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'^ Egyptians were not formed for mirth or pleasure: they 

 " worshipped their gods with sorrow and fear: while the 

 •' Greeks and Romans made religion an object of joy and 

 " festivity." We are told, by Diodorus Siculus and Plu- 

 tarch, that thg cultivation of music, an art, which the 

 Greeks and Romans thought so necessary, to humanize 

 and soften mankind, was prohibited by their government. 

 Dio Chrysostom informs us, that poetry M'as interdicted 

 among them, as well as music. Strabo says, that the 

 sound of instruments was not heard in their temples; but, 

 that their sacrifices were made in silence. Under the Pto- 

 lemies, on the contrary, music was very much cuUivated ; 

 and their religious ceremonies were distinguished by pomp, 

 and embellished with all the charms of vocal and instru- 

 mental melody. This is a most striking and wonderful 

 phenomenon, in the history of arts and sciences, this total 

 and gloomy change, in the pursuits, the genius, and tem- 

 per of a whole nation. Licentiousness, gaiet3', and mirth, 

 even in excess, prevailed under the dynasty of the Ptole- 

 mies; poetry and music Avcre cultivated with an ardent 

 enthusiasm. Whence arose the melancholy transformation,'* 

 The ingenious and learned Dr. Burney accounts for it, iu 

 a manner that does honour to his feelings and liberality, 

 " All this is reconcileable, and consonant to the nature of 

 " things: for, when these Avriters visited Egypt, its inha- 

 " bitants Avcre in a state of slavery, and had been so for 

 " five hundred years before; and though not like the 

 " Jews, in a strange land, yet, like them, they had Iiitiig 



" their 



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