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colossal monuments will serve to perpetuate to still future ages the 

 grandeur and magniticence of the Egyptian race. The second 

 period dates from 323 B.C. to 30 B.C., and its chief city was 

 Memphis, in the Delta, or Lower Egypt, so called from the 

 resemblance the shape of the country bears to the Greek letter a, 

 and it is to this second period of empire that the obelisks are 

 attributed, one of which has now, after so many vicissitudes, found 

 its way to our shores. 



The great feature of Egyptian life which stands out pr(|piinently 

 above all others, is the influence on their habits and customs of 

 the periodical inundations of the Nile, that marvellous flood which 

 from the beginning was a myster}', to the solution of which the 

 bravest of Englishmen have devoted their heroic lives— a sacrifice 

 that even now seems to be achieving its destined triumph. The 

 original settlers in Egypt were preparing to cut down their harvest 

 when, without rain or other previous warning, the river swelled. It 

 overflowed its banks, and spread over the whole country, sweeping 

 away the dwellings, the cattle, and even many of the inhabitants 

 themselves. Those who persevered in their occupation of this 

 part of Egypt found that the alluvial deposit remaining after the 

 inundation had subsided, left the land^^'a fertile garden. They 

 therefore set themselves to guard against the recurrence of their 

 losses, without relinquishing their hold upon the country. With 

 this object, they organized a class of wise men, or magi (the 

 magicians mentioned in the Scripture), whose special duty it was, 

 by their scientific researches, to guard the common people against 

 a recurrence of their calamities. It is to these magi, in Egypt, as 

 to those in Assyria, that the pre-eminence of their country in art 

 and science may be attributed ; and it is, I think, evident that 

 while they carried their own researches into the most hidden 

 depths of Nature and Science, as far as their means would allow, 

 it was no part of their policy to have the masses of the nation 

 equally instructed. The very significance of their symbolic 

 teaching implies an appeal to the simplest and rudest order of 

 intelligence ; and by perpetuating the ignorance of the mass, they 

 were consolidating their own power and influence. To such an 



