4 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. 



artisans, and the efficiency of their army, were 

 owing to the same well-ordered system. 



Particular attention was always given to the agri- 

 cultural classes ; grain was looked upon as the 

 staple commodity of the Egyptian market, and the 

 memorial of this was maintained to a late time, 

 after Egypt had arrived at an unrivalled celebrity 

 as a manufacturing country, in some of the reli- 

 gious ceremonies, and above all, at the festival of 

 the coronation. Such, indeed, was the respect paid 

 in Egypt to the pursuits of husbandry, that the 

 soldiers, a class inferior only to the priesthood, and 

 from which alone the king, when not of the priestly 

 order, could be chosen, were permitted and even 

 encouraged to occupy their leisure time in the 

 tillage of the lands* allotted them by government j 

 and every priest and noble of the country was ex- 

 pected to use his utmost endeavours to encourage 

 the industry of the agricultural population. 



Of the three states of society, the hunter, the 

 shepherd, and the agriculturist, the last, as has 

 been already observed t, is the most capable of ar- 

 riving at and advancing in civihsation ; and those 

 countries, where agriculture is successfully encou- 

 raged, speedily rise to opulence and power. To 

 this was Egypt indebted for its immense resources, 

 which, even from so confined a valley, maintained 

 a population of seven millions, supplied several 

 neighbouring countries with com, supported an 

 army of 410,000 men besides auxiliaries, extended 

 its conquests into the heart of Asia, and exercised 



* Vol. I. p. 284-. t Vol. I. p. 14, 



