CHAP. IV.]

PLEADING BEFORE THE LAST TRIBUNAL.

203

before the

This scale the dead man watches himself, but Anubis guards the other. Each of the forty-two judges records his own decision-a separate verdict. Horus examines the plummet, and Thoth records the sentence. The person at the bar of these solemn judges is allowed to plead in his own behalf. "I have defrauded no man; Pleading I have not slaughtered the cattle of the gods, I have not prevaricated last tribunal. at the seat of justice, I have not made slaves of the Egyptians, I have not defiled my conscience for the sake of my superior, I have not used violence, I have not famished my household, I have not made to weep, I have not smitten privily, I have not changed the measures of Egypt, I have not grieved the spirits of the gods, I have not committed adultery, I have not forged signet rings, I have not falsified the weights of the balance, I have not withheld milk from the mouths of my children." "I have not pierced the banks of the Nile in its annual increase, I have not separated to myself an arm of the Nile in its advance." These passages render it probable that in ancient as in modern times, an important part of the revenue of Egypt was raised by imposing a tribute upon the lands overflowed by the annual inundation; so that to obtain any portion of these fertilizing waters secretly was to defraud the state. This singular disavowal concludes thus: "I have not disturbed the gazelles of the gods in their pasturage, I have not netted the waterfowl of the gods, I have not caught the sacred fishes." It may be inferred from this and other sections, that there were parks or pre

Various

sentences.

Connection of
Egypt with
Judæa.

Ancient and modern Egypt.

serves around the Egyptian temples where the sacred animals were kept, and that it was sacrilege to take them. "I have not despised the gods in their offerings;" in other words, "I have not offered to the gods that which is imperfect, I have not bound the cattle of the gods, I have not pierced the god in his manifestation." It is plain that there are shadowed out in many of these hieroglyphs, the hopes and fears of a guilty bosom; for should the spirit when judged be discovered unworthy of admission to paradise, it is ignominiously driven off to a darker world, and made to assume a bestial form, typical of its sensual character and grovelling pursuits. Thus, as in the preceding illustration, a glutton is condemned to assume the form of a hog, and is sent off under the guidance of a foul spirit to wallow in a stye, and feed upon "husks." But if the spirit has been acquitted, it rises higher in glory and in susceptibility of enjoyment. It joins the happy throng who bathe in the pure river of water of life that encircles their dwelling. Above them stands the memorable inscription" They have found favour in the eyes of the great God, they dwell in mansions of glory, and enjoy the celestial life-the bodies which they have forsaken shall sleep for ever in their sepulchres, while they shall rejoice in the presence of God most High." Many momentous truths belonging to the faith of an early world, to which, with all its aberration, the human spirit clings so tenaciously, are in those symbols rudely and impressively sketched. The ideas of immortality and retribution are singularly masqued under such quaint memorials.

Thus the Egyptian theology embraced much that remained of patriarchal faith-the first religion of the world. In fact the name of the great god, Amon, Hamon, or Khem, is but a disguised form of the name of their prime father-Ham. The Mosaic economy had many similar elements-in its ark, cherubim, and priesthood. Not that there was a direct imitation on the part of Moses, but in Egypt the worship of very ancient times had been perpetuated to some extent, though it was disfigured with many corruptions, so that those rites which had been polluted by idolatrous abuse had to be repurified and set apart to their original purpose. This reconsecration of portions of the Egyptian ritual was the more necessary among a people who had been so long trained to the national superstitions of the land of the Pharaohs, and needed to be gradually weaned from their seductive idolatries. The manners and peculiarities of Egypt shed a new light over many portions of the sacred volume. The Egypt of Scripture is a real country, and every allusion to it has been amply verified. Pharaoh serves Jehovah; and in hundreds of instances the wonders and monuments of the great valley of the Nile confirm and illustrate the Hebrew oracles.

In conclusion, what a startling contrast modern Egypt presents to ancient Egypt! What a melancholy change has passed over the country from the period of the visits of Plato and Pythagoras to those

of Wilkinson and Lepsius! From Sesostris to Mehemet Ali, how The contrast.
terrible its reverses- -from Cambyses to Bonaparte, how proud and
unsparing its invaders! Its meagre population have sunk into
degradation and slavery, while a series of foreign despots have
robbed the trembling peasantry of the fruit of their toil. The works
of ancient and patriotic art, so essential to agricultural prosperity,
have been long neglected; and the national, monuments fast crumbling
to ruin, are desecrated and plundered by the inquisitive stranger.
The abodes of the dead have been eagerly ransacked, and the coveted
relics occupy a cherished and prominent place in the great museums
of Europe. Nay, mummies and coffins, not excepting those of the
Pharaohs, and their royal kindred, form a frequent and favourite fuel
to the Arab squatter, who prepares his meals on these strange and
sacrilegious fires. The world's greatness is transient-man's glory
speedily fades-

"Nor man alone, his breathing bust expires-
His tomb is mortal-empires die.'

And yet what country attracts such notice as this scene of wide and varied ruins. Even at the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations in London, one of the objects of foreign artistic curiosity is a book on "Ancient Egypt," by Dr. Schwartze, and published by Barth at Leipzig. It is described in the catalogue as printed in twenty-seven languages-being the first instance of hieroglyphics executed in print-the work having been accomplished by means of more than three thousand stamps cut for the purpose."

ments.

GEOGRAPHY OF ASSYRIA.

The mighty empires of the East equal, if they do not surpass, the Antiquity. splendours of the Egyptian monarchy; and they lay claim to an equal antiquity. Satisfied with those tracts of country which formed the original haunts of mankind, and lay so close upon the mountain whence Noah descended from the stranded ark, their founders needed not to perform a long or tedious pilgrimage in search of new settleThe Gordiaean mountains are probably the Ararat of Scripture,' and they lie in the vicinity of Nineveh. The fertile plains watered by the Tigris and Euphrates naturally attracted the postdiluvian tribes, and Babylon and Nineveh soon came into existence. Assyria, properly so called, in 36° N. lat. was bounded on the Boundaries. north by Armenia, on the west by the river Tigris, on the south by Babylonia, and on the east was separated from Media by a chain of mountains, called Mount Zagrus, now Tag-aighi. The dominions of the Assyrian monarchy consisted of many small provinces, the most noted of which were the following:-1. Arapachitis, bordering on Armenia. 2. Corduem, a mountainous territory, the ancient residence of the Carduchi, mentioned by Xenophon in his "Anabasis." 3. Adiabene, in Strabo's time the most considerable province in