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orange, lemon, and other trees; and is fo pure that a wholefomer or more agreable is not found in the world; fo that nature, being then dead as it were, in all other climates, feems to be alive only for fo delightful an abode.

9. The canal formed by the Nile, by which a com

munication is made between the two feas.

25

Strab.

1. 17. P.

Diod. 1. 1.

'Tis P. 29.

THE canal, by which a communication was made Herod. between the Red-Sea and the Mediterranean, ought 1.2.c.158. to have a place here, as it was not one of the leaft advantages which the Nile procured Egypt. Sefoftris, 804. or according to others Pfammetichus, firft projected Plin.1. 16. the defign, and begun this work. Necho, fucceffor c. 29. to the laft Prince, laid out immenfe fums upon it, and employed a prodigious number of men. faid, that above fixfcore thoufand Egyptians perithed in the undertaking. He gave it over, terrified by an oracle, which told him that he thereby would open a door for Barbarians (for by this name they called all foreigners) to enter Egypt. The work was continued by Darius, the firft of that name; but he alfo defifted from it upon his being told, that as the Red Sea lay higher than Egypt, it would drown the whole country. But it was at laft finished under the Ptolemies, who, by the help of fluices opened or fhut the canal as there was occafion. It began not far from the Delta, near the town of Bubafte. It was an hundred cubits, that is, twenty five fathoms broad, fo that two veffels might país with eafe; it had depth enough to carry the largeft fhips; and was above a thoufand ftadia, that is, above fifty leagues long. This canal was of great fervice to the trade of Egypt. But it is now almoft filled up, and there are fcarce any remains of it to be seen.

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Plutar. in

Ifid.
P. 354.

Strab.

1. 17.

I

CHAP. III.

LOWER EGYP T.

A M now to speak of Lower Egypt. Its shape, which refembles a triangle or A, gave occafion to its bearing the latter name, which is that of one of the Greek letters. Lower Egypt forms a kind of ifland; it begins at the place where the Nile is divided into two large canals, through which it empties itself into the Mediterranean: The mouth on the right-hand is called the Pelufian, and the other the Canopic, from two cities in their neighbourhood, Pelufium and Canopus, now called Damietta and Rofetta. Between these two large branches, there are five others of lefs note. This ifland is the beft cultivated, the most fruitful, and the richest in Egypt. Its chief cities (very anciently) were Heliopolis, Heracleopolis, Naucratis, Sais, Tanis, Canopus, Pelufium; and in latter times, Alexandria, Nicopolis, &c. it was in the country of Tanis that the Ifraelites dwelt.

THERE was at Sais, a temple dedicated to Minerva, who is fuppofed to be the fame as Ifis, with the following infcription: 1 am whatever hath been, and is, and fall be; and no mortal bath yet pierced thro' the veil that fhrouds me.

HELIOPOLIS, that is, the city of the fun, was so called from a magnificent temple there dedicated to p. 805 that planet. Herodotus and other authors after him, relate fome particulars concerning the Phoenix and Plin.l. 1o. this temple, which, if true, would indeed be very

Herod.

1. 2. C.73.

C. 2.

Tacit.

Ann. 1. 6. C. 28.

wonderful. Of this kind of birds, if we may believe the ancients, there is never but one at a time in the world. He is brought forth in Arabia, lives five or fix hundred years, and is of the fize of an Eagle. His head is adorned with a fhining and most beautiful creft; the feathers of his neck are of a gold co

lour, and the rest of a purple; his tail is white,
intermixt with red, and his eyes fparkling like,
ftars. When he is old, and finds his end approach-
ing, he builds a neft with wood and aromatick fpices,
and then dies. Of his bones and marrow, a worm
is produced, out of which another Phoenix is formed.
His firft care is to folemnize his parent's obfequies,
for which purpose he makes up a ball in the fhape
of an egg, with abundance of perfumes of myrrh as
heavy as he can carry, which he often affays before-
hand; then he makes a hole in it, where he depo-
fites his parent's body, and clofes it carefully with
myrrh and other perfumes. After this he takes up
the precious load on his fhoulders, and flying to the
altar of the fun, in the city of Heliopolis, he there
burns it.

HERODOTUS and Tacitus difpute the truth of fome of the circumstances of the incident in queftion, but seem to fuppofe it true in general. Pliny on the contrary, in the very beginning of his account of it, infinuates plainly enough, that he looks upon the whole as fabulous; and this is the opinion of all modern authors.

THIS ancient tradition, tho' grounded on an evident falfhood, hath yet introduced into almost all languages, the custom of giving the name of Phoenix to whatever is fingular and uncommon in its kind: Rara avis in terris, fays Juvenal, fpeaking of the diffi- Sat. 6. culty of finding an accomplished woman in all refpects. And Seneca obferves the fame of a good.

man

WHAT is reported of the fwans, viz. that they never fing but in their expiring moments, and that then they warble very melodiously, is likewife grounded merely on a vulgar error; and yet it is used, not only by the poets, but alfo by the orators, and even the

Vir bonus tam cito nec fieri potelt, nec intelligi

tanquam

Phoenix, femel anno quingen-
tefimo nascitur, Ep. 42.

philofophers.

Od.3.1.4. philofophers. O mutis quoque pifcibus donatura cygni, fi libeat, fonum, fays Horace to Melpomene. Cicero compares the excellent difcourfe which Craffus made in the fenate, a few days before his death, to the melodious finging of a dying fwan. Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini bominis vox & oratio, de orat. l. 3. n. 6. And Socrates ufed to fay, that good men ought to imitate fwans, who perceiving by a fecret inftinct, and a divination, what advantage there is in death, die finging and with joy. Providentes quid in morte boni fit, cum cantu & voluptate moriuntur.Tufc. Qu. l. 1. n. 73. I thought this fhort digreffion might be of fervice to youth; and return now to my fubject. Strab.1.17. IT was in Heliopolis, that an ox, under the name p. 805. of Mnevis, was worshipped as a God. Cambyfes, King of Perfia, exercifed his facrilegious rage on this city; burning the temples, demolishing the palaces, and destroying the most precious monuments of antiquity in it. There are ftill to be feen fome obelifks which escaped his fury; and others were brought from thence to Rome, to which city they are an ornament even at this day.

Strab.

ALEXANDRIA, built by Alexander the Great, from whom it had its name, vied almoft in magnificence with the ancient cities of Egypt. It stands four days journey from Cairo, and was formerly the chief mart of all the eastern trade. The merchandise were unloaded at Portus Muris, a town on the weftern P. 781, coaft of the Red-Sea; from whence they were brought upon camels to a town of Thebais, called Copht, and conveyed down the Nile to Alexandria, whither merchants reforted from all parts.

1. 16.

It is well known, that the Eaft-India trade hath at all times enriched those who carried it on. This was the chief fountain of the vaft treafures that Solomon amaffed, and which enabled him to build the 2 Sam. 8, magnificent temple of Jerufalem. David, by his

14.

Or Myos Hormos.

+

conquering

conquering Idumæa, became mafter of Elath and Efiongeber, two towns fituated on the eaftern fhore of the Red-Sea. From thefe two ports, Solomon fent fleets 1 Kings 9. to Ophir and Tarfhifh, which always brought back 26. immense riches*. This traffick after having been enjoyed fome time by the Syrians, who regained Idumæa, fhifted from them to the Tyrians. Thefe got all Strab.1.16 their merchandize conveyed, by the way of Rhinoco- p.481. lura, (a fea-port town lying between the confines of Egypt and Palestine) to Tyre, from whence they diftributed them all over the western world. Hereby the Tyrians enriched themselves exceedingly, under the Perfian Empire; by the favour and protection of whofe Monarchs they had the full poffeffion of this trade. But when the Ptolemies had made themselves mafters of Egypt, they foon drew all this trade into their kingdom, by building Berenice and other ports on the western fide of the Red-Sea, belonging to Egypt; and fixed their chief mart at Alexandria, which thereby rose to be the city of the greatest trade in the world. There it continued for a great many centuries after; and all the traffick, which the western parts of the world from that time had with Perfia, India, Arabia, and the eastern coafts of Africa, was wholly carried on through the Red-Sea, and the mouth of the Nile, till a way was difcovered, a little above two hundred years fince, of failing to thofe parts, by the Cape of Good Hope. After this, the Portuguese for fome time managed this trade; but now it is in a manner ingroffed wholly by the English and Dutch. This fhort account of the Eaft-India trade, Part 1. from Solomon's time, to the prefent age, is extracted L. 1. p. 9. from Dr. Prideaux.

FOR the conveniency of trade, there was built near Strab. Alexandria, in an inland called Pharos, a tower which 1. 17.

* He got in one voyage 450 Talents of Gold, 2 Chron. viii. 18. zobith amounts to 3 Millions,

P. 791.

C. 12.

2 hundred and 40 thoufa.d Pounds Plin. 1.36.
Sterling, Prid. Connect. Vol. 1.
ad an. 740. not.

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