rudest form in which power can be exerted; and in the case of the Egyptians, the rudeness was aggravated by employing men to perform the work of the lower animals.

55. Greatly as society had advanced in Egypt, the mass of the population was in an abject condition. Learning, power, and privilege, were confined to the priestly order, or to those immediately concerned in carrying on the government, and to the more wealthy classes. The lower departments of the community, prevented by the spirit of caste from rising greatly out of their sphere, and condemned to a round of toil and personal degradation, were ever at the mercy of their rulers; there was no constitution or law to save them from oppression. It was, however, the same in almost all ancient nations. The strong tyrannised over 'the weak; and seldom was there any regard for human suffering. But there was a still worse feature in ancient society. Slavery, or forced servitude, universally prevailed. A slave is a person unjustly deprived of his liberty, and obliged against his will to become the servant of another. Kings and chiefs in ancient times did not scruple to reduce great numbers to slavery. All captives taken in battle were carried into slavery; many were cruelly sold to be slaves who could not pay their debts; and on some occasions parents disposed of their children in exchange for a little food during famines. From all these causes together, the powerful kings of ancient Egypt were enabled to command the services of large bodies of men, either foreign slaves or natives, whom they employed, under taskmasters, to dig canals, to draw huge blocks of stone from the quarries, and to perform the most toilsome offices connected with the great architectural structures. Thus an amount of labour which could with ease, and at little expense, be performed in a short time by a modern steamengine, would occupy many thousands of poor slaves for several years; and such was the severity of this labour, that it sooner or later killed vast numbers who were inhumanly engaged in it.

56. People in modern times, protected by equitable laws, and living under the influences of a benign religion, can have but an imperfect idea of the terrific toils and suffer

ings of the slaves who were employed on the great public works of ancient Egypt. It will be useful, however, to have even a slight notion of the manner in which these wretched beings were employed to execute the labour of cattle. An example may be taken from the method of drawing a block of stone from the quarry. In some cases the blocks weighed five thousand tons, and they required to be drawn over a space of five or six miles. Occasionally a canal was dug the whole distance to the quarry; and the blocks were transported on it by means of flatbottomed boats and rafts, in which case they were drawn along the ground only to and from the vessels. In other instances the blocks were drawn the whole distance. This was customary when the block was already carved into the form of a statue, and required to be treated with much care. A sketch is preserved which depicts the carriage of a figure several thousand tons in weight. Placed on a sledge, the

figure is seen to be drawn by 172 men, yoked in four rows of forty-three men each. A representation is here given as far as twenty men in each of the rows. All were yoked by ropes to the sledge, and at certain cadences in a song, which was sung by a director, who stood on the knees of the statue, they made a simultaneous effort in advance. To aid the motion, men were placed with jars of liquid,

probably grease, which they poured on planks laid on the ground in front of the sledge. A band of men was in attendance to supply water to the labourers. Besides the persons immediately employed, it was customary for companies of soldiers to attend, for the purpose of overawing the slaves, and compelling obedience in their odious task. When a slave dropped dead from fatigue, his place was immediately supplied from a party of supernumeraries.

57. While the inundations of the Nile, the encroachment of the shifting sand of the desert, and the effects of time, have completely swept away all traces of the ordinary dwellings of the ancient Egyptians, the magnificent monumental erections, built of imperishable materials, have defied the vicissitudes of centuries; though damaged by hosts of barbarous conquerors, their remains are still among the greatest wonders of the world. The traveller is struck with awe on approaching some of these splendid ruins. At Edfoo, about fifty miles south of Thebes, on the banks of the Nile, are seen the remains of a temple which measured 440 feet in length and 220 in breadth, and is still grand in its decay. It is now environed by the mean mud huts of the modern inhabitants, who can tell nothing of the interesting country which they inhabit.

58. Monumental remains are found in all parts of the country; in the Delta, and Middle as well as in Upper Egypt. In Upper Egypt, however, which has been least subject to pillage, they are most numerous. There is a manifest progress in Egyptian architecture as we follow downwards the course of the Nile; the infant state of the art being exhibited in the subterranean or grotto temples of Nubia, and its later developments in the raised edifices of Upper and Middle Egypt. The greater portion of the monuments are found on or near the sites of ancient Egyptian cities. Thebes and its neighbourhood alone furnish many specimens. Temples, tombs, obelisks, and colossal sculptures of sphinxes, human figures, and heads, are the most common forms; vastness, strength, heaviness, are the usual characteristics. The Egyptian temples, with their broad bases, low flat roofs, and thick walls sloping inward, seem expressly calculated to suggest ideas of weight and durability; while

the sculptures, although often grotesque, and always immeasurably inferior in grace to those of the Greeks, affect the mind in a similar manner by means of their colossal proportions and a certain rude grandeur. Elaborate finish is also a characteristic of Egyptian sculpture.

59. Of all the monuments of ancient Egyptian architecture, the most celebrated are the Pyramids, situated on the opposite side of the Nile from Cairo, and visible from that city. They are very numerous, being scattered at intervals along a line of about seventy miles in length; but the most remarkable are those of Gizeh, in the immediate vicinity of Cairo. They consist of three large pyramids, and a number of smaller ones. The largest, called the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and built by Cheops or Soophis of the fourth dynasty, covers a surface of about eleven acres, and is 461 feet in perpendicular height, or 117 feet higher than St Paul's in London. The four

angles of the pyramid coincide with the four cardinal points of the compass. Six million tons of stone are supposed to be contained in this pyramid. Outside it presents a succession of steps, by ascending which, with some labour and fatigue, travellers reach the top, a flat platform about thirty feet square. The pyramid is not solid throughout, but has internal passages and chambers, in one of which there is a granite sarcophagus, which once contained, it is supposed, the ashes of the king who intended the pyramid for his tomb.

60. The Pyramids are among the oldest of the Egyptian monuments. The account given by Herodotus regarding the largest is, that it was intended by Cheops to be his burial-place. Herodotus also describes the manner in which it was built. Cheops, he says, acting as a tyrant, compelled the people to labour as slaves. Some he obliged to hew stones in the quarries of the Arabian mountains, and drag them to the Nile; others received them there, and conveyed them in vessels to the site of the Pyramids. For these services 100,000 men were employed, who were relieved every three months. Before the Great Pyramid was begun, a causeway was constructed, along which the blocks of stone might be drawn from the wharf of the Nile at which

they were landed. This work, equally arduous with the The building of the pyramid itself, occupied ten years. causeway was made of blocks of stone, closely laid, and finely polished. When it was completed, the stones for

the pyramid, none of which was less than thirty feet long, were conveyed to the spot. The base, or first platform, having been finished, the stones for the second step of the pyramid were raised by means of pulleys, and set in their places; from the second step the stones were in like manner raised for the third; and so on till the summit was reached. The time occupied in building the pyramid was twenty On the outside of it were engraven inscriptions in years. the native Egyptian character, giving an account of the sums spent during the progress of the work for the radishes, onions, and garlic consumed by the workmen. The total amount was enormous; but who can estimate the human suffering which was endured in the progress of the undertaking?

61. The learning and the arts of the Egyptians attracted