attracted admiration in old times. It was a fquare building, meafuting two ftadia, or about twelve hundred feet, on each fide; and out of the middle of it rofe a folid tower or pyramid, of a fquare figure alfo, fix hundred and fixty feet high, and of an equal width at the bafe. On the top of that tower was formed a fpacious dome, which ferved as an obfervatory to the ancient Chaldean aftronomers. In this dome was a table of gold and a pompous bed, but no ftatue. The lower part, or body of the temple, which furrounded the tower, was adorned with facred furniture in the fame precious metal; a golden altar and table, and a magnificent ftatue of the god, feated on a throne of folid gold. Various have been the opinions of antiquarians concerning the building, and defign of this flupendous edifice, which greatly exceeded in altitude the highest of the Egyptian pyramids. It has been fuppofed to be the tower erected by the fons of Noah, in order to ferve as a fignal, and centre of union, to the growing families of the human race, after the flood*: and it has been reprefented as a fepulchral monument †. But its immenfity and durability prove it to have been the work of a great people, fkilled in the mechanical arts; and the contemplation of the heavenly bodies, by a priesthood devoted to the ftudy of those bodies, appears evidently to have been the purpose for which it was built, and raifed to fuch a myfterious height. That it was made fubfervient to that end, we have the authority of Diodorus. This intelligent hiftorian alfo informs us, to what pitch the Chaldeans had carried their difcoveries in aftronomy. They had found out, and taught as fixed principles, that each of the planets moved in an orbit, or courfe peculiar to itfelf; that they were impelled with different degrees of velocity, and performed their revolutions in unequal portions of time; that the moon is nearer to the earth, and performs her revolution in lefs time than any of the folar planets; not because of the velocity of her motion, but by reafon of the fmallness of her orbit; that her light is borrowed, and her eclipfes produced by the intervention of the fhadow of the earth. But the Chaldean priefts, in contemplating the beauty and harmony of the Solar Syftem, feem foon to have loft fight of the Great Author of Order and Excellence; or to have held the people in ignorance of that Supreme Mover of the ftu * Prideaux. +Strabo. pendous pendous machine of the univerfe, and to have reprefented the heavenly bodies as the Gods who govern the world; while they pretended to foretel the fates of men, and of kingdoms, by reading the aspects of those luminaries*. Hence from the unhappy conjunction of the aftronomical science with priestcraft, Solar or Star-worship, and Judicial Aftrology, were propagated over the Eaft in very ancient times, and paved the way for idolatry and blind fuperftition. CHA P. IV. Of Egypt.-Government and Laws of the Egyptians.-Ferti lity of Egypt.-Antiquity, Arts, Sciences, and Religion of the Egyptians. O country has a better claim to our attention than Egypt, The Egyptians were the first civilized people of the world. The banks of the Nile gave birth to the arts and fciences. Here the firft efforts of genius were disclosed, and specimens exhibited in the arts, which the Greeks were to admire, and to perfect into models for mankind. The wisdom of the Egyptians was the admiration of all antiquity. Their inftitutions, laws, and religious rites, paffed into Greece. Hither poets reforted as to a claffic land; philofophers, as to an academy of fcience; and legiflators, as to the feat of wifdom and the laws. Diftant nations fent ambaffadors to confult them with regard to their political inftitutions; and even the Jews, who abhorred all the world befides, made an exprefs law in favour of the Egyptians. The parent of the arts was held in veneration by all antiquity, though they beheld only her remains; and, if the appeared fo lovely in ruins, what must she have been in her glory? Nothing is more difficult than to form a juft eftimation of a fingular people who exift no more. Their records are loft. All their monuments are mute; the first academy where fcience was taught has been long filent; and of the vast library in Thebes not a volume remains. Our materials of knowledge, concerning this fingular nation, are scattered up and down the writings of the early Greeks, who travelled into Egypt. To ftudy the hiftory of this people is to walk among ruins. In a scene of fallen palaces, defaced fculptures, and broken ftatues, the vulgar eye beholds nothing but fragments of de *Diodorus S'culus. folation. folation. The philofopher contemplates and admires amid the ruins of time; he beholds the remains of fplendor: and, perhaps, may be led to attribute too much to a greatness that has paffed away. By mixing caufes with facts, and forfaking conjecture, when unfupported by reafon, we fhall avoid prejudices on both fides, and be enabled to form a juft judgment with regard to the Egyptians. The formation of Egypt, like Venice and Holland, in modern times, was gained from the waters, and in a great measure the creation of the human hand. The Egyptians were a nation, as early as the time of Abraham, who lived in the fixth century after the deluge. In the days of Jacob and Jofeph, commerce and agriculture had made confiderable progrefs among them. Not fatisfied, how ever, with their juft claim to high antiquity, they carried their pretenfions to an incredible extent. The priests of Thebes, according to Herodotus, affigned to their monarchy a duration of 11,340 years. Laying afide incredible tales, Egypt prefents us with an appearance, which we meet with in the early annals of every country; a number of independent principalities, each governed by their head or ruler. The chief of thefe were Thebes, Thin, Memphis, and Tanis. Menes, who united thefe under one government, was the firft king of Egypt. The principalities of Egypt, now united under one head, began to figure as a kingdom. The hiftory of Egypt, from the reign of Menes to that of Sefoftris, is involved in impenetrable obfcurity. Sefoftris afcended the throne 1650 years before the Chriftian æra. As Egypt, composed of different principalities, had been fhaken by feditions, and was fubject to revolts, in order to employ and unite his people, he meditated a military expedition against all his neighbours; or what, in those days, was called the conqueft of the world. An army of fix hundred thousand infantry, twenty-four thousand cavalry, and seven and twenty thousand armed chariots, correfponded with the grandeur of fuch an undertaking*. Having put that vaft body, or whatever might be his force, in motion, Sefoftris firft invaded Ethiopia, which he conquered; impofing upon the inhabitants a tribute of gold, ebony, and ivory t. He next built, on the Arabian gulf, a fleet of four hundred fail, which circumnavigated the Arabian Peninfula, while he entered Afia with his mighty hoft. * Diodorus Siculus. + Herodotus. Every Every nation he attacked, on that vaft continent, fubmit ted to his power. We muft not, however, believe, that he not only paffed the Euphrates and Tigris, but alfo the Indus and Ganges, and fubdued all the intermediate countries; extending his fway from the Mediterranean fea to the Eastern ocean, and from the Nile and the Ganges to the Tanais and Danube. Credibility is ftartled at fuch a fweep of conqueft; and the narrative of the venerable Herodotus, whofe authority, in regard to the affairs of ancient Egypt, ought to be highly refpected, leads us to more moderation. He feems to confine the Afiatic conquefts of Sefoftris to Arabia, Syria, and Afia Minor. And all ancient hiftorians affign Scythia and Thrace, as the boundaries of the arms of the Egyptian conqueror in Europe. Monarchies have often brilliant periods, after which they fink into obfcurity. From this time the hiftory of Egypt is covered with darknefs, till the reign of Pfammetticus, 670 years before Chrift. Under his reign, and by the orders of Nechos his fon, Phoenician navigators failed round Africa. Apries, the fon of Nechos, was dethroned by Amafis, in whofe reign the Greeks began to have more frequent intercourfe with Egypt. Solon and Pythagoras, followed by a train of fages, left their native land, to ftudy the wisdom of the Egyptians. The reign of Pfammetticus, the fon of Amafis, is the epocha of the fubjection of this famous monarchy. Subdued by Cambyfes king of Perfia, in the 525th year before the Chriftian æra, Egypt continued tributary to the Perfian power, till the throne of Cyrus was overturned by Alexander the Great. After his death, when his dominions were divided among his generals, it fell to the charge of Ptolemy Lagus, whose pofterity reigned in Egypt, till the time of Auguftus, who having defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, at the battle of Actium, 31 years before Chrift, made it a Roman pro vince. That part of the hiftory of Egypt, which Herodotus did not derive from his own knowledge and obfervation, but from the information given him by the priests of that country, is not wholly to be depended upon. For inftance, he tells us a ftory of king Pfammetticus, who, being defirous to know what nation was the most ancient, ordered two children to be nursed in fucha manner, that it should be impoffible for them to learn words by imitation. At two years of age, both at once cried out beccos, which, in the Phrygian tongue, fignifies bread. From that time, adds he, the Egyptians yielded the claim of of antiquity to the Phrygians. If the ftory were true, it is probable they imitated the bae of the fheep, in the first word they articulated. Children learn words by imitation. They have the power of imitation, and, by repeated acts of it, they acquire the habit of speech. "Goropius Becanus," fays Abbé Milot," from the fame ftory, endeavours to prove, that high Dutch was the firft language, because becker in that language fignifies a baker.” The form of government among the Egyptians was not defpotic, but monarchical; and it is the only government of antiquity which correfponds to our idea of monarchy. Limits were fet to the royal power by the laws; the order of fucceffion was regulated; and the judicial power was feparated from royalty. The Egyptian monarchs, however, were generally under the dominion of the priesthood; hence the unwarlike and fuperftitious character of the nation*. Nor could it be otherwife; for the ecclefiaftical order feems to have filled all civil offices in Egypt, from the minifters of ftate, down to the collectors of the public revenue +. That civil authority, with the poffeffion of one third of the lands of the kingdom, muft have given the priesthood great influence, independent of the awe infpired by their facred function, and their privilege of interpreting the will of the Gods. Laws are the barometer of a people, with regard to barbarity or refinement; and the laws of the Egyptians give us a ftriking proof of their civilization. The adminiftration of juftice is an object of the greatest importance. Convinced that on this depended the happiness of their state, as well as the eafe and comfort of their fubjects, the Egyptian kings were very fcrupulous in the choice of their judges, who were thirty in number, and men of the best reputation. In the trial of caufes no public pleadings were allowed, but each party fupported his pretenfions by a fimple narrative in writing. The Egyptians were fo far from admitting the clamorous harangues of lawyers, that they would not even fuffer a man to speak in his own defence, that eloquence or sympathy might not bias the judgment of the court. In order to prevent the protracting of fuits, an answer on the part of the defendant, and one reply only was indulged on each fide. The judges confulted together after both parties had been heard, before they proceeded to judgment, and the VOL. I. + Strabo. * Herodotus. prefident |