CHAP. XI. AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES. O 



for ages great moral influence throughout a large 

 portion of Asia and Africa. 



In the infancy of her existence as a nation, 

 Egypt was contented with the pursuits of agri- 

 culture ; but in process of time, the advancement 

 of civilisation and refinement led to numerous in- 

 ventions, and to improvements in the ordinary 

 necessaries of life, and she became at length the 

 first of nations in manufactures, and famed amongst 

 foreigners for the excellence of her fine linen, her 

 cotton and woollen stuffs, cabinet work, porce- 

 lain, glass, and numerous branches of industry. 

 That Egypt should be more known abroad for her 

 manufactures than for her agricultural skill miglit 

 be reasonably expected, in consequence of the 

 exportation of those commodities in which she ex- 

 celled, and the ignorance of foreigners respecting 

 the internal condition of a country, from which 

 they were excluded by the jealousy of the natives; 

 though, judging from the scanty information im- 

 parted to us by the Greeks, who in later times had 

 opportunities of examining the valley of the Nile, it 

 appears tliat we have as much reason to blame the 

 indifference of strangers who visited the country, 

 as the exclusiveness of the Egyptians. The 

 Greeks, however, confessed the early advance- 

 ment of the Egyptians in agricultural as well as 

 mechanical pursuits ; and Diodorus is evidently 

 of opinion, that with colonisation, the knowledge 

 of husbandry and various institutions were carried 

 from Egypt into Greece.* 



* Diodor. i. s, 20. 23. 28. 9G. &c., and v. 58. 

 B 3 



