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 traffic which the western parts of the world from that time had with Persia, India, Arabia, and the eastern coasts of Africa, was wholly carried on through the Red Sea and the mouth of the Nile, till a way was discovered, a little above two hundred years since, of sailing to those parts by the Cape of Good Hope. After this, the Portuguese for some time were masters of this trade; but now it is in a manner engrossed wholly by the English and Dutch. This short account of the East India trade, from Solomon's time, to the present age, is extracted from Dr. Prideaux. t

"For the convenience of trade, there was built near Alexandria, in an island called Pharos, a tower which bore the same name. At the top of this tower was kept a fire, to light such ships as sailed by night near those dangerous coasts, which were full of sands and shelves, from whence all other towers, designed for the same use, have derived their name, as, Pharo di Messina, &c. The famous architect Sostratus built it by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who expended eight hundred talents upon it.* It was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. Some, through a mistake, have commended that prince, for permitting the architect to put his name in the inscription which was fixed on the tower instead of his own. It was very short and plain, according to the manner of the ancients. Sostratus Cnidius Dexiphanis F. Diis Servatoribus pro navigantibus: i. e. Sostratus the Cnidian, son of Dexiphanes, to the protect

Part I. i. p. 9. c. 12. * Eight hundred thousand crowns, or £.180,000 sterling. Magno animo Ptolemæi regis, quòd in eá permiserit Sostrati Cnidii architecti structuræ nomen inscribi. Plin.

u Strab. 1. xvii. p. 791. Plin. 1. xxxvi.

ing deities, for the use of sea-faring people. But certainly Ptolemy must have very much undervalued that kind of immortality which princes are generally so fond of, to suffer, that his name should not be so much as mentioned in the inscription of an edifice so capable of immortalizing him, What we read in Lucian concerning this matter, deprives Ptolemy of a modesty, which indeed would be very ill placed here. This author informs us that Sostratus, to engross in after-times the whole glory of that noble structure to himself, caused the inscription with his own name to be carved in the marble, which he afterwards covered with lime, and thereon put the king's name. The lime soon mouldered away; and by that means, instead of procuring the architect the honour with which he had flattered himself, served only to discover to future ages his mean fraud and ridiculous vanity.

Riches failed not to bring into this city, as they usually do in all places, luxury and licentiousness; so that the Alexandrian voluptuousness became a proverb. * In this city arts and sciences were also industriously cultivated, witness that stately edifice, surnamed the Museum, where the literati used to meet, and were maintained at the public expence; and the famous library, which was augmented considerably by Ptolemy Philadelphus; and which, by the magnificence of the kings his successors, at last contained seven hundred thousand volumes. y In Cæsar's wars with the Alexandrians, part of this library (situate in the Bruchion), which consisted of four hundred thousand volumes, was unhappily consumed by fire.

x De scribend. Hist. p. 706.

y Plut. in. Cæs. p. 731. Seneca de tranpuil. anim. c. ix. * Ne Alexandrinis quidem permittenda deliciis. Quintil.

† A quarter or division of the city of Alexandria.

PART THE SECOND.

Of the MANNERS and CUSTOMS of the
EGYPTIANS.

EGYPT was ever considered, by all the ancients, as the most renowned school for wisdom and politics, and the source from whence most arts and sciences were divided. This kingdom bestowed its noblest labours and finest arts on the improvement of mankind; and Greece was so sensible of this, that its most illustrious men, as Homer, Pythagoras, Plato; even its great legislators, Lycurgus and Solon, with many more whom it is needless to mention, travelled into Egypt, to complete their studies, and draw from that fountain whatever was most rare and valuable in every kind of learning. God himself has given this kingdom a glorious testimony; when praising Moses, he says of him, that he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.

To give some idea of the manners and customs of Egypt, I shall confine myself principally to these particulars: its kings and government; priests and religion; soldiers and war; sciences, arts, and trades.

The reader must not be surprised if he sometimes finds, in the customs I take notice of, a kind of contradiction. This circumstance is owing either to the difference of countries and nations, which did not always follow the same usages; or to the different way of thinking of the historians whom I copy.

z Acts, vii. 29.

CHAP. I.

Concerning the KINGS and GOVERNMENT.

THE Egyptians were the first people who rightly understood the rules of Government. A nation so grave and serious immediately perceived, that the true end of politics is, to make life easy, and a people happy.

The kingdom was hereditary; but, according to Diodorus, the Egyptian princes conducted themselves in a different manner from what is usually seen in other monarchies, where the prince acknowledges no other rule of his actions than his own arbitrary will and pleasure. But here, kings were under greater restraint from the laws than their subjects. They had some particular ones digested by a former monarch, that composed part of what the Egyptians called the sacred books. Thus every thing being settled by ancient custom, they never sought to live in a different way from

their ancestors.

No slave nor foreigner was admitted into the immediate service of the prince; such a post was too important to be intrusted to any persons, except those who were the most distinguished by their birth, and had received the most excellent education; to the end that as they had the liberty of approaching the king's person day and night, he might, from men so qualified, hear nothing which was unbecoming the royal majesty; nor have any sentiments instilled into him but such as were of a noble and generous kind. For, adds Diodorus, it is very rarely seen that kings fly out into any vicious excess, unless those who approach them

* Diod, 1. i. p. 63, &c.

approve their irregularities, or serve as instruments to their passions.

The kings of Egypt freely permitted, not only the quality and proportion of what they ate and drank to be prescribed them (a thing customary in Egypt, whose inhabitants were all sober, and whose air inspired frugality), but even that all their hours, and almost every action, should be under the regulation of the laws.

In the morning at day break, when the head is clearest, and the thoughts most unperplexed, they read the several letters they received; to form a more just and distinct idea of the affairs which were to come under their consideration that day.

As soon as they were dressed, they went to the daily sacrifice performed in the temple; where, surrounded with their whole court, and the victims placed before the altar, they assisted at the prayer pronounced aloud by the high-priest, in which he asked of the gods, health and all other blessings for the king, because he governed his people with clemency and justice, and made the laws of his kingdom the rule and standard of his actions. The high-priest entered into a long detail of his royal virtues; observing that he was religious to the gods, affable to men, moderate, just, magnanimous, sincere; an enemy to falsehood; liberal; master of his passions; punishing crimes with the utmost lenity, but boundless in rewarding merit. He next spoke of the faults which kings might be guilty of; but supposed at the same time that they never committed any, except by surprise or ignorance; and loaded with imprecations such of their ministers as gave them ill counsel, and suppressed or disguised the truth. Such were the methods of conveying instruction to their kings. It was thought that reproaches would only sour their tempers; and that the most effectual method to inspire them with virtue, would be to point out to them their duty in praises conformable to the sense of the laws, and