TETE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 135 



" See, this is new! it hath been already of ol4 time which 

 "was before us*." 



We find, in thefe very countries, how a later calamity, of 

 the fame public nature r the conquefl of the Saracens, occa- 

 fioned a fimilar downfal of literature, by the burning the 

 Alexandrian library under the fanatical caliph Omar. We 

 fee how foon after, they flourifhed, plantedby the fame hands , 

 that before. had rooted them out. 



The effects of a revolution occasioned, at the period I am 

 now fpeaking of, by the univerfal inundation of the Shepherd^ . 

 were the deftruction of Thebes, the ruin of architecture, 

 and the downfal of aftronomy in Egypt. Still a remnant 

 was left in the colonies and correfpondents of Thebes, 

 though fallen. Ezekielf celebrates Tyre as being, from her 

 beginning, famous for- the tabret and harp, and it is pro- 

 bably to Tyre the taite for mufic fled from the contempt and 

 perfecution of the barbarous Shepherds; who, though a 

 numerous nation, to this day never have yet pollened any 

 fpecies of mufic, or any kind. of. mufical inftruments capable, 

 of improvement, . 



Although it is a curious fubjecl; for reflection, it mould 

 not furprife us to find here the harp, in fuch variety of form. 

 Old Thebes, as we prefently fhall fee, had been deitroyed, 

 and was foon after decorated and adorned; but not rebuilt 

 by Sefoitris. It was fome time between the reign of Menes, 

 the irfl king of the Thebaid, and the firit general war of 



the 



•Eccles. chap. i. ver. icv -{*Ezek, chap, xxviii, ver. 13. 



