, nor historians, nor artists, properly so called. By all these forms of intellectual exertion* men address themselves to the people; and in Egypt the people were not only incapable of deriving either profit or advantage from such labours, but were absolutely excluded by the law from enjoyments of this exalted kind. Hence, to return to the point from which I set out, though the genius of the nation would appear to have qualified them for excelling in technical pursuits, none of

* If we reflect upon the incalculable advantages which mankind have derived from the invention of letters, we shall know how to appreciate the character of the Egyptian priesthood, who laboured to maintain for their own order a monopoly of those advantages. The specious arguments by which they sought, when humbled by conquest, to disguise the enormity of their ancient practices, seem to be stated by Plato in the following passage: "Theuth - the inventor of letters - is reported to have fully unfolded to Thamus (king of Egypt) many particulars respecting each art, which it would be too prolix to mention. But when they came to discourse upon letters, "This discipline, O king!" says Theuth," will render the Egyptians wiser and increase their powers of memory; for this invention is the medicine of memory and wisdom." To this Thamus replied, "O most artificial Theuth, one person is more adapted to artificial operations; but another to judging what detriment or advantage will arise from the use of these productions of art: and now, you who are the father of letters, through the benevolence of your disposition, have affirmed just the contrary of what letters are able to effect. For these, though the negligence of recollection will produce oblivion in the soul of the learner, because, through trusting to the external and foreign marks of writing, he will not exercise the internal power of recollection, so you have not discovered the medicine of memory, but of admonition. You will likewise deliver to your disciples an opinion of wisdom, and not truth; for, in consequence of having many readers, without the instruction (assistance) of a master, the multitude will appear to be knowing in many things of which they are at the same time ignorant; and will become troublesome associates, in consequence of possessing an opinion of wisdom, instead of wisdom itself."

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the arts attained to perfection in this country, and the greater number languished in cold mediocrity.

CCCCXCV. When I had remained for some time at the foot of the column, pursuing my ideas into periods of remote antiquity, my companions returned into the hypostyle, and we proceeded to examine together the general aspect of the temple. One of its principal faces looks towards the river, or north-west, and was approached by another avenue of sphynxes, apparently extending from the Nile to the great gateway of the propylon. On the right side of the entrance, engraved on the stone, is a statement of the exact longitudes and latitudes of several celebrated sites in Upper Egypt, as ascertained by the French astronomers who accompanied the division of Dessaix. This useful piece of information I copied, and shall here insert :

This prodigious propylon, nearly four hundred feet in length, formed no part of the original edifice, but was a comparatively modern addition, left unfinished, and containing neither sculpture nor hieroglyphics. We next enter into a grand court, adorned on either

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RUINS OF THE PROPYLEA.

side with a colonnade, and in the centre with two rows of enormous columns, between which we proceed from the gateway of the propylon to the great portal of the temple. The shafts of these stately pillars are covered with a profusion of hieroglyphics and symbolical figures. On the right side of the entrance is the trunk of a granite colossal statue, facing the north, with one foot advanced. Here the remains of another propylon, more ancient than the former, extend to the right and left, and terminate the court; on the southern side of which is a small temple, standing at right angles with the greater structure. The true cause of the ruin of these propylæa-sometimes supposed to have been an earthquake-in all probability, was their own enormous weight, which, pressing on the yielding foundations, compelled them to give way, and covered the surrounding space with mountains of ruins. led by many observations to this conclusion, after having, at first, adopted the received notion. Very few of the pillars, which, consisting of numerous blocks of moderate dimensions, might be overthrown with comparative facility, have been subverted, or left in a tottering position on their bases. Many other parts of the edifice, and of the surrounding buildings, far less solid than the western propylæa, appear to have sustained no shock, not a stone having been displaced, except by man. The same thing is observable in the Memnonium, on the western bank. Those portions of the edifice erected on the rock preserve the most perfect equilibrium;

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ARCHITECTURAL VISTA.

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whereas the grand propylon, built on the edge of the cultivable land, has been shattered to pieces. And it should, moreover, be remarked, that it has fallen out eastward, in the direction of the plain, where, reasoning à priori, we should, according to this view of the matter, have expected the foundations to give way first. For this reason, I imagine, the Egyptians erected their principal structures on the edge of the desert, where they could, as in the case of the pyramids, found them on a rock; and the cities built without regard to this rule, among which Memphis was the principal, have for the most part disappeared entirely.

CCCCXCVI. Passing through the gateway of the second propylon, we proceed into that vast hypostyle briefly noticed above, which may be regarded, next after the pyramids, as the noblest creation of Egyptian architecture. Down the centre of this immense hall extends a double row of magnificent columns, with richly spreading capitals, considerably loftier than the numerous ranges on either side, forming the grand avenue by which the sight is conducted to that splendid architectural vista, consisting of columns, obelisks, propylæa, placed in regular succession one beyond the other, and terminating in a view of the distant mountains. The bell-formed capitals, surmounted by low plinths covered with sculpture and hieroglyphics, are admirably proportioned, and their ornaments, most gorgeously painted, consist of the full-blown lotus, alternating with two