GOD MADE ALL MEN UNEQUAL. 7 



slight, the river could not pay its full tribute of earth 

 and water to the valley below ; and if the rainfall was 

 unusually severe, houses were swept away, cattle were 

 drowned, and the water, instead of returning at the 

 usual time, became stagnant on the fields. In either 

 case, famine and pestilence invariably ensued. The 

 plenty of ordinary years, like a baited trap, had pro- 

 duced a luxuriance of human life, and the massacre 

 was proportionally severe. Encompassed by the wil- 

 derness, the unfortunate natives were unable to escape ; 

 they died in heaps ; the valley resembled a field of 

 battle ; each village became a charnel-house ; skeletons 

 sat grinning at street corners, and the winds clattered 

 among dead men's bones. A few survivors lingered 

 miserably through the year, browsing on the thorny 

 shrubs of the desert, and sharing with the vultures 

 their horrible repast. 



God made all men equal is a fine-sounding phrase, 

 and has also done good service in its day ; but it is 

 not a scientific fact. On the contrary, there is nothing 

 so certain as the natural inequality of men. Those 

 who outlive hardships and sufferings which fall on all 

 alike owe their existence to some superiority, not only 

 of body, but of mind. It will easily be conceived that 

 among such superior minded men there would be some 

 who, stimulated by the memory of that which was 

 past, and by the fear of that which might return, 

 would strain to the utmost their ingenuity to control 

 and guide the fickle river which had hitherto sported 

 with their lives. 



We shall not attempt to trace out their inventions 

 step by step. Humble in its beginnings, slow in its 

 improvements, the art or science of Hydraulics was 

 finally mastered by the Egyptians. They devised a 



