not the erection of stupendous but useless monuments prove the state of degradation, if not of slavery, to which a people must be reduced, if forced, without any individual benefit, to labour at the caprice of their task-masters?

Herodotus, who is correct when he states what came under his personal observation, but who is fond of quoting fables and romances, tells us, "Cheops condemned the entire population of Egypt, without exception, to labour at public works; some to quarry stones in the chain of Arabian mountains, and to drag them to the Nile; others to transport them across the river, and convey them onwards. One hundred thousand men, relieved every month, were always so occupied, and this labour lasted ten years, during which the entire nation was overcome with fatigue by such labour, which, it appears, in making the road only, was equal to that employed in constructing one pyramid.”*

One of the Savans who accompanied Napoleon in his expedition†, observes, that the number of towns enumerated by Herodotus are so much exaggerated, that it is impossible to believe the account. Admitting those towns to have held only three thousand or four thousand inhabitants in each, the population of ancient Egypt would have been eighty millions! a complete absurdity. In such a case there would

*Herodotus, lib. ii. chap. 124.

† Jomard. See his "Population, ancienne et moderne, de l'Egypte," p. 115.

be ten inhabited places in a square league. After very careful investigation, this writer estimates the modern population of Egypt under three millions, and about double that number in the most flourishing days of the country.

According to Plato, writing by characters or hieroglyphics, astronomy, and geometry came from Egypt. "Arts and sciences, such as they were in former days, had their cradle in this country, and gradually spread themselves over Greece, and afterwards to Rome. Architecture, the use of metals, weaving, embroidery, tanning skins, fabricating stuffs, and polishing stones, were known in Egypt, and had spread into Asia, long before Cecrops appeared in Attica." *

That glass was known and fabricated in Egypt, is evident, by many specimens of it having been dug out of the tombs at Thebes, ruined five hundred years before the Christian era. Later allusions to Egyptian glass occur in the account of the feast given by Scaurus, Sylla's father-in-law, to the Roman people, in which he adorned his theatre with all he could obtain that was most precious, gold, marble, and glass, brought from Egypt.†

"Let us speak of the pyramids of Egypt," says

* Fourier, "Recherches sur l'Egypte." Folio edit. Vol. i. p. 824.

"Theatrum hoc fuit, cui scena triplex altitudine 360 columnarum; ima pars scena e marmore fuit, media e vitro.". PLIN. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvi. cap. 15.

Pliny "monuments of the vanity of kings. The writers who have given us an account of them, are Herodotus, Artemidorus, Demetrius, &c. ;" and he, Pliny, adds, "the authors of them, as a just punishment of their vanity, remain unknown:" his words are, "justissimo casu obliteratis tantæ vanitatis auctoribus."

We have already remarked, that the Greek and Roman historians, particularly Herodotus, Diodorus, and even Pomponius Mela, were fond of recording fables they were as willing to be marvellous on the subject of the Egyptians as Livy showed himself when he wrote his history of the early days of the Roman republic. Every account of Thebes, and of the civilisation of Egypt, that has reached us, must be looked on as emanating more from the poet's imagination, than from the accurate pen of the historian.

Pomponius Mela, when speaking of Egypt, repeats the hyperboles of Strabo, and states, from this writer, that ten thousand men could go out of each of the hundred gates of Thebes. This is a false interpretation and gross exaggeration of Homer's words, who says, that two hundred chariots could issue from each gate. "A strange assertion!" exclaims a learned French writer*, "for in this false statement the historian even outruns the poet in exaggeration."

* M. Jomard, de l'Ancienne Egypte, vol. ii. p. 113.

Herodotus and Diodorus inform us, that the population of ancient Egypt was divided into castes like those of India; and that the priests formed the first caste, and instructed their children in two sorts of science, the study of which was their peculiar province. The first consisted of writing by hieroglyphics, and the mysteries of their religion; the latter were geometry and arithmetic; for, as the river, periodically overflowing, changed the face of the land, and confounded the marks or signs of property, it could only remain with those learned in geometry, and who could measure the arouras to assign to each person what belonged to him, and enable the monarch to secure his tribute.†

The former of these writers tells us, that he was informed by the Egyptian priests in his days, that Sesostris had divided the land among the population, apportioning to each man an equal share, on condition of his paying an annual tribute. If the Nile overflowed and confounded these portions of soil, the proprietors appealed to the king, who sent surveyors to the spot, and the land was re-measured by the priests, who exercised great power over a people little elevated above slavery. That the priests were a highly privileged class, is evident from all the accounts that have reached us.

Great works have at many periods been under

Spaces of land, each containing about one hundred and fifty square feet.

† Diodor. cap. 24. et 29.

taken in Egypt. Nechos (the Pharaoh Necho of Scripture), who succeeded Psammetichus, attempted, according to Herodotus, to open a communication. between the Nile and the Red Sea, but failed in his attempt. Generally, however, the stupendous designs of Egyptian monarchs were accomplished, from their great command of human labour; but this forced labour shows rather a low than a high state of civilisation in the community. If the caprice of a monarch could force an entire population, either as slaves, as a conquered people, or as subjects, to toil during successive generations in erecting such useless works as the Pyramids, instead of building comfortable habitations for themselves, it cannot be imagined the people could be in any manner civilised. It is observed by Pliny*, that the Pyramids exhibit the senseless vanity of the despot by whom they were erected. Another eminent ancient writert thinks these structures were built under a tyrannical power, to keep the population occupied, and to prevent rebellion. They are also attributed to a desire in the monarch to trans

mit his name to posterity. These suppositions answer our purpose in quoting them, which is to show, that although some improvements in the arts, and even in science, might be made by individuals, civilisation was not in any manner extended, and the mass of the Egyptian population was in a degraded and barbarous state.

*Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvi.

† Aristotle.