PART I. a regular government and polices. This early population and improvement Egypt owed, like Assyria to the fertility of its soil. Fattened by the annual overflowing of the waters of the Nile (which prepares the land for the reception of the seed with little assistance of tillage), the immense vale of Egypt, extending from the mountains of Ethiopia to the Mediterranean sea, and from the deserts of Arabia to those of Libya, furnished food for man in profusion. There the tropical plants thrive, with many of those more commonly found in colder climates; and there all kinds of grain, wheat and barley as well as rice, yielded large increase1oo In a territory so highly favoured by nature, the social principle must quickly have ripened; and the mutual wants of men assembled in society, and their mutual desire of multiplying the accommodations of life, and of guarding against the evils inseparable from mortality, would soon give birth to all the useful, and even to many of the ornamental arts. The sciences, intimately connected with the arts, it may be expected, would also rear their head: so, we find, they 98. Genesis, chap. xxxvii. xl. xli. et seq. Exod. chap. i-xiv. Herodot. lib. ii. et Diod. Sicul. lib. i. passim. See also Dr. Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, book iv. sect. i.—iv. et auct. cit. 99. "The countries on the Tigris and the Nile," says Sir Isaac New ton, "being exceeding fertile, were first frequented by mankind, and first 'grew into kingdoms.” (Chron. of Ancient Kingdoms amended, p. 160.) In proof of this great natural fertility, see Herodotus and Diodorus, ubi sup. and Pliny, lib. xxi. cap. xv. 100. Idem. ibid. This fine country, about six hundred miles in length, and near three hundred at its greatest breadth, is divided by geographers into Higher, Lower, and Middle Egypt. Of these divisions, I shall afterward have occasion to speak. I shall therefore only here remark, that Higher Egypt, in ancient times, was generally known by the name of Thebais, and that the whole three divisions lie between the twentysecond and thirty-third degrees of northern latitude. 1. did. But the sciences most successfully cultivated in LETTER Egypt, were those of government and legislation. And fortunate is it for us, in treating of the affairs of this venerable country, that, although left in a great measure ignorant of the history of the old Egyptian monarchs, we are amply furnished with information relative to the laws and constitution of the kingdom over which they ruled. Menes, the first sole monarch of Egypt, and the first legislator who regulated religious worship, and gave written laws to the Egyptians1o2, appears to have been an adept in the science of human nature. In order to procure implicit submission to his laws, he pretended they were delivered to him, for the good of the people, by the god Hermes1o3; and on purpose to restrain the wanderings of carnal appetite, and give stability to the amorous passion, he instituted the law of marriage, and placed the nuptial union under the sanction of the altar104. That law, my lord, suggests to us a curious subject of disquisition; the original connexion between the sexes: and I cannot dismiss it without hazarding a few remarks. 101. Menes, according to Herodotus (lib. ii. cap. iv.), was the first mortal that reigned in Egypt; for the Egyptians vainly exhibited a genealogy of immortal princes, supposed originally to have ruled over them, and whom they afterward worshipped as gods (Herodot. lib. ii. cap. cxliv. Diod. Sicul. lib. i. init.); and all ancient chronologers agree, that Menes, or Menas, was the first sovereign that exercised dominion over the whole land of Egypt. Nor were his territories very extensive; for if we may believe the report of the Egyptian priests, all Lower Egypt was then a morass (Herodot. lib. ii. cap. iv.), and the greater part of it entirely covered by the waters of the sea. Id. ibid. 102. Diod. Sicul. lib. i. p. 84. edit. ubi cit. 103. Id. ibid. 104. Palæph. ap. Clem. Alex. p. 45. Suidas, voc. "Hpaisos. VOL. I. F The The respect paid by all ancient nations to the memory of the institutors of the law of marriage, and the solemn rites, with which the nuptial ceremony is accompanied, have led to a popular opinion, that the intercourse between the sexes in the human species, was originally promiscuous, like that of grazing cattle. Hence the well known comparison of Horace, ut in grege taurus105; which may be thus paraphrased: "With women men, like bulls among the herd, But this representation, which makes the state of nature, a state of prostitution, is equally, contradicted by reason and experience. As man is by nature a herding, he is also a paring animal. He singles out one woman from a multitude of others, where such an opportunity of choice is offered: he endeavours to win her regard by courtship and kind offices; and he has little satisfaction in her arms, unless when convinced that he gives, as well as receives pleasure, in the conjugal embrace 106. Nor is he disposed to abandon her during her pregnancy, or in the time of child-birth; but is happy in propagating his species, and prides himself in multiplying his own likeness, and that of the partner of his affections. In a word, as the assistance of both parents is necessary to the rearing of the human offspring, condemned to a long and helpless infancy, Nature, in order to accomplish her purpose, has endowed both with that sympathic attachment called LOVE, 105. Satirar. lib. i. sat. iii. ver. 110. 106. "Were this belief to be taken away," observes the philosophic Shaftesbury, "there would be hardly any, even of the grosser sort of mankind, who would not perceive their remaining pleasure to be of "small estimation." Characteristics, vol. ii. book ii. part ii. sect. i. without I. without which the race must have become extinct. LETTER We accordingly find the union of the sexes, and nuptial ceremonies, universal among savages107, But although the union of the sexes is formed by instinct in the savage state, the sacred matrimonial tie is nevertheless necessary, for the preservation of order in society. As civil and criminal laws, respecting property and personal safety, are required, to restrain the excesses of the selfish and irascible passions; to fortify, not to create, the sense of justice, or the sentiment of humanity; in like manner, the laws concerning marriage, and the connexion between the sexes, are requisite to curb the irregularities of libidinous desire, and the intemperance of the sexual passion; which, in proportion to the increase of luxury, become prurient and variable. Hence the wisdom of the Egyptian legislator, in confining one man to one woman, agreeable to the intention of nature108. Having thus discovered the origin of marriage, and the policy of such an institution, let us inquire after the rise of civil government. As the first social connexion is that of husband and wife, the first civil superiority is that of a father over 107. Hist. Gen des Voyages et Picart's Relig. Ceremon. passim, with the authors there cited. If the narration of any traveller, or navigator, seems to contradict this opinion, it will generally be found supported by some other more worthy of credit. The subject is set in a just light by Dr. Robertson. Hist. of America, book iv. 108. Herodotus pointedly asserts (lib. ii. cap. xciv.), that the Egyptians, like the Greeks, had only one wife. Now the law of marriage, as we shall have occasion to see, was brought from Egypt into Greece; where it was universally established upon Egyptian principles, and according to the practice of an Egyptian colony. Yet Diodorus Siculus tells us (lib. i. p. 72.), that the Egyptian priests only were confiued PART I over his family. Nature, therefore, points us to patriarchal rule, as the original government among men. For although a father has no natural right to govern his sons, after they have attained the years of manhood, they will find it necessary to recur to some person for the arbitration of their common differences. And who is so likely to be chosen for that purpose, as their common parent?-They have been habituated in infancy, to submit to his authority: he has settled their boyish disputes; and they have wondered at the strength of his understanding, while their own was weak. Early impressions are not easily eradicated. His counsel is sought; and to him they are led to appeal, not only from a persuasion of his superior wisdom, but from a conviction that his decisions will be just, because he is equally concerned in the welfare of all. To him, as their common head, his offspring look up; and he exercises, during life, the joint office of governor and judge. The farther progress of government, it is not more difficult to trace. Families naturally grew into tribes; held together by common consanguinity; and of which the head of the eldest family, in each tribe, was revered as chief. When exposed to danger from foreign enemies, or induced by considerations of mutual advantage, two or more tribes united into confined to one wife, and that the laity might take as many wives as they pleased. But if such a custom prevailed in Egypt, in the days of Diodorus, it must have been introduced after the final conquest of that kingdom by the Persians, among whom a plurality of wives was tolerated. For Herodotus was too well acquainted with the manners of the Egyptians, among whom he had long resided, to be mistaken in such a material circumstance; consequently, men of all orders, in Egypt, had only one within his time. Nor could the Egyptians, in more early times, have communicated to the Greeks a law or custom, which was not in general use among them, and then held sacred. one |