Chap. X. ANTIENTMETAPHYSICS. 217 



Kings being fucceedcd by their fons. The queftion, therefore, is. 

 Who were the eledors ? That he was not elected by any aflembly 

 of the people is evident ; for there were no affemblies of the people 

 in Egypt for any purpofe whatever. Neither was there in Egypt 

 any body of men, that might be called a fenate, diftin£l from the 

 Priefts, that is, the counfellors of ftate : And If fo, I think it is evi- 

 dent, that the Priefts, or wife men of the nation, muft have been 

 the eledore ; and, indeed, there were no men fo fit for that bufmefs. 

 One thing is certain, that, as Plato informs us, it was neceflary, that 

 every King, before he entered upon the exercife of his office, (hould 

 be admitted into the oider of the Priefts. This, I think, muft have 

 given them a negative in the eledion of every King, by whomfoever 

 chofen. There was one of the Kings, who was himfelf a Prieft ; 

 I mean the Prieft of Vulcan. Now he could not, I think, have 

 been eleded, except by the Priefts themfelves. 



But though I be of opinion that the King was ele£led by the 

 Priefts of Egypt, it does not appear that he was fo much under their 

 power, as the King of Ethiopia was under the power of the Priefts 

 there, who, if the King difpleafed them, might fend to him, to let 

 him know, that he was not only to refign his crown, but alfo his 

 life» and to go out of the world by his own hand. At the fame 

 time, as the Egyptians were a colony of Ethiopians, as Diodorus 

 tells us, (and I think it muft have been fo, as they were a black, 

 wooly-haired, people as well as the Egyptians, and had many cuf- 

 toms in common with the Egyptians, particularly the ufe of 

 thofe letters, which in Egypt were caUed/acred letters and ufed on- 

 ly by the Priefts, but in Ethiopia were in common ufe), I have 

 very little doubt, that the Priefts in Egypt, as well as thofe in 

 Ethiopia, had very great power over the King, and in all matters of 

 State. This Diodorus Siculus tells us in his firft Book, chap. 73. 

 where he fays, that they lived with the King, were his afliftants in 



Vol. IV. E e bufinef*' 



