494 MORAL AND POLITICAL STATE. 
bitants of Egypt. They are a people of mixed 
origin. The blood of the ancient Egyptians is 
adulterated by the confused mixture of the Per- 
sian, Grecian, Roman, and Arabian races ; and 
-the motley offspring of these dissimilar tribes have 
rather inherited the vices than the virtues of their 
ancestors. Distinguished from the Arabs and 
the Turks by the profession of Christianity, and 
from the Christians by their obstinate adherence 
to the heresy of Eutychius, they have been per- 
secuted and despised by Christians and Maho- 
metans ; and this very contempt has tended to 
deteriorate their national character. Various 
tribes have preserved their characteristic tenets 
and customs, in defiance of contempt and perse- 
cution, but none of them have been able to pre- 
serve, in this forlorn situation, the honour and 
dignity of the human character. The distin- 
guishing features of the Copts are a dusky yellow 
complexion, unlike that of the Grecian or Ara- 
bian tribes, the hair and eyes of a dark colour, 
the lips thick, the features puffed, and the nose 
rather elevated than fiat, and sometimes even 
aquiline. The similitude of the modern Copt to 
the ancient Egyptian, in the more characteristic 
features, and in the colour of the skin, is evinced, 
not only by ancient paintings and statues, but 
also by the appearances still observable in the 
mummies of Egypt, the bodies of an ancient 
