Did raging pestilence her shores invade 

 Wafted from burning Lybia's sultry plains, 



Thy cooling seeds the ardent thirst allay'd 

 And check'd the fervor of the throbbing veins. 



* 



Arm'd with thy foliage in the cool of day 

 Safe down the Nile the happy Memphians glide; 



The charm'd Leviathanf forgets his prey, 

 And sports, innoxious, on the sacred tide.J 



Hence the immortal race§ in Thebes || rever'd. 

 Thy praise the theme of endless rapture made; 



Thy image on an hundred columns rear'd. 

 And veil'd their altars with thine hallow'd shade. 



* ■' The roots and seeds of the Nelumbium." says Loureiro, " are both sapid and wholesome. These are accounted cooHno- ,„A , ,,. 

 enmg, and are found a specific against extreme thirst, diarrhoea, tenesmus, vomiting, and too great internarheat" ^ ^"^ 



.hf.hadagreatdre^ad, for r/ii^t^elf ci —^^h::^ :" 'i:::^!^:^^:::^ :^:Lt ^I^^^ 



Ss h ;: tt t^ l^^^^^^^^^^^ abulb which vegetatedcut of itsownmLx, like the Nelu.biul and L^cll LT^'^^^^^^^^^^^ 



witnin spheres, the true system of the world, so little did the Egyptians merit to be satyrized by Juvenal, ^ 



Porrum et Cepe nefas violare et frangere morsu. 

 O Sanctas gentes, quibus hac nascuntur in hortis 

 Numina ! 



II Thevenot, a modern PrencK tra^llci, thus describes aui:icac Thehes. •• The works of thp Fo-.r,.f;.«c " .u- , - , 



.. were calculated to withstand the corroding tooth of time: their statues were colossal! Zf ell trse' S^atllde::' 

 and sought to s r.ke the eye at a d,stance, but never also failed to gratify it by correctness of proportion. In the Sa^Cwhtt Jas ancientlv 

 called Theba.s ) have been d^covered emples and palaces, at this day almost entire, where these columns and statues a e innumerable The 

 adm.rat.on of the traveller >s particularly excted by a palace, the remains of which seem to have subsisted only to eclipse the gW of alUhe 

 noblest modern works of art. Four alleys, extending farther than the eye can reach, and bounded, on each side bv SDhi,«es of a ™W 

 as rare as the. s.ze ts remarkable serve as avenues to four porticoes of most astonishing height, kow magn'fic'enfl W t:pendot T 

 deed, those who have descr.bed to us th. prod.gious edifice, have not had time to examine its whole extent, nor are they even certain of 

 having seen the half of its beauties ; but all that they did see was truly wonderful ^ certain ot 



" A saloon which apparently formed the middle of this superb palace, was supported by more than an hundred columns, the circumference 



i r f Jl ° 1 'P'""'' ''^ "" ■"'" ^'"^ ^"'^""^"l ^™^- These columns were lofty in proportion and intersperTed wi h 



obehsks which so many revo ving ages have not been able to overthrow. Even the colours, which, from their natLe soonest experience the 



power of time, are still unfaded among the ruins of this admirable edifice, and display all their original brilliancy; so well IXpt knlw 



how to impress the stamp of immortahty on all her productions." »o wcu uiu r.gypi; Know 



The city which the Greeks call Thebes, the Egyptians DiospoUs, (says Diodorus, lib. i. par. 2.) was in circuit an hundred and fnr,, 



t ; f r";tb" hT'^'" u'" T' r^"''"°' '™p'^'- ='"'' "* '^™'''°-- I' -- -' -'y he most ZZZ aL tbi dtr ' 



^^e worl • ' ''■"' "' "^ ""'* ^"' ^"'""=" -^' - ^^'^''-"='' '" ^" P"^' 'h"' H-- has taken no^'ce of i' 1 



""""""--- ad 0(70, Qii^ag 

 AiyvTfji'ocg, o9i -urXei's-a ^o/zoig bv xjvf^ulci iCiiTai, 

 AtQ BKoflof^TTvXoi eicri, SitjKOcriot S' av Ikcc^viv 

 'Ave^es iloixnxxri 'ittttokti ica) ox&ir(piV. Y. 381, 



Though others affirm it had not an hundred gates, but as many vast porches to the principal temple; and that the city was called Hundred- 

 gated, only as having many gates. Yet it is certain it furnished twenty thousand chariots of war ; for there were an hundTed stues along he 

 river, from Memphis to Thebes towards Libya, each of which contained two hundred horses, the ruins whereof are shewn a his d y Th 

 princes from time to time made it the.r care to beautify and enlarge this city, to which none under the sun was equal in the many and m^' 



nificent 



/ 



