PHYSICAL CONTEMPLATION OP THE UNIVERSE. 123 



Hyksos, 1200 years before Homer, was the twelfth of 

 Manetho, to which belonged Amenemha III. who made the 

 original labyrinth, and formed Lake Moeris artificially by 

 excavation and by large dykes of earth to the north and 

 west. After the expulsion of the Hyksos, the " new king- 

 dom" begins with the eighteenth dynasty (1600 B.C.) The 

 great Ramses Miamouii (Ramses II.) was the second 

 monarch of the nineteenth dynasty. The representations on 

 stone which perpetuated the record of his victories were 

 explained to Gdrmanicus by the priests of Thebes. ( 16 ) He 

 was known to Herodotus under the name of Sesostris, 

 probably from a confusion with the almost equally warlike 

 and powerful conqueror Seti (Setos), who was the father of 

 Ramses II." 



I have thought it right to notice these few chronological 

 points, in order that, where we have solid historical ground, 

 we may determine approximately the relative antiquity of 

 great events in Egypt, Phoenicia, and Greece. As I before 

 described in a few words the Mediterranean and its geo- 

 graphical relations, so I have thought it necessary here to 

 indicate the centuries by which the civilisation of the Valley 

 of the Nile preceded that of Greece. "Without this double 

 reference to place and time, we cannot, from the very 

 nature of our mental constitution, form to ourselves any 

 clear and satisfactory picture of history. 



Civilisation, early awakened and arbitrarily modelledm Egypt 

 by the mental requirements of the people, by the peculiar 

 physical constitution of their country, and by their hierar- 

 chical and political institutions, produced there, as everywhere 

 else on the globe, a tendency to intercourse with foreign na- 

 tions, and to distant military expeditions and settlements. But 



VOL. II. K 



