196 
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
along the banks of the Nile from Syene to Alex- 
andria and the harbours of the Delta. From an 
authentic Arabian document, D'Anville estimates 
the number of towns and villages at 2G96, and of 
these many were situated beyond the proper limits 
of Egypt. * An Arabian geographer enumerates 
only Q%95 towns and villages, at a period when 
Egypt still flourished under the Arabian govern- 
ment, t Thus the application of geographical 
science assists us to correct the inaccuracy of an- 
cient writers, separates truth from the exaggera- 
tions of vanity, or the fables of tradition, and re- 
duces the science of history itself to a species of 
experimental knowledge, t 
The expedition undertaken by the French intp 
Egypt, although its object and conduct cannot be 
justified, deseryes praise on account of the <?are 
which was taken to render it subservient to the in- 
terests of science. A body of those eminent learn- 
ed men, who compose the Literary Society of Paris, 
was attached to the army, and availed themselves 
of all its movements, to obtain an accession to 
knowledge in their various departments. Denon, 
* D'Anville, Memoires sur l'Egypte, p. 2Q. — Mr Browne 
reckons two millions and a half for the population of Egypt. 
—Ed. ' 
f Jacuti ap. Indie. Geogr. Bohadini, ad verb. .ZEgyptus* 
% The remainder of this chapter is by the Editor. 
