of the Ancient Egyptians. 43 



scarcely have omitted the arguments of the priests had he heard 

 any from them. As far as regards the science contained in this 

 passage of Herodotus, it is perhaps as truly philosophical as 

 any other to be found in his writings ; but the philosophy is 

 exclusively that of the Greek himself. The facts, which rested 

 on the authority of the priests, were of a character that it re- 

 quired no science or cultivated understanding to ascertain ; no 

 more, indeed, than it requires in the present inhabitants of 

 Cairo to discern when the Nile rises sufficiently to secure a pro- 

 ductive crop. 



But we are informed also, page 340, that " the properties of 

 minerals were tolerably well examined. The country offered 

 every facility for this ; the mountains which form the sides of 

 the valley of the Nile exhibited, and in all their native lustre, 

 various species of rocks ; in the lower part limestone, farther up 

 sandstone, and towards Syene, porphyry and granite. Egypt 

 was in some measure a great mineralogical cabinet. The neces- 

 sity of passing along the small valleys which run towards the 

 Red Sea, led to the discovery of other minerals, which do not 

 occur in so great masses. It was in one of them that the mine 

 of emeralds was discovered, which supplied all those known in 

 -antiquity.'' 



The discovery and working of the emerald mines, the only 

 fact stated here, from which any thing can be inferred affecting 

 the present subject, does not necessarily imply that the proper- 

 ties of minerals were tolerably well examined. Very barbarous 

 nations, among whom not a trace of legitimate science has been 

 discovered, have yet the propensity and the skill to dig out and 

 ornament their persons with the natural gems ; and it implies 

 no more knowledge of mineralogy, much less of geology, in the 

 ancient Egyptians, to dig mines for the emeralds, than it does 

 in the inhabitants of Pegu to search for the rubies of their coun- 

 try, or in those of Siam for the sapphire. It may be allowed, 

 yet within certain hmits, that the properties of minerals were in 

 some degree examined. It appears to have been known to 

 them that their granites and syenites were more durable than 

 their sandstones and limestones, as they have often carried the 

 former from great distances to execute their more important ar- 

 chitectural works, when they had the others nearer at hand ; 



