the Hebrew Scriptures it is denominated the land of Mizraim or Mitzraim, and the Arabians and other eastern people still know it by Mesr or Misr;-the Coptic name of Old Cairo is now Mistraim.

Taking, therefore, the Holy Scriptures for our guide, we must be led to believe the ancient Egyptians were the Mizraimites, and of the posterity of Ham. We conclude that Egypt was peopled by a branch of the Caucasian race, as the chronology of the Egyptian figures on the most ancient tombs testifies. The first settlement of their race was the country nearest to Asia, as the oldest vestiges are at Thebes, and from thence they wandered down the Nilotic valley.

The same holy annals, and tradition likewise, assert that the first parents of mankind were placed in Asia, and from thence, in process of time, as their increasing numbers required new lands, their progress was needfully slow, such as we may suppose, with a pastoral people, incumbered with wives and children, flocks and herds, it would necessarily be. Whether this migration was anterior or posterior to the dispersion of nations at the tower of Babel, is of no import; we may recognise the all-wise hand of Providence, accomplishing by natural instruments, and according to immutable organic laws, the object of man's creation. Whether or not the first settlers in the valley of the Nile brought with them any knowledge of the arts of civil life, to preserve our confidence in Scripture chronology, their progress must have been amazingly rapid, for within a few generations of Mizraim we find monuments that attest a skill in the arts, an acquaintance with practical science, a profound knowledge of political economy and principles of government, and an

extent of civilization equal to that existing in Egypt at any after-period of history. Of their high social condition we have incontestable evidence, that the female sex was honoured and educated, and free as among ourselves; and this is a most unanswerable proof of the advanced civilization of this ancient people.

Among the ruin'd temples there,

Stupendous columns, and wild images

'Of more than man, where marble demons watch
The Zodiac's brazen mystery, and dead men
Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around,
The philosopher linger'd, poring on memorials

Of the world's youth; through the long burning day
Gazed on those speechless shapes, nor when the moon
Fill'd the mysterious halls with floating shades
Suspended he that task, but ever gazed,
And gazed, till morning on his vacant mind
Flash'd like strong inspiration, and he saw
The thrilling secrets of the birth of Time.

The land of Egypt may be described as an immense valley, terminating in a delta, or triangular plain of alluvial formation, being, from Syene to the shores of the Mediterranean, about 600 miles in length, and of various widths. From Syene to Cairo, a distance of about 500 miles, the valley is about eight miles broad, hemmed in by two mountain-ridges, the one extending eastward to the Red Sea, and the other terminating westward in the Libyan deserts.

The mountains which form the natural boundaries of the Egyptian valley are, on many accounts, highly deserving of attention. From them, under the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Antonines, were drawn the materials, not only of the stupendous monuments which still make Egypt a land of wonders, but also for

many of the public buildings in Italy, the remains of which attest the genius, at a later period, of the Roman artists, and the munificence of the emperors. About the 24th degree of N. latitude, a granitic chain closes in on each side of the river, so as to wear the appearance of having been rent by the stream, which forces its way through fragments of rock. Hence, the almost innumerable islands to the north of Philæ, as far as Asswan (Assouan). The cataracts a little to the south of that town are nothing more than rapids, which might arise from a contraction of the bed of the stream; there is, however, most probably, in that tract of country, a considerable change in the level of the soil. The bold, but wild and gloomy precipices which here overhang the stream, as well as the roar of its waters rushing through a multitude of channels (for, even when the inundation is at its height, there are twenty large islands in the midst of the river), were well calculated to work upon the imagination of the early inhabitants; and their belief that Osiris remained buried in those abysses as long as the stream was confined within its banks, but annually rose from the grave, to scatter his blessings over the land, as soon as the accumulated waters were poured forth on all sides, was fostered, if not created, by the physical peculiarities of this overawing though desolate region. The granite, or southern district, extends from Philæ to Asswan (in lat. 24° 8' 6" N.; long. 33° 4' E.), and is formed, for the most part, by rocks of Syenite or oriental granite, in which the quarries may yet be seen, from which the ancients drew the stupendous masses required for their colossal statues and obelisks. Between Asswan and Esne (in lat. 25° 19′ 39′′ N.) is the sandstone, or middle district, which supplied slabs

for most of the temples; and beyond it the northern or calcareous district stretches to the southern angle of the Delta. This last chain of hills furnished not only the solid part of the pyramids, but materials also for many other public buildings, long since destroyed, because they proved excellent stores of lime and stone for the Arabs and other barbarians by whom Egypt has been desolated for so many centuries. The steep, perpendicular cliffs of this calcareous rock give a monotonous and unpicturesque, yet solemn and suggestive aspect to this part of Egypt; while the boldness and grotesque forms of the mountains in the south offer new points of view in continual succession, even when the inundation is at its greatest height.

On each side of the river below Asswan, very steep, abrupt sandstone cliffs, presenting a continued line of ancient quarries, hem in the stream; and the valley, which opens gradually, closes again at the distance of twelve leagues (about thirty-six geographical miles), where it is reduced to one-fourth of its former width and lofty walls of rock on each side barely leave a passage for the water. This is now called Jebel-el-Silsileh (Mountain of the Chain); and from its quarries the materials used in the temples at Thebes were drawn. Below these narrows the valley gradually widens, but the eastern bank continues to present one uninterrupted perpendicular wall, while on the west there is a gradual, and generally an easy, ascent to the Desert. Another contraction of the valley occurs about fifty-six geographical miles lower down, ten miles to the north of Esne, where the rock does not leave even a footpath near the river, and the traveller by land must make a considerable circuit in

diverge in

order to reach the place where the hills, for the third time, recede. This passage, called Jebelein (the two hills), leads to the plains of Ermont and Thebes (in lat. 25° 44′ N.); for here the land on each side of the river spreads out into so wide a level as really to form a plain, in comparison with the rugged banks of the stream higher up. It is at this place that the sandstone terminates, and the freestone begins. The banks are no longer straight and parallel, but various directions, forming many bays and creeks; while the country, rising on each side almost imperceptibly towards the hills, presents a nearly even surface of cultivable soil about two leagues in width. This, which is the first level of any extent below the Cataracts, is the site of the most ancient and celebrated capital of Egypt-Thebes; the ruins of which cover a large proportion of the valley. It is remarkable, that the distance from Thebes to the Cataracts, one extremity of the country, is exactly the same as that between Memphis, the subsequent capital, and the sea, the other extremity; namely, 40 leagues, or 120 geographical miles. The calcareous chain continues from this point, on each side of the valley, to the head of the Delta, where the hills open to the east and west, uniting with the Libyan chain on one side and bending towards the mountains of Arabia Petræa on the other. This chain, though generally calcareous, is occasionally, especially near the Desert, broken by isolated rocks of sandstone.

At Denderah (Tentyris), twelve leagues N. of Thebes, the Nile, again hemmed-in by the hills, turns nearly at right angles, and runs directly from east to west as far as the site of Abydus (Medfun or El Birba), where it