352 Mr. Beke on the Complexion of the Ancient Egyptians. 



in an extremely low state of degradation, of the primitive 

 people, who first entered that continent by the way of Ethiopia, 

 and who were possessed of a much higher degree of cultiva- 

 tion than the Egyptians themselves; for it is manifest, that 

 this latter people, instead of advancing, were, until the period 

 of the arrival of the Greeks, gradually descending the scale 

 of civilization, and that the state of manners described by 

 Herodotus and other writers, (like that which we observe in 

 the Chinese, among whom imitation is almost all that is left 

 in the place of the intelligence possessed by their predecessors,) 

 was the natural result of that degeneracy, which, when un- 

 checked, is inevitable to human nature. 



I am aware, that in this hypothesis of the original separate 

 existence of Egypt and Mitzraim, I am directly opposed to 

 the results which are considered to have been arrived at, upon 

 indisputable premises, by the many learned persons who have 

 devoted themselves to the study of Egyptian antiquities. 

 With the highest opinion of the value and importance of the 

 materials collected by them, which cannot fail to be of the 

 greatest service to future investigators of this interesting sub- 

 ject, I cannot but feel convinced that they have been engaged 

 in the propping-up of a system of Egyptian history, which, 

 being founded upon altogether erroneous principles, must 

 ultimately fall to the ground and be entirely abandoned. 



In the three papers of mine which had the honour of being 

 read before the Royal Society of Literature, on the 15th of 

 January, 19th February, and 11th June, 1834, (as well as in 

 my * Origines BiblicceJ) I have expressed my conviction that 

 the writings attributed to Manetho are not authentic. This 

 conviction is only strengthened, the more I have occasion to 

 investigate the subject of ancient Egyptian history ; a proper 

 insight into which will, I feel, never be acquired until those 

 writings are deprived of authority, and of that appearance of 

 truth which they have derived from the coincidences said to 

 have been found between them and the results of the system 

 of hieroglyphical interpretation discovered by Dr. Young, and 

 adopted by M. Champollion le jeune. 



That in the time of Josephus, these writings were, among the 

 Egyptians, or rather among the Greeks and Jews, who com- 

 posed at that period the most important portion of the inhabit- 

 ants of Egypt, (see 'Joseph. cont.Apion'Wh. ii. § 3.) believed 

 to be the composition of such an individual as the Sebennite 

 priest, can in no wise be taken as conclusive evidence of their 

 authenticity. On the contrary, when we call to mind the 

 distracted state in which Egypt had existed during so many 

 centuries preceding that time, and the changes which had 



