810 



EGYPT. 



whole liteniry world. This art was taught to those 

 only who were educated for merchants, and that in 

 a limited degree ; for it was the system of the priests 

 to keep the mass of the people in ignorance. 



The division of the people into seven castes 

 priests, soldiers, shepherds, swineherds, mechanics, 

 interpreters, and fishermen sprang partly from local 

 circumstances, many districts affording but one mode 

 of subsistence ; partly from the policy of the priests, 

 since it was necessary, for the management of the 

 machine of state, that strict lines of demarcation 

 should be drawn between the various constituent 

 parts of the nation. At the head of them all stood 

 the caste of priests, the first and most influential. 

 They maintained this rank as teachers of the people 

 and patrons of science. From them all the offices 

 of state were filled ; they were the physicians, judges, 

 architects, astronomers, astrologers, &c. But they 

 held their knowledge, which they regarded (with 

 justice) as the talisman of their political importance 

 and mighty influence, strictly within the limits of 

 their order. 



The religion, mythology, and philosophy of the 

 Egyptians varied with the different periods of their 

 political history. Tiieir religion and philosophy 

 were one thing before Moses, another from the time 

 of Moses to tliat of Herodotus ; and thus they con- 

 tinued to deviate from their original cliaracter till 

 the times of the Ptolemies and the Romans. Their 

 whole religion and mythology were founded on 

 astronomy ; it was natural that the beneficial influ- 

 ences of the celestial bodies should be followed by 

 adoration. Osiris and Isis (the sun and moon) were 

 the two principal deities, and the Nile was thought 

 to be very nearly related to them. We frequently 

 find Osiris and the Nile treated as one deity. The 

 period of 360 days, computed from the regular inun- 

 dation of the river at the summer solstice, constituted 

 the religious year. The natural solar year consisted 

 of 360 days and six hours. The planets, together 

 with the signs of the zodiac, were revered as deities, 

 and rulers of the days of the week and hours of the 

 day. The ruler of the first hours of the day 

 was the patron of the whole day, and communi- 

 cated to it his name ; the physical character and the 

 agricultural relations of each month were likewise 

 adored as divinities, under the twelve signs of the 

 zodiac. Thus was the religious year constituted. 

 The want, subsequently discovered, of five days and 

 six hours, gave rise to seven more deities, and the 

 solar year was introduced. These symbolical 

 beings, however, were regarded as actually existent, 

 the authors and governors of time and the world ; 

 Osiris and Isis were considered as beings of unlimited 

 power, exercising an immediate influence over the 

 earth and its inhabitants. To each divinity was 

 assigned a particular order of priests, into which 

 females were never admitted. Pilgrimages and sacri- 

 fices were a part of the system of religion. The 

 latter were employed for the expiation of sins. The 

 worshipper placed his hand on the head of the vic- 

 tim, loaded it with imprecations, and its last gasp 

 was the seal of his pardon. Till the reign of Ama- 

 sis, even human victims were offered. Besides the 

 heavenly bodies, some kinds of animals, also, were 

 worshipped. These were not regarded as mere 

 symbols, but adored as actual gods, like the Apis and 

 Mnevis ; this worship arose from the hieroglyphics 

 of the Egyptians. (See Hieroglyphics.} The most 

 remarkable phenomena in the philosophy of the 

 Egyptians is the doctrine of the transmigration oi 

 souls (see Metempsychosis), which was the immediate 

 offspring of the worship of the stars. Plato has 

 honoured the metempsychosis of the Egyptians by 

 adopting it into his system, as a symbol of the moral 



lurification of human nature. The Egyptians, how- 

 ;ver, did not make so accurate a distinction between 

 he spiritual and corporeal as this philosopher ; the 

 dea of the soul, as a pure intelligence, was unknown 

 to them ; and it is a very remarkable fact, that 

 the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of 

 souls, as delineated by Aristotle, although different 

 r roin the Egyptian, is equally devoid ot any moral 

 sense. 



Political History of Egypt. If we go back beyond 

 ;he period of tradition, to which belong 'the fabulous 

 Pharaohs (kings), Menes (2000 years before Christ), 

 Osymandyas, Moeris, Sesostris, Rhampsinitus, &c. 

 we find, on the extreme confines of history, the Pha- 

 raoh of Joseph, and the migrations which took place 

 in the storms of revolutions under Cecrops, Moses, 

 and Danaus. In the history of foreign states, Shi- 

 shak is named, 878 before the Christian era, as the 

 Pharaoh of Egypt, and the ally of Jeroboam ; the 

 Tnephactus and Bocchoris of Diodorus, anil the 

 Asychis of Herodotus, are famous as legislators. 

 The forty years' subjection of Egypt to the Ethiop- 

 ians, tlie internal anarchy of thirty-three years, the 

 lodecarchy (reign of twelve), which lasted fifteen 

 years, preceded the monarchy founded by Psamme- 

 tichus, one of the dodecarchs. It lasted from 636 

 to 525 B. C., and exhibits, besides Psammetichus, 

 the famous names of Necho, Psainmis, Apries or 

 flophra, Amasis, and Psammenitus. This period 

 is a bright spot in the history of the civilization of 

 Egypt. The kingdom next became subject to Cam- 

 byses, and belonged to the Persian empire, till after 

 its conquest by Alexander, 332 B. C. After the 

 livision of the Macedonian empire, begins the splen- 

 did period of the Ptolemies (see Ptolemies, and the 

 Alexandrian School). Ptolemy Lagus or Soter, 

 Ptolemy Philadelphus (under whom the foundation 

 of the future dominion of the Romans was laid), 

 Ptolemy Euergetes I., Ptolemy Philopater, Ptolemy 

 Epiphanes, Ptolemy Philometor, .Euergetes II., 

 Cleopatra Minor (with Ptolemy Soter or Lathyrus, 

 and Ptolemy Alexander I.), Ptolemy Alexander II., 

 Berenice, Ptolemy Alexander III., Ptolemy Auletes, 

 Cleopatra Tryphana and Berenice, and Cleopatra 

 with Ptolemy Puer, under the guardianship of Caesar 

 and Antony, are the names of the rulers of this 

 period, several of whom are famous in the history of 

 science and art. The suicide of Cleopatra, after 

 the victory of Octavius at Actium, transferred the 

 kingdom into the power of the Romans, and it now 

 became a Roman province. This took place thirty 

 years B. C., and Egypt remained 670 years in the 

 hands of the Romans. The Christian religion, dur- 

 ing this period, gained footing in this country, and 

 was accompanied by the same enthusiasm, sectarism, 

 and mental gloom, which, in the earlier history of 

 Egypt, had accompanied the pagan mysteries. An- 

 chorites and monks had their origin here. 



After the division of the great Roman empire, in 

 the time of Theodosius, into the Western and East- 

 ern empires, Egypt became a province of the latter, 

 and sank deeper and deeper in barbarism and weak- 

 ness. It was the prey of the Saracens, Amru, their 

 general, under the caliph Omar, taking Alexandria, 

 the capital, by assault. This happened A. D. 640, 

 when Heraclius was the emperor of the East. As a 

 province of the caliphs, it was under the government 

 of the celebrated Abbasides Harun-al-Raschid and 

 Al-Mamon and that of the heroic sultan Saladin. 

 The last dynasty was, however, overthrown by the 

 Mamelukes (1250) , and under these formidable despots 

 the last shadow of former greatness and civilization 

 disappeared. Selim, sultan of the Turks, even- 

 tually (1516 to 1517) conquered the last Mameluke 

 sultan, Tumanbai, and Egypt became altogether a 



