Historical researches into the politics, intercourse, and trade of the principal nations of antiquity. (Volume 5)

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1838. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... EGYPTIANS. CHAPTER I. General view of the country and its inhabitants. EGYPT IS a LaND OF MaRVELS, aND EXCELS aLL OTHERS IN mIGHTY WORKS. HEROD, ii. 35. If it be still possible to throw any general light upon the obscurity of Egyptian antiquities; the torch must be first kindled by a knowledge of the country. Had we been born, and passed our lives on the banks of the Nile, many things would be evident and easy to comprehend, which are now doubtful and unsolved problems. There is no other people of the ancient world whose form and fashion bears so strongly the impress of locality as the Egyptian; or who is bound to his country by so many ties, or who so identified it with himself. As this country, then, differed in so many remarkable peculiarities from all others that we know of, ought we to be astonished if the nation differed also? Egypt taken in its widest extent, must be ranked among the countries of moderate size. If we compute its superficial contents at about 6,000 square miles it will not much exceed Englandl. There is scarcely, however, any other country so limited, in which appears so much internal variety, or so wide and marked a difference in its separate parts. The highest fertility immediately borders on the completely sterile and solitary desert; rich plains stretch between the barren hills of sand, and barren and rugged mountains! The image of life and of death continually float before the eyes of the Egyptian in his country; what we have to say will show how much they influence the whole range of his ideas. From the earliest antiquity Egypt has been called a gift of the Nile; and whatever hypothesis may be adopted, with regard to the formation and growth of its territory, it justly deserves to be considered as such, in reference to the fert...