Did raging pestilence her shores invade 

 Wafted from burning Lybia's sultry plains, 



Thy cooling seeds the ardent thirst allay'd 

 And checked the fervor of the throbbing veins.* 



Arm'd with thy foliage in the cool of day 

 Safe down the Nile the happy Memphians glide; 



The charm'd Leviathanf forgets his prey, 

 And sports, innoxious, on the sacred tide.J 



Hence the immortal race§ in Thebes || reverd, 

 Thy praise the theme of endless rapture made; 



Thy image on an hundred columns reard, 

 And veird their altars with thine hallow'd shade. 



* " The roots and seeds of the Nelumbium," says Loureiro, " are both sapid and wholesome. These are accounted cooling and strength- 

 ening, and are found a specific against extreme thirst, diarrhoea, tenesmus, vomiting, and too great internal heat." 



f The Leviathan of Job is the crocodile. " Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook?" is the question proposed, to shew the supe- 

 rior power of the Deity. His worship in Egypt is accounted for by some as representing Typhon, the sea, of which the Egyptians appear 

 to have had a great dread, for by ships their enemies invaded their country. Another reason for this worship is given in note § below. 



J All the Nymphseas have smooth stalks, except the Nelumbium, which is armed with short yet strong prickles, which piercing the 

 eyes of the crocodile, is by them remembered, and on this account that animal shuns the appearance of the Nelumbium. That the crocodile 

 avoids the Nelumbium is noticed by Herodotus. 



§ The origin of all religion, as I observed before, originated in gratitude. " On this score/' says Cicero, " the Ibis was esteemed sacred 

 as a bird which destroyed serpents, and the Ichneumon as the devourer of the eggs of the crocodile, and the crocodile itself as protecting the 

 Nile from the invasion of the Arabs," (Vide Cicero de Natura Decorum), but this homage to the crocodile was given only in some parts of 

 Egypt; and, lastly, I might mention the onion, a bulb which vegetated out of its own matrix, like the Nelumbium, and as containing spheres 

 within spheres, the true system of the world, so little did the Egyptians merit to be satyrized by Juvenal, 



Porrum et Cepe nefas violare et frangere morsu. 

 O Sanctas gentes, quibus haec nascuntur in hortis 

 Numina! 



|| Thevenot, a modern French traveller, thus describes ancient Thebes. " The works of the Egyptians," says this admired writer, 

 " were calculated to withstand the corroding tooth of time: their statues were colossal, their columns immense. Egypt aimed at grandeur, 

 and sought to strike the eye at a distance, but never also failed to gratify it by correctness of proportion. In the Said, (which was anciently 

 called Thebais,) have been discovered temples and palaces, at this day almost entire, where these columns and statues are innumerable. The 

 admiration of the traveller is particularly excited by a palace, the remains of which seem to have subsisted only to eclipse the glory of all the 

 noblest modern works of art. Four alleys, extending farther than the eye can reach, and bounded, on each side, by sphinxes of a substance 

 as rare as their size is remarkable, serve as avenues to four porticoes of most astonishing height. How magnificent! how stupendous! In- 

 deed, those who have described to us this prodigious edifice, have not had time to examine its whole extent, nor are they even certain of 

 having seen the half of its beauties; but all that they did see was truly wonderful. 



" A saloon, which apparently formed the middle of this superb palace, was supported by more than an hundred columns, the circumference 

 of each of which could not be spanned by six men with extended arms. These columns were lofty in proportion, and interspersed with 

 obelisks which so many revolving ages have not been able to overthrow. Even the colours, which, from their nature, soonest experience the 

 power of time, are still unfaded among the ruins of this admirable edifice, and display all their original brilliancy; so well did Egypt know 

 how to impress the stamp of immortality on all her productions." 



The city which the Greeks call Thebes, the Egyptians Diospolis, (says Diodorus, lib. i. par. 2.) was in circuit an hundred and forty 

 stadia, adorned with stately buildings, magnificent temples, and rich donations. It was not only the most beautiful and noble city of 

 Egypt, but of the whole world. The fame of its wealth and grandeur was so celebrated in all parts, that Homer has taken notice of it in 

 these words: 



......... J? $<r« Qyfeaq 



Aiy\nf\iots, oQt wXttfa iofta^ tv %[y\\ia]a. xttTui, 

 Aid* ixalofiirvXot i »Vi, Sttpcoo-tot 1* m txctgyv 

 'Ayffff «Jo<^€u<ri tinrottri xoti oxtripiv. V. 381. 



Though others affirm it had not an hundred gates, but as many vast porches to the principal temple; and that the city was called Hundred- 

 gated, only as having many gates. Yet it is certain it furnished twenty thousand chariots of war ; for there were an hundred stables along the 

 river, from Memphis to Thebes towards Libya, each of which contained two hundred horses, the ruins whereof are shewn at this day. The 

 princes from time to time made it their care to beautify and enlarge this city, to which none under the sun was equal in the many and mag- 

 nificent 



