DECLINE OF EGYPT. 29 



stranger still, their ballet girls danced it in lighter cloth- 

 ing than is worn by those who now grace the operatic 

 boards. At the end of the repast a mummy, richly 

 painted and gilded, was carried round by a servant, 

 who showed it to each guest in turn, and said, ' Look 

 on this, drink and enjoy thyself, for such as it is noio 

 so thou shalt be when thou art dead." So solemn an 

 injunction was not disregarded, and the dinner often 

 ended as might be expected from the manner in which 

 it was begun. The Hogarths of the period have 

 painted the young dandy being carried home by his 

 footmen without his wig ; while the lady in her own 

 apartment is showing unmistakeable signs of the same 

 disorder. 



But we must leave these pleasant strolls in the 

 bye-paths of history and return to the broad and 

 beaten road. The vast wealth and soft luxury of the 

 New Empire undermined its strength. It became 

 apparent to the Egyptians themselves that the nation 

 was enervated and corrupt, a swollen pampered body 

 from which all energy and vigour had for ever fled. 

 A certain Pharaoh commanded a curse to be inscribed 

 in one of the temples against the name of Menes, who 

 had first seduced the Egyptians from the wholesome 

 simplicity of early times. Filled with a spirit of 

 prophecy the king foresaw his country's ruin, which, 

 indeed was near at hand, for though he himself was 

 buried within the Pyramids in peace, his son and 

 successor was compelled to hide in the marshes from 

 a foreign foe. 



To the same cause may be traced the ruin and the 

 fall, not only of Egypt, but of all the powers of the 

 ancient world ; of Nineveh, and Babylon, and Persia ; 

 of the Macedonian kingdom and the Western Empire. 



