guifhed rank, and the expence amounted to a talent of filver, or three thousand French livres*.

* Many hands were employed in this ceremony. Some drew the brain through the noftrils, by an inftrument made for that purpofe. Others emptied the bowels and inteftines, by cutting a hole in the fide, with an Ethiopian ftone, that was as sharp as a razor; after which the cavities were filled with perfumes and various odoriferous drugs. As this evacuation (which was neceffarily attended with fome diffections) feemed in fome meafure cruel and inhuman; the perfons employed fled as foon as the operation was over, and were pursued with ftones by the ftanders-by. But thofe who embalmed the body were honourably treated. They filled it with myrrh, cinnamon, and all forts of fpices. After a certain time, the body was fwathed in lawn fillets, which were glued together with a kind of very thin gum, and then crufted them over with the most exquifite perfumes. By this means, it is faid, that the entire figure of the body, the very lineaments of the face, and the hair on the lids and eye-brows, were preserved in their natural perfection. The body thus embalmed, was delivered to the relations, who fhut it up in a kind of open cheft, fitted exactly to the fize of the corpfe; then they placed it upright against the wall, either in fepulchres, (if they had any,) or in their houfes. Thefe embalmed bodies are now what we call Mummies, which are ftill brought from Egypt, and are found in the cabinets of the curious. This fhows the care which the Egyptians took of their dead. Their gratitude to their deceafed relations was immortal. Children, by feeing the bodies of their ancestors thus preferved, recalled to mind thofe virtues for which the public had honoured them; and were excited to a love of thofe laws which fuch excellent perfons had left for their fecurity. We find that part of thefe ceremonies were performed in the funeral honours done to Jofeph in Egypt.

* Diod. 1. i. p. 81.

* About 1371. 10s, fterling,

I have faid that the public recognized the virtues of deceased perfons, because that, before they could be admitted into the facred afylum of the tomb, they underwent a folemn trial. And this circumftance in the Egyptian funerals, is one of the most remarkable to be found in ancient history.

It was a confolation among the heathens, to a dying man, to leave a good name behind him; and they imagined that this is the only human bleffing of which death cannot deprive us. But the Egyptians would not fuffer praises to be bestowed indifcriminately on all deceafed perfons. This honour was to be obtained only from the public voice. The affembly of the judges met on the other fide of a lake which they croffed in a boat. He who fat at the helm was called Charon, in the Egyptian language; and this first gave the hint to Orpheus, who had been in Egypt, and after him, to the other Greeks, to invent the fiction of Charon's boat. As foon as a man was dead, he was brought to his trial. The public accufer was heard. If he proved that the deceafed had led a bad life, his memory was condemned, and he was deprived of burial. The people were affected with laws, which extended even beyond the grave; and every one, ftruck with the difgrace inflicted on the dead perfon, was afraid to reflect difhonour on his own memory, and that of his family. But if the de ceafed perfon was not convicted of any crime, he was interred in an honourable manner.

A still more astonishing circumftance, in this pub. lic inqueft upon the dead, was, that the throne itfelf was no protection from it. Kings were spared during their lives, because the public peace was concerned in this forbearance; but their quality did not exempt them from the judgment paffed upon the dead, and even fome of them were deprived of fepulture. This cuftom was imitated by the Ifraelites. We fee, in fcripture, that bad kings were not interred in the monuments of their ancestors. This practice fuggefted to princes, that if their majefty placed them out of the reach of men's judgment, while they were

alive.

alive, they would at laft be liable to it, when death. fhould reduce them to a level with their fubjects.

When, therefore, a favourable judgment was pronounced on a deceased person, the next thing was to proceed to the ceremonies of interment. In his panegyric, no mention was made of his birth, because every Egyptian was deemed noble. No praifes were confidered as juft or true, but fuch as related to the perfonal merit of the deceased. He was applauded for having received an excellent education in his younger years; and in his more advanced age, for having cultivated piety towards the gods, juftice towards men, gentleness, modefty, moderation, and all other virtues which conftitute the good man. Then all the people fhouted, and bestowed the highest eulogiums on the deceased, as one who would be received, for ever, in. to the fociety of the virtuous in Pluto's kingdom.

To conclude this article of the ceremonies of fune rals, it may not be amifs to observe to young pupils, the different manners with which the bodies of the dead were treated by the ancients. Some, as we obferved of the Egyptians, expofed them to view after they had been embalmed, and thus preserved them to after-ages. Others, as particularly the Romans, burnt them on a funeral pile; and others again, laid them in the earth.

The care to preferve bodies without lodging them in tombs, appears injurious to human nature in general, and to thofe perfons in particular for whom this refpe&t is defigned; because it expofes too vifibly their wretched ftate and deformity; fince whatever care may be taken, fpectators fee nothing but the melancholy and frightful remains of what they once were. The custom of burning dead bodies has fomething in it cruel and barbarous, in destroying fo haftily the remains of perfons once dear to us. That of interment is certainly the most ancient and religious. It reftores to the earth what had been taken from it; and prepares our belief of a fecond reftitution of our bodies, from that duft of which they were at first formed.

CHAP. III.

Of the Egyptian Soldiers and War.

The Egyptians.

HE profeffion of arms was in great repute among After the facerdotal families, the inoft illuftrious, as with us, were those devoted to a military life. They were not only distinguished by honours, but by ample liberalities. Every foldier was allowed an Aroura, that is, a piece of arable land very near anfwering to half a French acre *, exempt from all tax or tribute. Befides this privilege, each foldier received a daily allowance of five pounds of bread, two of flesh, and a pint of winet. This allowance was fufficient to fupport part of their family. Such an indulgence made them more affectionate to the perfon of their prince, and the interefts of their country, and more refolute in the defence of both; and as Diodorus obferves, it was thought inconfiftent with good policy, and even common fenfe, to commit the defence of a country, to men who had no interest in its preservation.

m Four hundred thousand foldiers were kept in continual pay; all natives of Egypt, and trained up in the exacteft difcipline. They were inured to the fatigues of war, by a fevere and rigorous education. There is an art of forming the body as well as the mind. This art, loft by our floth, was well known to the ancients, and especially to the Egyptians. Foot, horfe, and chariot races, were performed in Egypt with wonderful agility, and the world could not thow better horse1 Lib. i. p. 67. m Herod. I. ii. c. 164. 168. *Twelve Arouras. An Egyptian Aroura was 10,000 square cubits, equal to three roods, two perches, 55 fquare feet of our measure.

+ The Greek is, oVOU TECTURES ABUSNRs, which fome have made to fignify a determinate quantity of wine, or any other liquid: others, regarding the etymology of the word agung, have tranflated it by hauftrum, a bucket, as Lucretius, lib. v 51. others by hauftus a draught or fup. Herodotus fays, this allowance was given only to the two thousand guards who attended annually on the kings. Lib. ii, c. 168.

men

n

men than the Egyptians. The fcripture in feveral places fpeaks advantageoufly of their cavalry.

pro

Military laws were eafily preferved in Egypt, because fons received them from their fathers; the feffion of war, as all others, being tranfmitted from father to fon. Those who fled in battle, or discovered any figns of cowardice, were only diftinguifhed by fome particular mark of ignominy; it being thought more advisable to restrain them by motives of honour, than by the terrors of punishment.

But notwithstanding this, I will not pretend to fay, that the Egyptian were a warlike people. It is of little advantage to have regular and well-paid troops; to have armies exercised in peace, and employed only in mock fights; it is war alone, and real combats, which form the foldier. Egypt loved peace, because it loved juftice, and maintained foldiers only for its fecurity. Its inhabitants, content with a country which abounded in all things, had no ambitious dreams of conqueft. The Egyptians extended their reputation in a very different manner, by fending colonies into all parts of the world, and with them laws and politenefs. They triumphed by the wifdom of their counfels, and the fuperiority of their knowledge; and this empire of the mind appeared more noble and glorious to them, than that which is achieved by arms and conqueft. But nevertheless, Egypt has given birth to illuftrious conquerors, as will be obferved hereafter, when we come to treat of its kings.

THE

CHAP. IV.

Of their Arts and Sciences.

HE Egyptians had an inventive genius, and turned it to profitable fpeculations. Their Mercuries filled Egypt with wonderful inventions, and left it almoft ignorant of nothing which could accomplish the • Diod. p. 70.

Cant. i. 8. Ifa. xxxvi. 9.