22 THE VINE AND CIVILISATION. 
Greece, would prove the superiority of vine-producing peoples. 
The founder of Alexandria surrounded it with rich vineyards. 
The wine of Antilla, produced near that city, was the delight 
of Anthony and Cleopatra; nevertheless, the wines afforded 
by this kingdom were never sufficient in quantity to be in gen- 
eral use. 
‘* We are more impressed by the vanity of despotism, than 
the power of genius in the monuments that encumber the Nile. 
How much sweat and blood, how many generations of slaves, 
how much treasure and time has it taken to raise these monu- 
ments of stone? Who was the monarch who sought the pride 
of eternity in death? These are the questions the traveller 
addresses to the desert when in presence of the pyramids, and 
the desert keeps the secret. 
‘Compare the development of Greek civilisation to the de- 
velopment of Egyptian civilisation and you will understand 
the influence of wine as a beverage. ‘The Greeks thought and 
acted for themselves—for them, man was a being endowed 
with reason, master of his destiny, next to the gods. He sub- 
jects all things to examination, and soon, with a bold hand, de- 
molishes the images of the Egyptian Typhon—the god of dark- 
ness—and takes to adoring, with all the power of his mind,-. 
Jupiter, king of heaven, and Apollo, his son, god of light, 
of beauty, of the arts and of poesie. History tells us that 
Egypt was the instructor of Greece; without contesting this, 
Greek civilisation was to that of the Nile like the majestic tree 
to the undeveloped germ in the seed—like the brilliant insect 
to the larva. Columns, statues and paintings, ornamented in 
Egypt, as in Greece, the palaces of priests and of kings, the 
temples of the gods, and the mausoleums of the dead. But 
how rude are their forms! See its Sphinx —a perfect symbol 
of immobility! What a languishing position !—what profound 
