He and his people with him, the mightiest of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land:

And they shall draw their swords against Egypt,

and fill the land with the slain.

And I will make the rivers dry land,

and sell the land into the hand of the wicked:

And I will lay it waste, and the fullness thereof, by the hand of strangers;

I the LORD have spoken it.

Thus saith the Lord LORD,

And I will root out the stocks and destroy the idols of Memphis, and there shall be no more a prince out of the land of Egypt: And I will put fear into the land of Egypt.

And I will make Pathros desolate, and set fire on Tanis:

And execute judgment over Thebes.

And I will pour out my fury upon Pelusium, the defence of Egypt: And destroy the multitude of Thebes.

And I will set fire in Egypt,

Pelusium shall have tribulation and fear, and Thebes shall be broken up:

And Memphis rent asunder for ever.

The young men of Heliopolis and Bubastos shall fall by the sword: And they themselves go into captivity.

And in Tachpanches shall the day be darkened,

when I break there the yoke of Egypt,

and the pride of its strength shall be annihilated in it :

Itself it shall be covered with a cloud,

and its daughters shall go into captivity.

And I will execute judgment upon Egypt:

that they may know that I am the LORD.""

These visions of Ezekiel were indeed completely fulfilled. Jerusalem, it is true, fell before Memphis; but the seed of divine life which was sown there sprang up, and its fruit soared above the ruins of the first temple, as it did above those of the second. But Egypt fell, never to rise again. As Hophra succumbed to Amasis, so did Amasis to Kambyses. In that remnant of Egypt which survived after the foundation of Alexandria, the Jewish element, and the Christian element which sprang out of it, are at all events equally important with the Hellenic.

SECTION IV.

GENERAL SURVEY OF THE INTRINSIC VALUE OF EGYPTIAN LIFE, ART, SCIENCE, AND LITERATURE.

INTRODUCTION.

As the call of man is humanity, the greatest and most glorious achievement he can undertake is the formation of a commonwealth, of the State, that is to say, the union of a people for the furtherance of the common good according to fixed laws. The State comprises in itself all other ties and associations, it combines and ennobles them, and hence it is with propriety called a commonwealth, and the goal towards which the instincts of man impel him to advance.

But this highest work of the human mind is based upon a deep foundation, and on a substructure consisting of many layers. It has its roots partly in the past history of the tribe, partly in the history of mankind. The two primitive layers are Language and Religion; and in the formation of both the same genius is operating which afterwards manifests itself in constitutional life here is the birthplace of the national genius.

Both these portions of Egyptian history, the substructure and the building, the root of the tree and its crown, have been examined as facts of Egypt. Now comes the last question under our notice: What have been the real gain and result to mankind at large from all this mighty fabric? Is the especial development of the nation merely a humus for the production of future life, or has it created an enduring product of the mind? This is the question which is put by after ages;

for it is only in after ages, when the pressure of the powerful has ceased, when great and small are resting in the stillness of the tomb, that it can really be known what a nation has done for mankind, and it will be best known when an entirely new era has burst upon the earth. Then, indeed, thousands of years dissolve into one brief and inglorious day: the selfishness of a dynasty or of a nation counts for nothing: as their most especial act has been a negation, the reward they have reaped is either oblivion or a curse. But then, also, the great minds whose modesty has kept them in the background are seen in their true light, whether individual or national. Individuals who perhaps during their historic day have been in general ignored or persecuted, or even murdered, and nations that have been vilified and trodden under foot, shine as stars in the night of the past. Such nations may, perhaps, have been wanting in political wisdom and art, none are faultless: but who will throw the first stone at them? What are Nineveh and Babylon by the side of Greece and Judea? What are the sins and follies of these nations as compared with the unredeemed cruelties and barbarity of the Asiatic tyrants? Rome itself cannot be compared with Athens, as to lasting influence upon the world, except in her political institutions. Yet Rome, as well as Athens, is the pride of mankind.

What is the verdict to be passed upon Egypt when examined from this point of view? According to the dates furnished by Egyptian lists of kings which, on the whole, bear a historical character, although a precise chronology cannot be established, Egypt was an organized state 5863 years prior to Menes; during which period it possessed a language, and in part of it a written character. What has been the lasting gain to mankind of these last six thousand years?

Little, and yet much; much too that is glorious: much indeed that will outlive the pyramids themselves,

if the whole history of the world be not lost. Egypt during its historical period was not merely the granary of Palestine and Syria, but the model country for old civilisation in the West, as China was in the East; and, like China, it was in later times its venerable mummy. It was the intervening link between the primeval world and the new world; the connecting link between Asia and Africa, stretching through Alexandria into the old and modern life of Europe; the middle age of history; the chronometer of the races and nations which in the earliest ages spread their influences over the globe. And this significant relic

of the antediluvian age is still inhabited by the descendants of the Pharaonic era, who, after a bondage of nearly two thousand years, furnish scribes for their masters, as their fathers did.

The melancholy exclamation in the Hermetic book, -"O Egypt, Egypt, a time will come when they shall despise thee and thy wisdom, and forget thy works and exploits," has become prophetic.

The man who uttered this sentence was an Egyptian, and of a late age, when much of what he prized and held sacred had doubtless become obsolete childish folly, a symbol that had outlived itself; here and there, perhaps, even mixed up with a little jugglery. But the man was probably right in the main. Even the errors of the Egyptians were based upon wisdom: they sprang out of truth, and were not without truth in the mind of the people. But it must be admitted that the worldhistorical importance of Egypt is her steady adherence to the faith, and wisdom, and thought delivered to her. Egypt gave it a stamp and impress and then preserved it. Without her that precious link of civilisation would have been lost: for the mother-country, Western Asia, advanced to new formations.

The last pages of this Book, and of our Work, are intended to be the epitaph of Egypt from this point of

view only. Most of the details we possess of the ordinary Egyptian life are either inaccurate and uncertain, or only objects of curiosity. That prose of daily life expressed upon their tombs has nothing very inviting for ethical contemplation. But we possess already, thanks to the efforts of Champollion's school, great facts, authentic specimens of primitive thought and truth, of piety and virtue.

I.

THE FORMATION OF LANGUAGE.

THAT step in the development of the primitive language of Asia, which survives as a deposit in Egyptian, represents one of the most marvellous and vastest strides which mankind has made. Primitive Turanism had certainly passed beyond the stage of unmitigated Chinese realism, but that advance was very imperfect, and might well appear to the Chinese as a deterioration and malformation. The identity of syllable and word, of thing and picture, was abandoned: the swaddling clothes were removed. But instead of monosyllables there appeared long-winded words, formed out of primitive words agglutinated together, after having been degraded into unreal particles. It was in Khamism that the human mind first gained the mastery over this unsightly phasis of transition. The parts of speech stood out in their separate form: the prefixes and suffixes took an organic shape as subordinate sounds: pure vowels expressed plurality or independence. Intellect was evinced in all the endings. Monosyllabic substantives acted an important part: dissyllabics announced themselves as being evidently picturesque amplifications and strengthenings of the roots and out of them again shoots and branches sprouted forth. The mind conceived the idea of the Copula, that is to say, it became conscious of