A Letter from Cairo. 1 1 1 



merchant. His most extraordinary plan, however, (resembling what was 

 accomplished by Joseph for Pharoah,) is to become the sole proprietor of 

 the land. Whenever he can, by persuasion or threats, obtain the consent 

 of the owner of the land, he orders it to be valued ; and, paying the com- 

 puted rent in the form of a perpetual annuity, becomes in his own person 

 the lord of the soil. If he lives to complete all these projects, he may say 

 with more truth than was said by Buonaparte, " L'Etat c'est raoi." But 

 if, as is more probable, the power which he has acquired, and thus strives 

 to maintain, shall perish with hira, his works will likewise perish, and 

 Egypt will relapse into her proverbial darkness. It is true that the Pasha 

 has not been wholly negligent of other reputed means of modernizing his 

 empire ; and, among these, he has protected and even established schools 

 of primary instruction. But I am so old fashioned in my notions, as to 

 withhold my faith in the miraculous efficacy of ediK,ation. Its miracles are 

 in general the most accredited by those who believe in no others, and my 

 own experience has convinced me, that it is a weapon of mischief, oftener 

 than an instrument of good, when it is not preceded and directed by moral 

 and religious discipline. I am afraid that many a victim of this untempered 

 power of good and evil may turn upon his instructors, and address them in 

 the words of Caliban to his master : — 



" You taught me language, and my profit on't 

 Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid j-ou, 

 For teaching me your language '." 



Of these schools one in Cairo is under the directions of some Moravian 

 missionaries — truly apostolical men in all things but success — yet hoping 

 against hope, and awaiting in resignation God's good time for beginning the 

 work of regeneration in this benighted land. Of all the principalities and 

 powers arrayed against Christianity, I conceive that Islamism is the most 

 unassailable ; and that, for the very paradoxical reason that it approximates 

 too much to the better faith in its broader principles of belief. In essay- 

 ing to convert the idolater, his common sense is readily won to the general 

 truth of the unity of God j and his teacher, strengthened in influence by 

 the first success, advances with better hope to the enunciation of the more 

 mysterious doctrines, and goes on, conquering and to conquer, till every 

 obstacle is overcome. But the disciple of Mohammed has been in long 

 possession of this primary, and to him sufficient, doctrine of the Unity. 

 You cannot pre-engage his reason on the side of our mysteries ; you must 

 lead him to the diligent study of tiie record ; and you must teach him to 

 compare, and combine, and to find the truth through the road of long in- 

 duction, — or you must work miracles as your vouchers. The poor Mo- 

 ravians are somewliat aware of the.se discouraging views ; but are content, 

 until a better opening is offered to their eflforts, to direct them to the 

 humble office of educating, although debarred by the strict injunctions of 



