THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. i S3 



" See, this is new ! it hath been already of old time which 

 " was before us*." 



We find, in thefe very countries, how a later calamity, of 

 the fame public nature, the conqueft of the Saracens, occa- 

 sioned a limilar downfal of literature, by the burning the 

 Alexandrian library under the fanatical caliph Omar. We 

 fee how foon after, they flourifhed, planted by the fame hands 

 that before had rooted them out. . 



The effects of a revolution occafioned, at the period I am 

 now fpeaking of, by the univerfal inundation of the Shepherd^ 

 were the deftruction of Thebes, the ruin of architecture, 

 and the downfal of aftronomy in Egypt. Still a remnant 

 was left in the colonies and correfpondents of Thebes, 

 though fallen. Ezekielt celebrates Tyre as being, from her 

 beginning, famous for the tabret and harp, and it is pro- 

 bably to Tyre the tafte for mulic fie d from the contempt and 

 perfecution of the barbarous Shepherds; who, though a 

 numerous nation, to this day never have yet poffeffed any 

 fpecies of mufic,or any kind of mufical inftruments capable 

 of improvement. , 



Although it is a curious fubject for reflection, it mould 

 not furprife us to find here the harp, in fuch variety of form. 

 Old Thebes, as we prefently mall fee, had been deftroyed, 

 and was foon after decorated and adorned, but not rebuilt 

 by Sefoftris. It was fome time between the reign of Menes, 

 the firfl: king of the Thebaid, and the firil general war of 



the 



' Eccles. chap. i. ver. 10. f Ezek, chap, xxviii. ver. 13. 



