If Daluca closely besieg’d the king even when she could not flatter herself with any approaching hopes; it is easy to believe, that she redoubled her officiousness after the death of Nephte, who, by the indolence of this prince, left the government vacant; for as Amedes had not held that part which he had in the administration, immediately from Osoroth, he had laid down all his employs, even before he departed to attend the queen’s obsequies, at which he was to assist as a judge. The king, whom Daluca never quitted, and who in the first days of mourning had had more opportunities of being alone with her, was wont to communicate to her such concerns as he could not avoid knowing, and to confide in her for the execution of what they had concerted together. This weak prince, who had enjoy’d that tranquillity, which the wisdom of Nephte had procur’d him, as a person enjoys health, without knowing the value of it, look’d upon a peaceable government as a thing easy in itself, and which any one was capable of supporting: or, if he imagin’d that any particular talent was necessary, he was tempted to believe, that Daluca’s courage and vivacity supply’d to advantage the want of Nephte’s modest and sober virtues. So that whereas considerations of conveniency only had made him discharge the burden of the government upon the late queen; it was by a kind of choice that he solemnly resign’d it to Daluca, who had no title to pretend to it. He advis’d her however, in particular, to consult with Amedes upon any emergency. Daluca answer’d him, That the deceas’d queen having intrusted Amedes with the education of the young prince, this employ was sufficient to take up his whole time; and she maliciously added, that she would have the assistance of ministers yet more devoted to the king’s will than he was.

The new regent, when she took the helm of state into her hands, behaved with that presumption which is common in persons of no worth, when succeeding those of the most distinguish’d merit. However, the aversion of the publick plainly shewn with regard to her, and the honourable mention continually made of the deceas’d queen, gall’d her to the soul; and she could never have persuaded herself that the entrance into sovereign power could have been so disagreeable. This possess’d her mind, from the very beginning of her administration, with such asperity, as could not but prove fatal to her in the sequel: and this lady, who, in the earliest hopes of her future grandeur, was wont sometimes to distribute her chimerical benevolence to those who were in her intimacy, without ever proposing to do any good to the publick, as soon as ever she had attained her wishes, thought no more of doing service to any one. The hatred which thereby became deeply rooted in the hearts as well of the courtiers as the people, made her reflect more seriously upon the project she had before conceiv’d of espousing the king, and attaining to the royal dignity. This indeed was the secret inclination of the prince; but till then it had not been a practice in Egypt for kings to marry below their rank; and so scrupulous had they been on this head, that they took their own sisters to wife, if suitable princesses were not to be found in the neighbouring courts. This custom had taken footing among them independant of this pretext; and the Ptolemies, though originally Grecians, comply’d with it.

Notwithstanding the care the king took to absent himself from all affairs of state, and to be unacquainted with what was transacted in the heart of his kingdom; he could not, however, be ignorant, that the choice he had made of Daluca, to confide his authority in, had given uneasiness to his subjects. But the ambition of this lady, who thought the power she had over him uncontroulable, prompted her to make use of that very argument for her ascending the throne, which ought to have mov’d him to deprive her of the administration. She took a proper time to inform Osoroth, with tears in her eyes, that the favours he had honour’d her with, and her intire devotion to him, had excited envy against her. She observ’d, that her zeal for the king’s person began at a time when she could not be suspected of any future views. Even now, added she, that my enemies apprehend it is time I should receive some reward for my disinterested affection, I abandon all, and consent that my fidelity become unprofitable to me for your service. I accepted of the administration, only that it might not devolve into the hands of some secret enemies to that absolute power inherent in you: but you may, if you think proper, give yourself up to them. I will even acknowledge, continued she, in a more resolute tone, that I set too high a rate upon the continuance of my administration. But as the reformers of government have dared to bring their complaints even to you, either you must allow them just, and banish me from your court, or confound their presumption, by heaping new honours upon me. Without abandoning my affection for you, which is an impossibility, I, from this moment, renounce all the functions you have constrain’d me to accept of, unless attended with the supream dignity, which alone was the ease and glory of the late queen’s administration: Such a resolution, hitherto without example, will convince the world you dare exert your authority. The king, who till then had struggled with the consideration of his own honour, and his son’s interest, gave way to his natural weakness, upon false principles of courage; and by a very improper marriage confirm’d that power, which he had unseasonably conferr’d upon a woman, who was about to crush his age with care and troubles: acting in this respect, like other weak princes, who instead of remedying the errors they have already enter’d into, endeavour to support them by the commission of still greater evils.

Osoroth, however, conscious of the irregularity of his choice, and Daluca of the inferiority of her birth, did not presume to convert the publick discontent into matter of rejoicings. The nuptials and coronation were both celebrated with very little ceremony: and it was not without pain, the queen could at first behave in a splendor so much superior to her former condition. Her pride however soon recover’d upon the birth of a son, for whose advancement she became immediately sollicitous. But as she could no ways carry her views to the height her ambition suggested to her, but to the prejudice of young Sethos, she perceiv’d the difficulties she had to encounter with, in attempting that injustice, and pursuing such crimes as she foresaw would be necessary for attaining her end, so long as that spirit of equity, reason and order, which had been establish’d for several reigns, was predominant at court, and amongst the chief men of the kingdom. Her first attempt then was to corrupt the morals of the court; hoping, with reason, that she should then find such persons to fill up all the great offices, as would be base enough not to contradict, or wicked enough to further her designs. But as a mark of her more refin’d policy and capacity for perpetrating mischief, she concluded, that the most unsuspected, and at the same time sure and speedy means of corrupting the court, was to introduce, as much as possible, a relaxation of manners, and levity of mind. She knew by particular experience, that those men who are enemies to all application and business, and wholly given up to their imaginations and pleasures; tho’ they might at first be endu’d with that common probity, which costs nothing, were no proof against those vices which offered them any advantage. Virtue never takes root in a mind possessed with vanity; and opportunity either finds or renders such a one capable of every crime.

_Daluca_ judg’d then, that to put this her design in practice, she must begin by breaking off gradually those assemblies and conversations which were usually held in the palace towards evening, among men of sense and discretion, that idle discourses might supply their place; and that above all, it would be necessary to supplant the usual exercises of the young Egyptian nobility, and substitute vain amusements in their room. But before I proceed to the method she took to introduce this first depravity, which was to be the source of all the rest, I believe it may be very proper to give an idea of the manners of this nation, with regard to the intercourse of wit and science which flourished in it; and the care that was taken to enforce whatever could ennoble the heart, cultivate the mind, and invigorate the body[24]. This account will at the same time serve as a general plan of the education of young Sethos, which we shall speak more particularly of hereafter.

[24] These very expressions are found in Bossuet, speaking of the Egyptians, in his discourse upon universal history.

The Greeks were as yet a barbarous nation, with regard to their custom of locking up their wives, the savage rather than warlike education of their children, and the preference they gave to bodily force, beyond the virtues of the mind; when the Egyptians, under the happiness of an uniform and wise government, had attain’d to politeness, which consisted more in the great principles of mildness and discretion, than in tiresome ceremonies. Human learning was the true source of this politeness: and as the sciences were very ancient in Egypt, the manners of that nation were early form’d. It has been a true observation, that good breeding never made its way into any nation but by means of learning. The Romans were an unciviliz’d people, till they learnt the sciences of the Greeks; as the Greeks themselves were, till they became acquainted with the knowledge of the Egyptians. And tho’ learned men are not always the most civiliz’d, it is nevertheless, to their writings, in philosophy, history, morality, and even poetry, that their fellow-citizens are indebted for the true foundation of their accomplishments.

The king’s palace at Memphis, which was situate on one side of a large square, opposite to the temple of the three deities, was the theatre of the arts and sciences. We have already observ’d, that the ancient kings of Egypt chose rather to shew their magnificence in the edifices they were to inhabit after their death, than in those they dwelt in while living. Pursuant to this principle their palaces made no appearance, either in themselves, or in those ornaments which regard only pageantry and luxury. But in recompence, nothing was omitted in them that contributed to the cultivation of the sciences; Witness the gardens of the king of Memphis, which contain’d every sort and species of known plants which Egypt had ever produc’d, and even all those peculiar plants which travellers had brought from the most distant climates, especially after the conquests of Sesostris. And besides, all the advantage which the due ordering and ranging of this immense variety of plants could possibly afford to the eye by beautiful views and prospects, was nicely observ’d. An elegant choice of the most agreeable flowers, which are singly planted in our modern parterres, cannot afford a sight equal to that of many large compartments, in which were seen in separate borders all the flowers simple or compound; which blew in the form of roses, pinks or lillies; or whose leaves took the shape of a vase, an umbrella, or a tuff; or in short, whose colours were either simple or mix’d.

On the wings of the parterre were planted the twenty species or kinds of palm-trees, in one single row on each side; one of flower- or male-palms, and the other of fruit- or female-palms. They thought this correspondence necessary to render the females fruitful, by the dust of the flowers which the wind convey’d to them from the males. A distinction of sex, which, tho’ more perceptible in palm-trees, may perhaps be the same in many other plants. The parterre had no other shelter but these two rows of palms; but there were two other shady walks under arch’d terrasses, to the very bottom of the garden. At the end of the parterre were two great woods separated by the continuation of the main walk, which were travers’d by an infinity of other lesser walks, that the sun never pierced. These two woods consisted of every species of those trees which are called barren, from the humble broom to the haughty cedar, ascending gradually from that side towards the parterre with their tops joining, which from the windows of the palace resembled a talus or glacis, and by the favour of the climate were ever green. Behind these woods were all sorts of plants, roots and pulse necessary in a kitchen-garden. And on the sides continued downwards, were planted every sort of wall- and other fruit-trees. But as they were design’d for no other use but to shew the extent of botany, there were no more than what might be sufficient to exhibit the several kinds or species.

The priests, who were the orderers and managers of this garden, had a passage to it thro’ a gallery at the top of a colonnade, which reached from their college behind the temple, and, bordering one side of the square by the river side, run along by the north wing of the palace, and so descended on the same side into the parterre. They had caus’d to be drawn and painted in natural colours, all the trees and plants of the whole garden; and all these figures were to be seen in one of those galleries of the palace, which were always open to the curious, even to strangers. These figures were more in number than the plants of the garden, because they represented a great many others which were not transplantable from the soil where they grew: Tho’ there was nothing wanting that could possibly be procured, not even coral, madrepores, lithophyton, and other marine petrifying plants. In short, every thing was there in the most exact order, according to their kinds and species: Plants as yet unknown, had in some manner their places assign’d them; and botany seem’d here to be compleat, independent of its parts, which in all appearance will never be so.

But as the curiosity of the Egyptians was not limited to this article alone, they had in the same gallery samples of all the productions of nature, treasured up in repositories, with grates before them of that metal call’d electrum, a mixture of gold and silver, ranged under classes in such excellent order, as rais’d curiosity in the most indifferent. Even nature herself may be said to have been honour’d in this collection by the multiplicity and variety of her own gifts, and her riches thus assorted, under the proper names and inscriptions which distinguish’d them, seem’d to exceed in number those same productions, when dispers’d in her own extensive field, and frequently unknown. In this collection were comprehended all such substances, as are gather’d from the surface, or taken out of the entrails of the earth, in their natural form, and but barely cleans’d and purify’d: Such were not only all manner of concretions, congelations and crystallisations, but all sorts of fossils, minerals and metals, and that in the several progressions and degrees from whence they receive different appellations. Hence they took their notions of all those juices and gums which proceed from plants or other bodies by exsudation, the greater part of which were either precious aromaticks, or sovereign antidotes: An immense treasure of delights in health, and of remedies in sickness. To conclude; Here was that grotto of Mercury, in which, as Orpheus says, was treasured up a collection of every good thing, and from whence no one ever return’d with the infirmities he brought.

From this gallery, set apart for natural history, was a passage into that destin’d for Chymistry.[25] Some believe this science took its name from Egypt, formerly call’d Chemia; but that it took its rise there is certain. The renown’d Mercury of Thebes, whom the Egyptians look’d upon as the author of all their knowledge, gave name to that liquid metal which he found the method of extracting out of Cinnober, and which is found to be exactly the same with the Quicksilver which runs in the mines, the object of so many chymical experiments, and the miracle of nature, by the variety of colours which it assumes in its precipitation, and from whence it has likewise the name of Proteus. Mercury it was who taught them to reduce bodies by decomposition into their three principles, salt, sulphur and spirit; the latter of which, as the most sublime, has retain’d in our authors the name of Mercury. Several kings of Egypt follow’d his example in the study of chymistry; and Theophrastus tells us we are indebted to one of them for the artificial azure. The Egyptians, by an imitation of almost all compound bodies, had form’d, as it were by art, a second nature; and chymistry furnish’d them with nitres, vitriols and salts, always more beautiful, and sometimes more efficacious than those of nature. Seneca the philosopher assures us,[26] that Democritus had learnt of them the art of softening ivory, and to give to flints the colour and lustre of emeralds. We have at least a recent and incontestable proof of the efficacy of their dissolvents, in that pearl of inestimable value and uncommon size, which Cleopatra took from her ear, and liquify’d in an instant in prepar’d vinegar, that Mark Anthony might swallow it: And it is certain, that this vinegar was no corrosive dissolvent, because it was drunk without danger.

[25] With regard to this article our reader may consult the works of Olaus Borrichius, in which he defends the antiquity of chymistry against Conringius.

[26] Ep. 90.

The testimonies of antiquity have gone yet farther with regard to the Egyptians; and we are plainly told, that Mercury, or Hermes Trismegistus, taught them the secret of transforming all metals into gold, call’d for that reason the Hermetical philosophy. As a proof of which they alledge the vast extent of their riches, which, say they, one single mine of gold, the only one they knew, could never have furnish’d. Witness the ship of cedar, of four hundred and twenty foot long, which Sesostris caus’d to be plated on the inside with silver, and to be cover’d with gold without; the astronomical circle of massive gold in the tomb of Ismandes, which by the account Diodorus gives, was of the thickness of a cubit, or a foot and a half, and in circumference three hundred sixty five cubits; a great number of temples of gold dedicated, according to the same author, by Osiris to Jupiter, Juno, and other gods; temples so large, that priests were appointed to officiate in them; and to conclude, so many other works, which, tho’ but of marble or stone, cost more than the former. Notwithstanding all which, the opinion I am of, that the integral parts of all bodies are determin’d to their nature from the formation of the earth, would alone hinder my granting, to any one whomever, the power of transmuting them; or at least allowing that their change can be effected by operations so imperfect and so short as are those of mankind, in comparison with the subtlety and extreme length of those of nature. Besides, wise men don’t doubt but this true philosopher’s stone, of which Mercury or Hermes was the inventor, was the commerce which this first king of Thebes establish’d in Egypt. And in reality, it is not the quantity of matter, either gold or silver, be it taken from the mines, or the laboratories of the chymists, that renders a nation opulent. The mines of Norway, Germany, Spain and Africa, don’t make the inhabitants of those countries one jot the richer. The continual circulation of a moderate quantity of this matter, and a perpetual commerce, with the productions of a soil, and the fruits of industry, have rais’d nations to extreme plenty, who have no mines either of gold or silver. We must however grant, that the Egyptians closely pursu’d this secret of Hermes, taken in its literal sense; and we may even conjecture, that the real knowledge they attain’d to in the art of physick, was owing to their vain labours in quest of the philosophical gold.

This chymical gallery led to another appropriated to anatomy. The dissections were always perform’d in the priests college; but they brought into the palace entire and natural demonstrations, consisting of the bones, muscles, arteries and veins of most animals, either of the air, earth, or water: And their entrails, shewn separately, were made more discernable by being laid open, or by injections. Pliny relates, that the ancient kings of Egypt did not think it beneath them to assist themselves at dissections. It is certain at least, that Æsculapius, king of Memphis, being the first author of physick, was likewise the inventor of anatomy. But Egypt having since embrac’d a more regular form of government, the several functions were better distributed, and the particular professions of the sciences devolv’d upon the priests, or their subalterns. The practice of embalming human bodies, and even those of animals, most of which were sacred with them, in one city or other, had render’d them extremely knowing in the outward and inward construction of all living bodies. The several devastations in Egypt which have robb’d their catacombs of an infinity of mummies and bones, are even to this day of great help to the study of this science; And the famous Galen, physician to our august Emperours Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, excludes from the profound knowledge of anatomy those who did not come for instruction from these objects to the academies of Alexandria, tho’ now held by the Greeks.

The knowledge the Egyptians had in anatomy, was a consequence of their curiosity in living creatures. I don’t speak of the custom yet in practice in Egypt of hatching the eggs of fowls destin’d for the nourishment of mankind, in furnaces made for that purpose, which prodigiously increases their number. But the kings of Memphis had, besides the garden I have above describ’d, a large inclosure, with a park and proper conveniencies for four-footed beasts, canals and basons for fish and amphibious creatures, and aviaries for birds. And here were frequently represented sundry sports of these animals, tam’d and train’d up to surprizing exercises. [27]Crocodiles were seen floating upon the surface of the canals and basons with men on their backs, who made them perform all sorts of evolutions, or walking on dry land, led by chains, and often obedient to their master’s voice alone. The same evolutions were perform’d by the Hippopotamus, or River-Horse, whose aspect alone was so hideous, that it was believ’d fire proceeded out of his nostrils. The bones of this animal are shewn in several cities of Greece for the bones of giants. We have seen, even in the days of the Ptolomies, when the sciences began to decline in Egypt, Cynocephali, a sort of apes, of which they made their hieroglyphical Anubis, that were taught to play regularly on the guitar and the flute.[28]

[27] Plut. c. de solertia anim.

[28] Ælian. de natura animal. l. 6. c. 10.

But we must allow, that the curiosity or ingenuity of the Egyptians, in what was commendable, does no ways excuse the scandalous and superstitious abuses they are fallen into with respect to animals. Many cities in Egypt have borrow’d their names from those monsters they paid adoration to, as Crocodilopolis and others. The Hippopotamus is worshipp’d at Pampremis, tho’ this city don’t bear its name. The most excusable among them seem to be those who worship the animals that are of use to mankind. The [29]Heracleoti offer’d incense to the Icneumon, a sort of rat as big as a little dog, which destroy’d the crocodile in a very singular manner: This little animal, after having daub’d itself all over with a sort of thick slime, which when dry’d serv’d it as a coat of mail, jump’d into the jaws of the crocodile, and so kill’d it. The ancients say, this is the only animal that secures itself with defensive armour. All Egypt ador’d the bird Ibis, a sort of stork, that freed their cities from the little wing’d serpents, which the African wind was wont to bring them; but this bird was itself very troublesome, by reason of its voracity and filth. It is related, that Cambyses being upon the point of giving battle to Psammenitus the son of Amasis at Palusa, on the confines of Egypt, rang’d a row of these birds before his avant-guard, and that the Egyptians chose rather to submit without opposition, than to draw their arrows against them. The Greeks with reason reproach’d the Egyptians for the singularity of their religion. But they pretend to justify themselves with regard to their worship of crocodiles, and other such hideous animals; by alledging, that they defended their country, and render’d the access to it dangerous to the pirates of Arabia, and the scouts of Libya. They even retort the same reproach upon the Greeks,[30] and say, that the Thessalonians worshipp’d a stork, and the Bœotians a weasel. It is indeed a common thing for men to deride with great haughtiness the superstition of others, when they are blind to their own folly, tho’ often of the same kind.

[29] Cic. de natura, Deor. l. 1.

[30] Clem. Alex. admon. ad gentes. This father even adds, that it is less ignominious to worship animals, incapable of crime, than gods, vitious and unjust, as were those of the Greeks.

After having gone thro’ what regards experimental sciences, the next gallery was the first of those destin’d for the sciences of computation. The peculiar necessity incumbent upon the inhabitants of this country, of adjusting the bounds of their lands after an inundation of the waters of the Nile, had put them upon the study of geometry sooner than other nations: But they had carry’d their contemplations much farther than this necessity oblig’d them; And had attain’d to those sciences, of which the simple measuring of their lands, or geometry properly so call’d, was but a very small part. The canals and other bounds, which in course of time separated the estates of private persons, made them sufficiently known. But geometry became the knowledge of every kind of proportion represented by lines.

The first elements of the mathematicks are very ancient. It is related, that Mercury, the first king of Thebes, whom we have so often mention’d, being concern’d at the changes, which an universal deluge then recent had caus’d upon the surface of the earth, and for the want of all human science, which that terrible catastrophe had so totally effac’d, thought of an expedient that might prevent so great a loss, if the disaster should ever happen again. [31]He caus’d subterranean and winding passages to be dug in the neighbourhood of Thebes, the remains of which are yet to be seen, and go by the name of the Syringes. These he fill’d with square and pyramidal columns, upon the surfaces of which were carv’d the principles of every science; but in hieroglyphical symbols, that if even the art of writing should be lost, they might be explain’d by conjecture; and that if any of the race of man should escape, they might at least have this aid, and not be reduc’d, as they had then just been, to labours that requir’d so great a length of time as a new invention of all things. It is added, that Mercury himself had enjoy’d the same advantage from some columns anterior to the deluge, which had been erected by the hero-kings or demi-gods, his predecessors.

[31] Ammian. Marcel. l. 22. vid. Marsh. p. 39. & 41.

In the mathematical gallery at Memphis were plac’d columns of the height of a cubit, but which had all the proportions of those columns of the Syringes, which contain’d the principles of this science. The proprieties of numbers were engraven on the first of them; forasmuch as their proportions being perceptible by operation alone, they serve as elements and a model for all mathematical proportions.[32] Pythagoras, who, as the ancients say, receiv’d great instruction by Mercury’s columns, thence took his idea of numbers. He likewise carry’d it as far as any of the Greeks before our celebrated Diophantes; and he was the first amongst them who made use of them for the musical divisions of the monochord: But he afterwards made allegorical applications of them, which may have been of some moral use, but were of no advantage to arithmetick itself. Upon other columns were the elementary propositions of geometry, with their figures, under each of which was the name of him who first demonstrated them, and the date thereof, but not the demonstrations themselves. These monuments formed a very curious history of the steps and progress of human understanding. The sciences were pointed out, and the degree they had attain’d to in each age known; but there were other measures to be taken before they could be attain’d to. Thales had observ’d there, that an angle taken in the circumference of a circle, and carry’d to the two extremities of the diameter, was always rectangular: And it was from the demonstration he found of it after his return to Greece, that he gather’d all the other proprieties of the circle, and all the trigonometrical resolutions, or those which give the measure of inaccessible distances. There it was that Pythagoras found out the famous proposition upon the hypothenuse of the rectangular triangle, compar’d to the two other sides.[33] And it was not without reason he sacrific’d a hecatomb in thanks to the gods for having at last discover’d it; since this proposition, and that which establishes the analogy of the sides of such triangles, are the two axles upon which the whole science of geometry turns.

[32] Jamb. de Myst. Ægypt. l. 1.

[33] See Olaus Borrichius, Hermetis sapientia, where he speaks in general of the sciences of the Egyptians, c. 8.

Next to the elementary propositions, which respect only figures terminated by direct or circular lines, were all those parts of geometry, which require no other assistance. Upon this basis alone were rais’d all the mathematicks employ’d for the use of man, the convenience of cities, and the ornament of all Egypt; in a word, all practical geometry. The principles of this geometry carved upon columns, tho’ they were not all copy’d from those of Mercury, and the date of the greater part shew’d that the invention was more modern, took up one side of this spacious gallery. The other was adorn’d with discoveries made in compound geometry, or that part which treats of curvilineal figures. These discoveries being owing to the priests alone, after they had form’d a peculiar society in Egypt, were not upon columns, but carv’d with proper figures upon tables of white marble, higher and larger than the columns. Establish’d theorems, and problems resolv’d,[34] were only express’d, as those in simple geometry, without any demonstration.

[34] Those priests who apply’d themselves to the most abstruse speculations in geometry, were call’d Arsepedonaptes, or Arpedonaptes. See on these two words the notes of S. Clem. of Alex. in Potter’s Edition, p. 357. The reader will find in the text, that Democritus boasted of having learnt of these men as much of geometry as they themselves could know.

But of all the curiosities in these galleries, nothing came up to the beauty of the astronomical instruments. The Chaldeans have been accounted the inventors of this science: But they themselves were but a colony of the Egyptians, led into Babylon by Belus, who, according to Diodorus, was born in Egypt. The very climate of this country favour’d their astronomical observations, not only on account of a continual serene sky, but because, being near the equator, it discovers the greatest part of the firmament, whose revolutions over it are almost direct. It was by this advantage of situation, that the shepherds, who spent their nights in the open fields, were the first astronomers: they could not but remark the different elevations of the stars in different hours of the night, the successive rise of those which absented themselves from the rays of the sun, during the course of the year, and the particular course of the planets, generally opposite to the diurnal motion of the whole firmament. But no sooner did the more curious and penetrating part of mankind begin to cultivate these objects, than they converted them into the most noble of all human sciences, and the only one which can render a prophet infallible. The situation of Egypt made it so famous for astronomy, that, since the foundation of Alexandria, all the great astronomers of Greece have been either born, or have acquir’d their knowledge and fame in that city. Such as, Timocharis, Denis the astronomer, Eratosthenes, the famous Hipparchus, Possidonius, Sosigenes; and, to conclude, Ptolomy, the last and the greatest of them all. The Egyptians were the first who made spheres according to the two different systems of the universe; upon a supposition, either that all the heavenly bodies have their revolution about the earth, or that the earth takes its circuit round the sun as a planet. Tho’ the Greeks now follow the visible and apparent system of the diurnal revolution of the sun about us, a system to which our Ptolomy has added great lustre; we can’t be ignorant that our antient philosophers, such as Thales and Pythagoras, believed all the planets, and the earth itself, had their motions round the sun. And as both of them learnt the sciences in Egypt, it is a certain proof, independant of my memoirs, that this last system took its rise there. The motion of the earth has been even admitted by Greeks of a pretty modern date; and Philolaus has lent his name to the Philolaick astronomy, which has this hypothesis for its basis. These two systems are equally satisfactory as to the periodical revolutions of the stars. But if the Ptolomean system be in some manner better adapted to the senses, and may serve for astronomers who only observe the celestial appearances; that of Philolaus, being infinitely plainer in itself, of consequence comes nearer nature, and is more agreeable to philosophy. I shall say nothing here of the Egyptian astrology, because it was only taught to initiates, in the inmost recesses of their temples. But as a search after the philosopher’s stone has been the parent of chymistry, so we may say that the vain science of astrology, with which all the nations of the world are infatuated, has produc’d excellent discoveries in astronomy. A general knowledge of this great art was common to all the priests in Egypt; but we must allow that those of Thebes surpassed in this article[35] all their brethren. I shall therefore defer some other observations on this science, till I shall have occasion in another place to speak of this famous metropolis of the upper Egypt.

[35] Diodor. l. 1.

But what attracted the attention of a greater number of people in the palace of Memphis, were the models of all the machines which had been made use of to level the soil in Egypt, to water every part of it, to raise those waters to considerable heights, and to keep them within bounds. It was after a view of these wonderful machines, of which some were yet in being in the days of Archimedes, that this famous prince of Syracusa invented at Alexandria the hydraulick screw or engine which bears his[36] name. In this gallery was likewise shewn the models of those multiplied powers, by the means of which they had been able to hoist out of their quarries, to transport, and to raise to the very clouds, stones of so prodigious a size, as perpetuate the labours of Egypt. To conclude, whatever invention had furnish’d for the service of war, by land or sea, was there carefully treasur’d up. Astronomy, added to the active genius of the Egyptians, had made them very expert in navigation; and the models of vessels of every form, and of instruments proper to build and work them, were not the least among the curiosities we have been describing.

[36] Diodor. l. 5. p. 217. Ed. Hen.

This extraordinary collection was indeed but a mute object, or spoke only by means of the inscriptions which were affix’d to each article. We must likewise allow that foreigners had hardly any other instructions to expect, but what they could draw from these kinds of objects, which were in some of the cities of Egypt, before Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, the most savage and inconsiderate of all conquerors, had laid them waste. Thales and Pythagoras were the last of the Greek philosophers, who had the advantage of seeing them before their destruction. They both resided in Egypt a great number of years; and had contracted an intimate friendship with some of the Egyptian priests: They were both initiated, and Pythagoras in particular[37], desirous of being so, at Heliopolis, where the priests were accounted the most expert at divination, purchas’d it at the expence of being circumcised. Notwithstanding which, their travels and labours had been of little profit to them, if they had not, as great inventors themselves, drawn large consequences from the little which was communicated to them[38]. The priests thought themselves indeed oblig’d to be liberal of their instructions to foreign initiates, with regard to certain mysteries of their religion, but were very sparing in the secrets of their sciences. In favour of their own nation however, there were commonly attending, in other galleries of the palace of Memphis, the greatest masters of those sciences, of which the principles and instruments had been expos’d to view in those already describ’d. Renown’d Athens never produc’d so many schools, nor them more frequented; tho’ in these of Egypt none were admitted but natives[39]. Besides the hours set apart for regular lectures, the priests, who were the only teachers in these several academies, were ready every moment of the day to answer all questions that might be propos’d to them by any persons whomsoever. But their chymical preparations, anatomical dissections, and even astronomical observations, were always in private; that they might in some measure conceal, even from the Egyptians themselves, the means by which they attain’d to their knowledge.

[37] Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 1.

[38] Philostrates in the life of Apollonius, l. 1. c. 1. says, that Pythagoras, as an excellent painter, had embellish’d with colours what the Egyptian priests had only sketch’d with the pencil.

[39] Monuments of antiquity give so often an idea of these academies, that F. Lassiteau, in the life of John de Brienne, l. 2. p. 145. having had occasion to speak of Philippus Augustus, said; That he had made the university of Paris as famous as those of Athens and Memphis had been, in their greatest splendour.

Tho’ the Egyptians gave preference, among the labours of the mind, to natural philosophy, as more directly conducive to the advantage of the publick; they were not, however, negligent in those which are the objects of erudition. Their consultations on this head were held in a vast library, which they increas’d daily. Upon the gate of this library was written in letters of gold, FOOD FOR THE MIND. An inscription of greater extent than that of the library of Thebes, plac’d there by Ismandes the founder: viz. PHYSICK FOR THE MIND[40]. It is not in the power of a king to collect the curiosities of nature and art, which one learned man may have describ’d and explain’d in his writings; but no private person can make so ample a collection of books as a king may. The library of 700,000 volumes collected under the care of Ptolomeus Philadelphus, and burnt against the will of the conqueror, when Julius Cæsar enter’d Alexandria, was a wonder of Egypt, greater than any of those which now go by the name. At Memphis, and in other cities, the priests kept in their own possession all the books, which contain’d the mysteries of their religion, and even the histories of the heroick times, or those which preceded Menes. They communicated them only to initiates, to whom they expounded them in private. Having establish’d it as a maxim, to deprive the laity of all means of becoming arbiters in points of religion; the people, and especially the women, knew no more of it than what the priests taught them by word of mouth. But all histories from the time of Menes, and even those of foreign countries, which they had collected with as much assiduity as the curiosities of nature, were preserved in the royal libraries, and shewn to all Egyptians who desir’d it.

[40] Diodor. Description of the Memnonium, l. 1. §. 2.

[41]The priests in Egypt were the only judges in point of civil right: But if they themselves had any matter of dispute with private persons, and by so much the more if with the king, it was decided by the assembly of initiates: So that the priests and initiates might have kept the knowledge of the law wholly within themselves. However, as they thought it reasonable that every one who was cast should judge of the equity of their judgments; and besides, it was requisite for private persons to know the laws they were to live up to; the priests taught this science publickly in a hall of the palace: and that was the only school into which strangers were admitted. The Egyptians had right to boast that Solon and Lycurgus borrow’d from them the best of those laws which they establish’d, one of them in Athens, and the other in Sparta. [42]Among these was one very remarkable, which oblig’d all the commoners of Egypt to declare to the judges every year what profession they propos’d to follow for a livelihood, and they were forbidden, at least for that time, following any other upon pain of death. This made them assiduous every one in his way. And that activity yet so visible in our city of Alexandria, made the emperor Adrian say, [43]there was not a man in that great city who was not distinguished by some or other profession or trade. Even the blind, added he, have their work. None are exempt, no not the gouty, if they have either hands or feet free from the distemper. This is but one instance, among an infinite number of excellent laws, which from the Egyptians were propagated among the wisest nations, and of which some are easily distinguish’d in the Roman laws[44].

[41] Ælian. var. hist. l. 14.

[42] Herodotus, l. 2. Diodor. l. 1.

[43] Fl. Vopiscus in Saturnino.

[44] Solon sententiis adjutus sacerdotum Ægypti, latis justâ moderatione legibus, Romano quoque juri maximum addidit firmamentum. Amm. Marc. lib. 22. See likewise Nicolai de Synedrio Ægyptiorum, where he compares the 14 chief laws of Egypt to those of other nations.

The kings of Egypt had always been promoters of these academies, being convinc’d, that a love of the sciences, and the tranquility they requir’d, were alone sufficient to suppress all thoughts of revolt and sedition. The sciences not only employ and adorn the mind, but endue it with a certain solidity and uprightness, which generally prevent men not only from being vain, but from being wicked. This truth had been experienc’d by many kings, in the great ministers, magistrates, and even great commanders, which these schools had furnish’d: For the exercises of the body were here as little neglected as those of the mind. I don’t mean only such as wrestling, swimming, running, riding, and walking a single rope, which latter they suppos’d render’d the eyes, and footsteps sure; all exercises of great use in the art of war, whether in battles or at sieges; but every article belonging to the military art which requires study and science. Here young noblemen, emulating one another, were employed in taking the distances of inaccessible places, and delineating every species of fortification. They diligently followed the most famous architects in the execution of their immense undertakings, to learn of them the proportions which the foundations of walls bear to their height; the power of those vaults which tho’ solid were light; the different sorts of timber, and the degrees of force it attain’d from different positions.

Even queens, and the ladies that attended them, were endued with this noble emulation. The set races, and other exercises of these young noblemen, on their festivals, and days of publick rejoicings, furnish’d them with very agreeable entertainments, and they took a singular pleasure in discoursing in the circles which were form’d about them at court towards evening, thereby to be instructed, and render’d worthy of that society they were necessarily to be engag’d in with the most learned men: For, according to a custom as antient in Egypt as monarchy itself, the priests, as austere as they were in their sacerdotal functions, frequented the assemblies at court. The first design of this custom was to keep up a spirit of religion in their kings, and a decorum in courts, where, contrary to the custom of other nations, the women were allowed freedom of conversation with the men. The priests themselves had this advantage by it, that in return for their sciences they learned politeness from the courtiers: and both together made up that mixture, which perhaps alone deserves the name of good company; that is, of persons of distinction join’d with men of wit and learning. Rules for conversation were needless among persons whose minds were so form’d: and as no one presum’d to speak beyond the measure of his genius and knowledge, every person at court, tho’ in different degrees of learning, render’d himself almost equally valued. It was even a maxim with the Egyptians, that a refin’d wit was not the greatest qualification a man could have, not only with respect to the affairs of state and war, which of course were preferably put into the hands of men of deep knowledge and experience; but even with regard to the common intercourses of life, and the agreeableness of conversation: so that profess’d wits were no otherwise esteem’d than as they render’d themselves agreeable by their affability, modesty, and other qualities common to men of honour. In short, in a nation where every subject, animated by a reciprocal emulation, discharg’d his function or employ equally well, that real esteem they had one for the other added a harmony to society, now hardly any where known.

This solidity of mind, which appear’d in the employments, and even conversations of the Egyptians, extended to matters of mere entertainment. They were admirers of elegant writing in prose and verse: but having in general a more favourable opinion of men of a common genius who render’d themselves useful by their knowledge, than of those fine wits, who only supply’d the publick with vain amusements, they reconcil’d both by this unquestionable maxim, that the great man in point of learning was he who cultivated a profuseness of wit with as large a degree of knowledge. In consequence of this maxim, universally received, there appear’d very few authors who had not treasur’d up a stock of reading sufficient to be the guide and support of their own reflections. Hence it was that the readers found a great deal of instruction even in those books, which seem’d to be written only for pleasure and diversion. And thus those who presided over learning prevented, as well in authors as readers, that taste for trifles which is the stumbling-block of polite nations, and soon becomes a greater hinderance to noble undertakings, than simplicity and impoliteness. As for poets, they were very severe in examining their notions of virtue and vice; and undeceiv’d them in the opinion they almost all fell into, that morality was an innate knowledge, which required no study to attain to. But poetry was absolutely forbid to persons convicted of dissolute and irregular morals. By this they secured themselves from a publick evil, always found among the Greeks; which was, that whenever authors became scandalous in their persons, they were the first who took upon them to reform mankind by satire, almost always levell’d at persons of such merit, whom a just reputation plac’d above them. The antient Lacedemonians, in imitation of the Egyptians, forbad every vicious man even to mention a moral maxim. And in effect what are poets, who, as we have frequent instances among the Greeks, undertaking to represent the characters of virtuous men in their poems, but who having themselves no idea or knowledge of virtue, never set it in a just light: or, which is yet more pernicious, give an advantageous turn to vice conceal’d under the larve of false heroism?

In the palace of Memphis were two peculiar galleries, which not only serv’d as schools for sculptors and painters, but for the learned were the richest monument they could desire for the history of these two arts. At the entrance into one of these galleries were on the right and on the left columns of wood or stone, roughly hewn, about the height and thickness of a man. The name of the god, or hero, which was design’d to be represented, was written upon some of them; and that was all the sculpture of the first times. Advancing farther, human form began to unfold itself more and more: but the two legs were as yet join’d together, and the two arms glued to the body at their full length. By degrees the members were loosen’d from the trunk, and plac’d in the postures of action. From thence they came to elegant attitudes, and soon to miracles of art. For as soon as man has found out the good in any art whatsoever, he rises with a prodigious rapidity to the excellent. The Grecian sculpture pass’d thro’ the same degrees; and Plutarch relates, that the Spartiates call’d all those figures they had of the Dioscuri, or the two brothers Castor and Pollux, Docanes. They were two beams[45] plac’d upright, and join’d together at top by a cross piece of timber. Dædalus was the first who brought out of Egypt into Greece the art of putting the arms of statues in an acting, and the legs in a walking posture. The Greeks were so surpriz’d at this new attitude, that they chain’d down their statues made in this manner, for fear they should run away; and Plato observes, that statues which were fasten’d to pedestals yielded a greater price than others; as slaves who were not addicted to elopement. There is even something more in it: for tho’, on the testimony of the Greeks, who had seen the statues of Dædalus, they were, with respect to the sculpture, not brought to that pitch of perfection, to which Phidias and Praxiteles brought theirs; he had given them, by means of some inward springs, a real motion. Aristotle himself, quoting Philip the comick writer, assures us, that Dædalus had carv’d a statue of Venus in wood, which mov’d by means of quicksilver he had pour’d into the inside of it. Be it as it will with regard to the truth or circumstances of this fact; these allegations will suffice to make us take the description Homer gives us of the moving figures in Achilles’s buckler in a literal sense, notwithstanding those interpreters who will reduce the description of it to that of a common picture or basso-relievo, the figures of which are represented as moving, tho’ they are in reality motionless. And it is easy to discover, that Homer, in his description of this buckler, had in view this art of Dædalus, more famous in his days than in ours. But nothing is of greater honour to the Egyptian sculpture, than that piece of history with which the first book of Diodorus Siculus concludes. The most famous sculptors of Greece, says this author, were train’d up in the schools of Egypt. Such are Telecles and Theodorus, the sons of Roecus, who made the statue of Apollo Pythius, now at Samos; in such manner that Telecles having made one half of it at Samos, while his brother Theodorus made the other half at Ephesus, the two pieces fitted so exactly, that the whole figure seem’d to be by one hand. This peculiar art, which is but little known, continues he, to the Grecian sculptors, is very much cultivated by the Egyptians: for these don’t judge of a figure, as the Greeks, barely by the eye; but measuring all the parts one by the other, they carve the stones which are to form a statue separately, and with the utmost accuracy. For this end they divided a human body into 21 parts and 1/4. So when the workmen had once agreed among themselves upon the height of the figure, every one made that part which fell to his share, and they join’d in such manner as was astonishing to those who were not acquainted with this art. But the two pieces of Apollo of Samos join according to the height of the body; and tho’ the arms are stretch’d out, as in action, and the legs are in the posture of a man walking, it is every where correspondent, and the whole figure is in the most exact equilibrity. In short, this piece of workmanship, which is finish’d according to the Egyptian method, is very little inferior to the most accomplish’d pieces of Egypt itself.

[45] _Docos_ in Greek signifies a beam.

The other gallery was appropriated to painting. The first that appear’d in view were boards whited over, upon which the objects, generally describ’d in black, were so ill drawn, that the painter thought himself oblig’d to write on the side of each, This is a man; This is a horse; This is a tree. Advancing farther, were draughts which seem’d to have been mark’d out round the shadow of an object set in the sun. In the following pictures the perfection of draught and variety of colours increas’d visibly. The Egyptians, as the Greeks, had for a long time only four: and we know that Zeuxis, Polygnotus, and Timanthes made use of no more. Echion, Nicomachus, Protogenes, and finally Apelles, were those, who, with their different compound colours, found out all the shadowings of nature. There are yet to be seen, in a grotto not far from Thebes, paintings which are remaining from the times of the antient kings of that dynasty, the colours of which are as lively as if but just laid on[46]. But the more modern Egyptians did not fall into the fault with which Denis of Halicarnassus reproaches the modern Greek painters; that they endeavour’d to cover the neglect of design by the variety and liveliness of their colours. The Egyptians compar’d those who preferr’d colours to design in painting, to those who in eloquence and poetry preferr’d bright thoughts to those which are just. Cicero, the master and pattern of latin eloquence, applying his reflection to oratory, says, That we soon grow weary of those pictures which at first sight attract us by force of colours; whereas we are constant in our admiration of those that excel in the beauty of design, which is the true character of antiquity[47].

[46] Paul Luc. t. 6. p. 69.

[47] See, on the two foregoing articles, Junius de picturâ veterum.

To conclude; the musick-gallery, where, on certain days, were held concerts of voices and instruments, was likewise a treasure for the antiquities of this art. Here ’twas found that the shalm, the shepherd’s flute, and other wind instruments, were the first invented; and here was even shewn the flute of several pipes of unequal lengths, that was in use before Osiris invented the single flute, which express’d all the tones of the former. This hero had those hymns which he sung in honour to the gods accompany’d by it; and the verses, according to Plutarch, contain’d those precepts which he gave to the people, whom he had got together, and was desirous to civilize. The same Osiris in time invented the trumpet and kettle-drums, to animate the soldiers he made use of in his conquests. Mercury afterwards invented the harp; which leaves the musician the liberty of adding his voice and words to the sound of his instrument. In some ancient monuments this god is describ’d with a harp of seven strings; the two extremes of which, as they pretended, being struck together, from’d the diapazon or octave, even before the last string but one, which renders it compleat, was introduc’d into the diatonick system[48]. Next to the harps, they shew’d in this gallery at Memphis, the first tables, or the first bodies of instruments, that are of so much service to strengthen the sounds, which are too weak in a single circumference of solid wood, as that which supports the strings of the harp. They came at last to the instruments with necks, or which were touch’d at a distance; in which the fingers forming the sounds, find, upon a lesser number of strings, a greater number of tetra-chords, and even of octaves, can pass indifferently thro’ all the moods, and have full scope to perform whatever the imagination of the boldest composer can produce. Diodorus was but ill inform’d of the fact, when he said, the Egyptians did not cultivate musick. On the contrary, it was of them Pythagoras got such a taste of it, as to admit of harmony in the skies, and apply the proportions of it to the general constitution of the universe. The Egyptians encourag’d their young men and maidens to learn and perform every species of musick, to render them more polite and more agreeable: And, in imitation of them it was, that the Greeks plac’d musick in the number of those things necessary to the education of youth.

[48] See that excellent treatise of the musick of the antients, ascrib’d to M. l’Abbe de Chateauneuf.

We see by this faint sketch, that however valuable private education may be, it never can have the advantages of this publick education of the Egyptians: But what seems to be the most valuable in it, is, that youth is not abandon’d, as in our modern educations, as soon as they come out of their infancy; that is, at a time when their judgments being better form’d, are susceptible of knowledge, either more abstruse in itself, or of more service to the publick, and when they have most need of help to suppress the first flights of youth: So we see that this Stage, which is the most propitious to the female sex, because they are more carefully guarded than in any other, is the most extravagant in the male, who are abandon’d to their own passions, not easily govern’d, if they be not endow’d with excellent natural talents. Levity of mind, an aversion to duty, and a neglect of time, now so fashionable among the Greek and Roman youths, would have been a blemish upon their honour in Egypt, even in the eyes of the ladies, who had any concern for them; and, as the only mark of a court truly polite, there were no advances to their favour but by merit and wisdom. But above all I must not forget to observe, that the exercises, and even the labours of the Egyptian youth secured them from that fatal weariness of mind, that general distaste which accompanies ours even in the very height of their debauchery.

There were, indeed, at that time, some young men more sollicitous for present pleasure than future merit, who thought these studies and conversations a burden: And ladies, who qualify’d only to discourse of their constitutions, taste and dress, were uneasy that they could not carry these their only objects of entertainment into the palace, and make them general. And by such Daluca was soon seconded in her resolution of bringing into evil repute these learned schools, the fountains of that merit she had most to fear, and to break off those instructive conferences of all kinds, in which the rules of a most refin’d moral were frequently the subject. The method she pitch’d on, as most expedient for her design, was, to give the privilege of keeping assemblies, and the sole empire of conversation, to such ladies of the court as she had observ’d the most vain, and who had the faculty of talking loud and long upon nothing, when they found it was countenanc’d. The queen, under pretext of being extreamly taken up with the affairs of state, appear’d very seldom in these assemblies herself, and prevented the king from going to them, by amusing him as much as possible with other private diversions: But having before confer’d the chief offices at court upon ladies of the character I have just describ’d, she deputed them to perform the honours of the palace in her room, and to preside in her name at the conversation of those circles which were form’d in her absence. These ladies, like the queen, had all pass’d their meridian, and having made no provision to supply the loss of exterior beauties, by the more valuable qualities of the mind, were but just before bewailing their abandon’d state: But being now rais’d by an excess of favours, which the queen seem’d to heap upon them, were extreamly subservient to her design, without so much as knowing it. They were always ready to interrupt any discourse that might but favour of learning or ingenuity; but they were not often put to the trouble: for their own perpetual talk was so vain, and so little approv’d, that no man of sense could find room, or thought it worth while, to put in a word. It was observ’d, that they were continually whispering to one another in these assemblies, and ridiculing certain persons, who in the preceding administration had been greatly respected, tho’ in the present they were not thought necessary. By these odious freedoms they drew upon themselves a contempt, which waited only for an opportunity of displaying itself, and which already very sensibly lessen’d the regard otherwise had to them and the whole sex. In the mean time, all persons of good sense and merit by degrees absented from these assemblies, where they perceiv’d their company was a burden: And thus the court, which was wont to be the center of good taste in all manner of subjects, and the model of purity for the Egyptian tongue, was become the abode of ignorance, or of indifferency to every thing that was the object of good sense and reason. The language itself being corrupted with improper terms, and a neglected pronunciation, became a jargon of the fancy; which being without rule, was ty’d down to none. The writings of those who formerly frequented the court were known by a just and natural elegancy, in a great measure owing to their intercourse with ladies of the most polite parts, in whom it eminently abounded: But the modern wits, who succeeded them, forgetting that language must always have the sanction of the publick, introduc’d, of their own private authority, an infinite number of fantastick terms and expressions, which so far from being adopted by custom, were carefully avoided by all correct authors.

On the other hand, the young nobility, seeing that probity and good breeding was as little required in the men, as prudence and behaviour in the women, and that every thing depended on favour, abandon’d all those exercises of mind and body which they had till then pursued, that they might devote themselves to these new creatures of the queen. The grand art was to persuade them, by force of flattery, to believe they were possess’d of those charms which they themselves had given over for lost; and they began to hope, that Daluca having brought their age into fashion, youth would be no more regarded. The beauties of the court of Memphis had always had their admirers; accomplish’d merit on both sides was generally the origin of the passions they excited. A desire only of gaining the esteem of a charming person, produc’d such endeavours after virtue and valour, as was admir’d by the publick, without knowing their first cause: But as for the modern intrigues[49], they were owing to a mutual conformity of bad taste and bad choice; their beginning was debauchery, and a communication of vices between the pretended lovers were the fruits of them. It was an observation in former times, that those who had been singled out, and train’d up by certain ladies of the court, became the most accomplish’d men: But for these, the beauties of the mind, or a total want of them, were qualities they had no discernment of, and were equally indifferent to; and they entertain’d no hopes of making any advantage by persons of a too distinguish’d probity. In times past, the most discerning had no other way of discovering a passion between two persons, but by a greater circumspection in the one, and a more irreproachable behaviour in the other. But now the new favourite of each of these ladies was immediately known to every one; and they were sooner put out of countenance, when complimented upon that account, than their mistresses themselves.

[49] The author seems here to have in view the licentiousness of the court of the empress Faustina, the wife of Marcus Aurelius. See the history of the Roman empresses, by M. de Servies.

The queen, who at a distance saw this progress, began already to gather the fruits of her endeavours, by the contempt, hatred and jealousy which was fomented among the courtiers. Both men and women, as she had foreseen, were totally lost to all good manners, by a dissipation and levity of mind. There was not one among them who had not taken a steady resolution to sacrifice virtue, honour and duty to the least smile of fortune; and nothing less than adversity, or the most terrible events, were capable of awaking them from this infatuation: Even the ministers of state, who till then had every moment of their time so taken up, either in their different employs, or in recreating themselves in their families, that they never stir’d out of their closets, but to council, or to give audience to the publick, thought themselves now under an obligation of making their court to these ladies in authority; and all the assiduity they formerly employ’d in the affairs of state, was now necessary to keep them in their places: To continue in their favour, it was not enough to comply with their fantastick humours, to administer to their ruinous pleasures, to provide immense entertainments for them; they insisted, that all their recommendations should take place, tho’ they were ever in favour of some unjust cause, or unworthy object; and that their counsels, tho’ most pernicious to their prince, should be approv’d, in consideration of a small gain to them. Thus, tho’ the deceas’d queen had left all things in so excellent an order, that they might have subsisted, and even held out against mal-administration for a long time, yet the state was rushing on very fast towards its ruin. Peace, which, especially in dominions of so small extent as those of Egypt, is not to be preserv’d but by secret springs of the cabinet, and by a regard shewn, at least in appearance, to neighbouring princes, soon was shaken by a neglect of cultivating their friendship, by the little satisfaction given to their ambassadors, and by the infringement of several laws, which concern’d the tranquillity of all Egypt, and its security against enemies from abroad. And thus Daluca, with a view only of prejudicing Sethos, expos’d the welfare of the kingdom and her own safety to all the ill consequences of so pernicious a conduct.

But while this unworthy queen was thus fomenting disorders, the wise Amedes was assiduous in the education of the young prince, whose fate had destin’d him to be first the victim, and afterwards the repairer of them. He did not, in express terms, discover to him the disgrace he perceiv’d he was already fall’n into; a condition not easy to be conceiv’d by a child of eight or nine years of age, especially when disguis’d under those professions of kindness and flattering caresses which Daluca hitherto continued to shew to Sethos. But the chief aim of Amedes was to inspire him with the principles of every virtue, which he might stand in need of to support him in the most adverse fortune. He put him in mind of his illustrious birth, to make him sensible not of the respect due to him from others, but of what he owed to himself. He gave him lively ideas, not of a prince surrounded by his obsequious subjects and slavish courtiers, but of a prince dethron’d by usurpers, and residing among foreigners, where he would have no other grandeur but that of his own mind, and his personal courage. The questions he propos’d to him, either to discover his sentiments, or to exercise his talents, were generally upon perilous and intricate circumstances, which a prince could not extricate himself from without the greatest courage, nor sustain without the highest pitch of probity. He did not, however, at any time, wholly bereave him of the hopes of peaceably enjoying the kingdom to which he was the lawful heir: but he instructed him, that the principles of those morals fitting to be practis’d in danger or adversity, or rather, that danger and adversity themselves naturally lead a prince to a regular and advantageous enjoyment of peace and happiness. With regard to the religion of his ancestors, Amedes instructed him therein, in a concise, plain and consistent manner with regard to facts, but laid great stress upon the examples and moral precepts he drew from them.

It is common to give princes only general ideas of the sciences; and, indeed, it is sufficient, if they be but acquainted with as much as will make them friends and protectors of them. But Amedes was desirous, that whatever might be his fate, his pupil should attain to all the merit of a private person. He also concluded, that Sethos being yet too young to comprehend the great maxims of government, politicks and war, could not better employ the first years of his tuition, than by initiating him early into all the Egyptian sciences. Youth has this peculiar advantage, that men never arrive to perfection in any arts or sciences, if they don’t overcome the main difficulties of them while they are young: And to give a disadvantageous instance as to my own part alone, I must confess I have, in different stages of my life, endeavour’d to acquire those sciences which are esteem’d among the Greeks, but have never been able to attain to more than reading and writing in such a manner as I am satisfy’d with, they being the only arts that became easy to me in the days of my youth. However, as human knowledge is of so vast an extent, that not youth alone, but life itself is hardly sufficient to attain it; this great master inform’d his pupil, that he should make him acquainted only with the first rudiments of the sciences; and that those who rest satisfy’d with that part they have gone thro’ in this first stage of life, ought modestly to confess their ignorance.

Amedes perceiv’d that this young prince gave every day new signs of an admirable genius. He had form’d no decisive judgment upon that agreeableness, that vivacity and wit which he frequently observ’d in him during his mother’s life, when he was surrounded with the flattering smiles of fortune: such indications are not always to be depended upon, because those repartees which we think so witty in children, are often but an effect of the liberty allow’d them, and generally bestow’d upon trivial occasions; and consequently no conclusion can be drawn from thence applicable to that period of time in which they are to employ their thoughts upon solid and serious subjects. But in natural philosophy, our master could hardly keep pace with the docility of his scholar; and in history he had much ado to satisfy his unbounded curiosity: So for his own ease, and the more readily to accustom young Sethos to be his own instructor, he exercis’d him in the former, by putting him upon experiments and the solution of difficulties; and in the latter, by making him read the most celebrated authors from the beginning to the end; and afterwards obliging him to give coherent abridgments of every history. He made him acquainted in the first, with the progress of human understanding, and the advancement of the sciences from one century to another; and in the second, with the great men and the best writers of all the ages past.

He likewise carry’d him every day, at certain hours, into the schools we have mention’d above, which were not now so crowded as in former times; but then they were sure of meeting there the flower of the youth of Memphis, and all those who had not been yet corrupted by the present taste of the court. Our own application must render us masters of the sciences; but the knowledge of applying them rightly is only to be acquir’d by conversing with men of understanding and merit. Besides, Amedes, without affecting at an improper time to oppose the queen’s measures, was desirous of making Sethos known to the youth of the kingdom, who were growing up with him. The history of the infancy of Sesostris was yet recent in his memory. This prince was no sooner born, than his father Amenophis caus’d all the infants of his kingdom, who were born on the same day with his son, to be brought before him; he provided them with nurses, appointed tutors for them, and gave them all the same education; being persuaded, that children who had been brought up in a familiarity with their prince from their most tender years, would the more firmly adhere to him in the course of his life, and would serve him best in his wars. Amedes was moreover desirous that Sethos should converse in the publick assemblies with those foreigners, whom the fame of Egypt drew thither from all the parts of the world, where knowledge and good manners were cultivated. Men of attention gather new knowledge in the conversation even of such as have less than themselves; and the Egyptians, at the same time they communicated their instructions to others, became more learned themselves. Besides, as the greater number of those who came into Egypt, were led thither, either to obtain the initiation, or to perfect themselves in the sciences, and sometimes for both, they were generally the greatest men of every nation. These strangers, it is natural to conceive, apply’d themselves with a great deal of care to the learning of the Egyptian tongue: And the most curious among the Egyptians studied those of other nations. The priests divided all the languages of the known world among themselves, that they might be able to give satisfaction to all those who apply’d to them for advice from every quarter. To this end they sent the most expert among them, disguised like merchants, into the most distant states. The laity, who were destined to the war, or to trade, generally confin’d themselves to the Phenician, the Greek, and the Punick tongues. The first gave them access at the chief courts of Asia, the second to those of Europe, and the third in Africa: But the Egyptian tongue was in some degree the common source of these three; for the Phenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians were Egyptian colonies. A knowledge of the Egyptian tongue was therefore in a great measure a key to the others. Amedes, however, let Sethos learn the first rudiments of the latter, but he left him to acquire a perfection in them by practice, and the frequent conversation he procur’d him with such strangers, as appear’d to him the most knowing.

The education of Sethos was not confin’d to the improvement of his mind; Amedes put him also upon exercises of the body: He even took advantage of the neglect which he saw this young prince suffer’d from a father, who was govern’d by a second wife, to make him submit to those, which he render’d more laborious or more perilous in proportion as he advanc’d in years. This is a sort of trial which the best of parents are but too backward in putting their children to; and to which Amedes himself had, perhaps, not expos’d an undoubted heir to the crown: But he look’d upon his pupil as one, who, like a private person, was to make his own fortune.

He made him walk on foot to all the places near Memphis, with a double view; first to inure him to hardship, and then to make him take notice of every thing that was remarkable in his own country, which is often more neglected than foreign curiosities: Above all, he carry’d him more than once to the Pyramids. In his time there were a hundred, but of very different sizes, all together in one place, at about four miles distant from Memphis, towards Libya. In all Egypt there were none but at this place, and about Thebes: the kings of which two cities, in imitation of one another, had been curious in giving this form to their tombs, or of leaving these monuments of their own grandeur and power. Amedes was willing to exhaust this subject, that his pupil might draw advantages from it of several kinds. Sethos had often heard talk of these enormous piles; and Amedes expected they would at first sight make the same impression upon this young prince, as they do upon travellers who come to see this wonder of the world, from the remotest parts of it: that is, they always find them less than they expected. Amedes did not neglect this opportunity of making Sethos observe, that the eye of man is never absolutely contented with the bigness of things artificial, unless they be carry’d to a distance as far as the sight can reach: but it is not so with respect to things which are determin’d by nature; as animals or trees, which we don’t love to see represented beyond their usual proportion: Hence it is, said he, that this bust of a sphinx or woman fix’d on the ground among the pyramids, which is forty feet high, seems of a monstrous bulk to you; whereas the great pyramid which takes up more than a furlong every way, appears too little in your eye. Another reason for this is, because its height not being quite equal to the length of one side of its basis, it must of course look squat and low. So, added he, with regard to buildings, we can never justify ourselves, if the proportion of their dimensions be not graceful, and according to the rules of art. Notwithstanding all which, continued he, observe the pyramids more nearly, they are not less wonderful, and you’ll soon see just cause to admire them. Make a trial yourself, in the first place, by the surest methods you have been taught in the academies of Memphis, to take the four cardinal points; see how exactly the four sides answer with the winds[50]. And besides, as large as the most beautiful temples of Memphis may seem to you, there is not one of them whose dimensions come near to those of the great pyramid; tho’ the form of our temples has something more agreeable and engaging.

[50] See the elogium of M. de Chaselles, by M. de Fontenelle, in the memoirs of the academy of sciences. Ann. 1710.

[51]In reality, the basis of the first and largest pyramid, the surface of which is to this day entire, is in every square 704 feet; and [52]its perpendicular height 630. The whole pyramid is compos’d of courses or lays of bricks, which grow narrower in proportion as they ascend to the top, where there is a platform of twelve feet square. The borders of these courses, which gradually decrease towards the top, serve as steps to ascend to it. Of all those who used to accompany Sethos and Amedes to see the pyramids, only some few of the most venturesome attempted to go up to this platform; but none durst come down again otherwise than backwards, as well to have the assistance of their hands, as for fear the height and vast extent of the prospect might make them giddy. Sethos, who before had gone thro’ many hazardous exercises, could not comprehend why Amedes should not indulge him in this, of which he was in no wise fearful. Amedes at last told him, that the concern he had for his life and honour, wou’d not suffer him to expose him to this trial, till he was able to descend the pyramid with his face toward the plain. It is not becoming, continu’d he, a prince, as you are, to shew the least sign of fear upon any account whatsoever. Amedes had hardly done speaking, when the prince, running to the pyramid, and placing his hands upon the lowermost step, which is four feet high, he ascended from one to another with wonderful agility and ease, till he came to those of but one foot high, which he walk’d up like common stairs, and was soon at top of the platform. As soon as he had recover’d breath, he turn’d toward the spectators, who were in great numbers at the foot of the pyramid, and came down with as little concern as if it had been a cover’d stair-case of equal and easy steps. His example render’d the enterprize more common; and seven or eight young lords, who from that time devoted themselves more particularly to his service, always attended him, as much as possible, as well in his exercises as his expeditions. It had likewise been an error establish’d either by the timorousness which was apt to seize people at top of the pyramid, or by an idea conceiv’d from the vast extent of the basis, that it was impossible to shoot an arrow from the top to fall beyond the lowermost step at bottom. This error prevails yet among us; and all travellers, who are too apt to enlarge upon things, mention the impossibility of it. The prince, even before he made the trial, was sensible of this error: Being well assur’d of the length of the four equal sides of the basis, he boldly engag’d to shoot an arrow from the middle of the platform, which should fall not only beyond one of the faces, but even beyond one of the angles of the pyramid, being directed in a diagonal line; which, according to the exact calculation he had made of it, could not be 500 feet, and hardly above half the distance an arrow will fly when discharg’d by an able archer.

[51] This whole description is taken from de Bruyen’s travels in folio, and the notes added to them in the quarto edition.

[52] That is five feet or a pace more than the olympick furlong determin’d by Hercules, who ran 125 paces, or 625 feet in one breath. This is the common computation, saving the interpretations of the learned; for this distance seems no such great matter for Hercules.

We have hitherto only spoken of the surface of the pyramid; but Sethos was continually urging Amedes to let him see the inside of it. If the king who erected it had been interr’d in it, the prophane, such as Sethos yet was, would not have been permitted to enter: but it being an empty tomb, every one who had the patience and resolution, was allow’d to go in. As there were several deep and dark passages, Amedes was persuaded, that this trial would be an excellent remedy against those panick fears, which are apt to seize many people in the dark, and against the apprehension of bugbears, with which common reports then fill’d all uninhabited places, as it does now: But this view was nothing to a far greater design which he had conceiv’d upon this occasion, and which was to be the crown of Sethos’s education.

Amedes, therefore, returning one evening with him alone, and directing his discourse to him, said, My prince, to view the inside of the pyramid in such a manner as will be necessary for you, is an enterprize very different from what you think it to be: The secret passages of it lead those men, who are favour’d by the gods, to a point I dare not so much as name; for which the gods must create a desire in you. The entrance into the pyramid is open to every body; but I pity those, who coming out by the same way they went in, have only satisfy’d a very imperfect curiosity, and seen no more than what they are allow’d to relate. A discourse so uncommon as this was to the young prince, fill’d him with an impatience, which made him resolve instantly to unriddle this mystery, by deceiving even his governor’s vigilance, if he refus’d to accompany him. Amedes, who read this resolution in his looks, did not give him time to answer, but continu’d; Sir, I will conduct you myself to this enterprize, which it is almost impossible to begin alone, tho’ it must be finish’d alone: But I must not expose you to the dangers that attend it, till opportunities, which may offer hereafter, have given me sufficient proofs of your valour, and especially of your prudence. I have reason to be satisfy’d with the marks you have already given me of both. The age you are now approaching to, will demand greater of you, and will soon furnish you with means of shewing them. Don’t give way then to your impatience, but place your confidence in me; and begin, by keeping, as a secret, that little I have now reveal’d to you, to accustom your self to greater. The young prince, who could not yet fix an idea to the sense of these words, told Amedes, that, without diving farther into the mystery in question, the first mark he would give of the prudence his tutor wish’d to see in him, should be to confide entirely in his conduct.

THE LIFE OF _SETHOS_.