io8 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



about 550 years before the common era. la 

 Xhe year of Chrift 1279, the Tartars made 

 themfelves m afters of this empire, and their fa- 

 mily bore the name of Iven. 



XVI. (2.) The hiftory of Egypt. The chronolo- 

 gy of the Egyptians is altogether as extravagant 

 as that of the Chinefe, and has no better foun- 

 dation. The Chaldeans or Babylonians afiigned 

 myriads of years to their monarchy. The Egyp- 

 tians, piqued at their prerenfions, would not yield 

 them the preference in point of antiquity. Their 

 priefts, and thofe they called fages, atferted t^at 

 gods and demi-gods reigned in Egypt 42,984 

 years before their kine;s. It would be iome fatif- 

 faction to know by what channel, or rather by 

 what miracle, the knowledge of this has come 

 down to our days, fuppofing it to be true. They 

 have found means however to gain credit for 

 thefe reveries with Diodorus Siculus, Herodotus, 

 Manethon, and many others equally weak, credu 

 lous, and fond of marvellous relations. The indefa- 

 tigable labours of that learned writer John Mar- 

 Iham, united with thofc of Ulher, and fome other 

 able chronologers, have helped to diflipate, in 

 fome degree, this real Egyptian darknels, and to 

 reduce the hiftory of this country, quite fabu- 

 lous as it is in its origin, to a fyftem tolerably 

 rational. This hiftory then is divided into dy- 

 nafties, or races of fovereigns that have reigned 

 in Egypt. Seven of thefe dynafties comprehend 

 the reign of gods, from Vulcan to Typhon : nine, 



the 



