the two wives of Euergetes, both named CLEOPATRA ; a Ptolemy not commemorated by the Greek historians, and a queen also called Cleopatra, and distinguished by the surname TRYPHÆNE; PTOLEMY SOTER II.; two of the surname of ALEXANDER; PTOLEMY DIONYSIUS; the famous CLEOPATRA, and her son by Julius Cæsar. During the whole period included under the reigns of the Ptolemies, we find that the style of architecture and sculpture, and the mode of writing, usually considered as belonging to the independent and more remote ages of Egyptian history, prevailed throughout the country. Greek inscriptions are occasionally met with; and it has fortunately happened, that bilingual documents, not only written but sculptured, and in some cases bearing both the hieroglyphic and more popular systems of writing, have been discovered. It is to the careful study of these, that we are indebted for the key to the hieroglyphic system. The architecture and sculptures of the date of these Grecian kings, are found to be far inferior, not only in splendour, but in taste of execution, to those of the Egyptian races, and particularly to those of the three great Diopolitan Dynasties. So far indeed were the Egyptian arts from having been benefited by an intercourse with the Greeks, that we find the decline gradual, down to the final extinction of the kingdom of Egypt. . Of the Roman emperors, we find inscribed in hieroglyphics, the names and titles of AUGUSTUS, TIBERIUS, CALIGULA, CLAUDIUS, NERO, VESPASIAN, TITUS, DOMITIAN, NERVA, TRAJAN, ADRIAN, MARCUS AURELIUS, LUCIUS VERUS, and COMMODUs. This last name, is to be read four times among the inscriptions of the temple of Esné; which, before this discovery, was considered as the erection of an age far more remote than is reach ed by any of our histories. So far from this, it is in truth, with but one exception, the most modern of all the edifices yet discovered in the Egyptian style of architecture. It is a century and half later than the temple of Denderah; the latest name upon which, is that of Nero. This last, as has been more than once mentioned in our previous papers on Egypt, was also considered of vast antiquity, although of a less age than that of Esné. Both these hypotheses are thus set aside, and the rudeness and want both of taste and skill, displayed at Esné, so far from being owing to the infancy of the art, are to be ascribed to its decline. Thus then, as far down as the year 180 A. D. the worship of the ancient Egyptian deities was publicly exercised, and preserved all its external splendour; for the temples of Denderah, Esné, and others constructed under the Roman rule, are, for size and labour, if not for their style of art, well worthy of the ages of Egyptian independence. Previous to these discoveries, it had become a matter of almost universal belief, that the arts, the writing, and even the ancient religion of Egypt, had ceased to be used from the time of the Persian conquest. "Egypt, although deprived of its political liberty, preserved its religious institutions, as well under the sceptre of the descendants of Ptolemy Lagus, as beneath the sword of the successors of Augustus. The attachment of the peo ple to its ancient national customs, struggled, with victorious perseverance, against the enterprises of an usurped power, which too frequently manifested itself only in violent acts or cruel extortions. Magnificent temples were built or decorated with rich sculptures, during these long years of servitude; and, al though these vast erections were due entirely to the piety of the citizens, the name of the reigning sovereign was constantly engraved on all the parts of the building whose decorations were about to be completed. Even the image of the Greek king, or that of the Roman emperor, under whose government the particular portion of the temple was finished, was sculptured upon it; such had been the ancient habit of the Egyptian people, which, during the ages of its liberty, had never ceased to consider the families of its princes as branches from a celestial stem, and had always confounded its kings and its gods, as objects of the same adoration." It is for this reason, that, in studying the basso-relievos and hieroglyphic inscriptions which embellish the monuments of Egypt, we are enabled to obtain such important illustrations of its history. Upon every one of the buildings, may be read a complete list of all the sovereigns who had successively filled the throne, from the time of its foundation, to its entire completion. It becomes, therefore, a species of historic record, of the names and the order of the reigns of the monarchs. Upon them all, are likewise traced the effigies of the same princes. Previous to the conquest by Cambyses, these may be considered as actual portraits, faithfully representing the features, the dress, and the air of the several kings. This, however, ceases to be the case, from that date; the Cæsars and the Ptolemies are both exhibited, clothed after the manner of the Egyptians, decorated with the insignia, and honoured by the titles of the ancient dynasties. It is from the name alone, that a foreign origin is to be suspected. The accidental detection of the name of a Ptolemy, on the famous Rosetta stone, laid the foundation for the discovery of the key to the hieroglyphic alphabet; and the whole system has been derived from an analysis of the proper names of the Greek and Roman sovereigns, inscribed upon the great edifices of Egypt. From what has been said, it will appear, that Egypt had enjoyed, from very early times, down to the conquest by Cambyses, the blessings of an enlightened government. The religion, if veiled in types and allegories, and descending at last to the worship of contemptible objects, did not cease to teach, in an effectual manner, the duties of sovereign and subject, of parent and child; and, under its influence, the rites of sepulture were refused to the unworthy. The government was monarchical, and the sanction of religion gave weight to the authority of the kings; but they were still, for the greater part of the time, subject to the dominion of ancient and established laws. The fine arts were cultivated, and had reached their highest development, fifteen centuries before the Christian era; but were never guided by the taste that inspired the Grecian artists, or the fancy which embellished the works of the Arabs, and of the middle ages of Europe. The sculpture was formal, but not devoid of grace; their painting limited to a few simple colours, and rather the handmaid of the former art, than aspiring to a separate existence. Their writing involved in itself a mode of poetic expression of the most refined character, which spoke to the eye, rather than to the ear. Music took its rise in Egypt; and instruments of no despicable power, are every where figured upon the walls of the temples, and the rocky enclosures of the tombs. The architecture was solemn, grand, and imposing. These works of art, the Egyptians strove to render immortal; and ages will elapse, before they cease to present themselves to the eyes of a curious and admiring posterity. We find still extant, monuments constructed before the foundation of even the most ancient of the Grecian cities. They have seen dynasty after dynasty, and nation after nation, disappear from the surface of the earth, yet they still retain the character of permanence and durability originally impressed upon them. So long ago as the days of Plato, they bore the appellation of antiquities; and our successors will not cease to admire them, even when almost every other existing monument shall have passed away. To the long duration of the remains of Egyptian antiquity, the climate has concurred in a degree as marked as the labour bestowed upon them; hence we find not merely statuary and architecture, but the more perishable materials of their manuscripts, the cloth that envelops their mummies, still in perfect preservation. But still we must wonder at the dexterity and skill exhibited in many of the works of this people. Masses of stone, of enormous size, have been removed from great distances, to form the embellishment of their palaces and temples; the patient labour with which they are chiseled, exceeds even that of removing them. Over the country of Egypt are spread innumerable obelisks, of single blocks of granite, brought from the quarries of Syene, and covered with the most elaborate sculpture. The removal of a single one to Rome was a proud achievement for a master of the world; and the simple elevation of an obelisk, and placing it upon its base, has been celebrated among the most difficult achievements of modern mechanics. But the size of the largest of these obelisks is trifling, in comparison with the blocks whence several of the monolith statues, either still remaining, or described by ancient authors, were cut. Such were those said to be, of Osymandyas, his wife, and daughter, at Thebes, and that of Sesostris, at Memphis. Such monuments, however, appear, at first sight, to be dedicated to personal vanity, or mistaken piety, and ought rather to impress us with melancholy, that such vast labour should have been bestowed upon such useless objects. A closer inspection will show us that these are no more than appropriate tributes of gratitude, to public spirited monarchs, for public works of the most useful character, or offerings to the Deity for ages of continued prosperity. The glories of sculpture and architecture indeed still remain; but more glorious triumphs of art, applied to useful purposes, can be traced and detected by the aid of history. The Egyptians toiled for ages to render their territory healthy, to increase its fertility, and to enlarge its bounds, not at the expense of surrounding nations, but of the barren waste, and the impassable morass. Whole provinces were conquered from the sands and deserts of Lybia; the plains of the Delta were raised from a miry gulf; the inequality of the inundation was compensated by foresight and skill; their cities were erected on immense embankments; and not content with ornamenting the banks of the Nile with immortal monuments, they undertook to excavate the rocks that bounded their territory, and to create a subterranean country as magnificent as that inhabited by the living, to serve as the receptacle of their dead. The introduction of the Christian religion put a stop to the exercise of those Egyptian arts, which had gradually declined under the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman rulers. The temples were gradually abandoned, and on Christianity becoming the established faith, sacrifices were prohibited, and the public exercise of the ancient worship made penal. While paganism retained the predominance, persecution and strife wasted the wealth and the population of the country, while the religion that succeeded, Pagan and corrupted, except in name, changed only the relations of the parties, and not the principles that regulated the conduct of the ruling power. Egypt, which the Greek emperors knew neither how to govern or to defend, fell an easy prey to the Moslem conquerors.* The conquests of the first followers of Mahomet, were of a nature entirely different, both from the military enterprises of the Romans, and of the tumultuous invasions of the northern barbarians. The Romans did not owe their triumphs to the power of their arms alone, but a great part of their success is to be attributed to certain maxims of government, which they followed with admirable constancy. Not content with overcoming a people, they included it in their general system of policy, and caused it in a great degree to lose the traces of its own individual and national character, by introducing their own religion, customs, language, and laws.* The barbarians who overran Europe, abandoning their inhospitable seats for climates more mild and cities more opulent, followed each other with no other design than pillage. As they were without fixed institutions of their own, they ended by adopting the worship, the manners, and the arts, or at least the remains of them, they found established in their new settlements. The Arabs, on the contrary, had more settled opinions and habits, and their attachment to them was strengthened by all the energy of fanaticism. Satisfied that the Koran contained all knowledge necessary or useful, they at first rejected the usages of the countries they subdued, and destroyed, from a principle of religion, the monuments of their arts. Mahomet was not enough of a prophet to foresee the wide extent which his religion was to attain ; nor had he the vast views of policy which are sometimes attributed to him. To admit either of these to the uneducated camel-driver, would be to acknowledge the claimed divinity of his mission. So far from this, he left his successors no established form or principle of government, in any way adapted to the vast regions over which they so rapidly extended their sway. The Roman power being no longer sustained by the ancient vigour of its institutions, each of its provinces became liable to invasion and conquest by hordes almost savage, and which a few centuries before, her legions would have exterminated, ere they could have crossed her consecrated borders. Among these invaders, the Arabs performed, in their own vicinity, what was done on the other frontiers by the Goths, the Lombards, and the Gepida. They penetrated the parts of Asia not subject to the empire, with no less facility; for the Persian kingdom, shaken by intestine commotions, and debilitated by foreign wars, was no better able to resist their fanatic violence. Thus, in a few years, they extended the rule of the Koran from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the banks of the Indus. But the same volume that was the first cause of their union, and the earnest of their success, finished by arresting their progress. Had the Arabs possessed, like the people who conquered the Western Empire, the inestimable advantage of receiving at the same time a religion favourable to the arts, and to useful knowledge, and which teaches the true principles of government, they might have cultivated to perfection all branches of knowledge, and prolonged their sway even to the present day, over regions restored to prosperity by one uniform and beneficent system. This people, in truth, did at first exhibit genius of the highest order, * Preface Historique, ubi supra. |