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sow in October and November, according as the waters draw off; and their harvest is in March and April. The same land, in one year, produces three or four different kinds of crops. Lettuces and cucumbers are sown first; then corn; and after harvest, several kinds of pulse, which are peculiar to Egypt.

4. As the riches of Egypt depend on the inundation of the Nile, all the circumstances and different degrees of its increase have been carefully considered; and by a long series of regular observation, made during many years, the inundation itself discovered what kind of harvest the ensuing year was likely to produce. The kings had placed at Memphis a measure on which these different increases were marked; and from thence notice was given to all the rest of Egypt, the inhabitants of which knew by that means, beforehand, what they might fear or promise themselves from the harvest.

5. The same custom is preserved to this day at Grand Cairo. In the court of a mosque, there stands a pillar on which are marked the degrees of the Nile's increase; and common criers every day proclaim, in all parts of the city, how high it is risen. The tribute paid to the Grand Seignior for the lands is settled by the inundation. The day it rises to such a height is kept as a grand festival, and solemnized with fire works, feastings, and all the demonstrations of public rejoicing; and in the remote ages the overflowing of the Nile was always attended with an universal joy throughout all Egypt, that being the foundation of its happi

ness.

6. There cannot be a finer sight than Egypt at two seasons of the year. For if a man ascends some mountain, or one of the largest pyramids of Grand Cairo, in the months July and August, he beholds a vast sea, in which numberless towns and villages appear, with several causeways leading from place to place; the whole interspersed with groves and fruit trees, whose tops only are visible; all which forms a delightful prospect. This view is bounded by mountains and woods, which terminate, at the utmost distance the eye can discover, the most beautiful horizon that can be imagined.

At what time do the Egyptians generally sow their seed?-Do they obtain more than one crop?-In what way are they able to determine the quantity of crops beforehand?

On the contrary, in winter, that is to say, in the months of January and February, the whole country is like one continued scene of beautiful meadows, whose verdure, enamelled with flowers, charms the eye. The spectator beholds, on every side, flocks and herds dispersed over all the plains with infinite numbers of husbandmen and gardeners. The air is then perfumed by the great quantity of blossoms on the orange, lemon, and other trees; and is so pure, that a wholesomer or more agreeable is not found in the world; so that nature being then dead as it were in all other climates, seems to be alive only for so delightful an abode.

7. Long has my curious soul, from early youth,
Toil'd in the noble search of sacred truth;
But still no views have urg'd my ardor more,
Than Nile's remotest fountain to explore.

Then say, what source the famous stream supplies,

And bids it at revolving periods rise;

Show me that head from whence, since time begun,
The long succession of his waves has run.

This let me know, and all my toils shall cease,

The sword be sheath'd, and earth be blessed with peace.

THE PROGRESS OF WRITING.

1. PICTURES were undoubtedly the first essay towards writ ing. Imitation is so natural to man, that in all ages, and among all nations, some methods have obtained of copying or tracing the likeness of sensible objects. Those methods would be soon employed by men, for giving some imperfect information to others at a distance, of what had happened; or for preserving the memory of facts, which they sought to record. Thus, to signify that one man killed another, they drew the figure of one man stretched upon the earth, and of another standing by him with a deadly weapon in his hand.

2. We find, in fact, that when America was first discovered, this was the only sort of writing known in the kingdom

What was probably the first essay towards writing?-How would one, killing another, have been represented?

of Mexico. By historical pictures, the Mexicans are said to have transmitted the memory of the most important transactions of their empire. These, however, must have been extremely imperfect records; and the nations who had no other must have been very gross and rude. Pictures could do no more than delineate external events. They could neither exhibit the connexions of them, nor describe such qualities as were not visible to the eye, nor convey an idea of the dispositions or words of men.

3. To supply, in some degree, this defect, there arose, in process of time, the invention of what are called hieroglyphical characters; which may be considered as the second. stage of the art of writing. Hieroglyphics consist in certain symbols which are made to stand for invisible objects, on account of an analogy or resemblance which some symbols were supposed to bear to the objects. Thus, an eye was the hieroglyphical symbol of knowledge; a circle, of eternity, which has neither beginning nor end. Hieroglyphics, therefore, were a more refined and extensive species of painting. Pictures delineated the resemblance of external visible objects, by analogies taken from the external world.

4. Egypt was the country where this sort of writing was most studied, and brought into a regular art. In hieroglyphics, they conveyed all the boasted wisdom of their priests. According to the properties which they ascribed to animals, or qualities with which they supposed natural objects to be endued, they pitched upon them to be the emblems or hieroglyphics of moral objects; and employed them in their writing for that end. Thus, ingratitude was denominated by a viper; imprudence, by a fly; wisdom, by an ant; victory, by a hawk; a dutiful child, by a stork; a man universally shunned, by an eel, which they supposed to be found in company with no other fish. Sometimes they joined together two or more of these hieroglyphical characters; as, a serpent with a hawk's head, to denote nature, with God presiding over it. 5. From hieroglyphics, or symbols of things invisible,

Were pictures a perfect representation of facts?-What method of writing next succeeded pictures? What are hieroglyphics?-How was knowledge represented ?-How was eternity? Where was this sort of writing most used?-How did the Egyptians represent ingratitude?-How imprudence ?-How wisdom?How victory ?-How a dutiful child?How a man universally shunned?

writing advanced, among some nations, to simple arbitrary marks, which stood for objects, though without any resemblance or analogy to the objects signified. Of this nature was the method of writing among the Peruvians. They made use of small cords of different colors; and by knots on these, of various sizes, and differently ranged, they contrived signs for giving information, and communicating their thoughts to one another.

6. Of this nature, also, are the written characters which are used to this day throughout the great empire of China. The Chinese have no alphabet of letters, or simple sounds, which compose their words. But every single character which they use in writing is significant of an idea; it is a mark that stands for some one thing or object. By conscquence, the number of their characters must be immense. It must correspond to the whole number of objects or ideas which they have occasion to express; that is, to the whole number of words which they employ in speech. They are said to have seventy thousand of these characters. To read and write them to perfection, is the study of a whole life; which subjects learning among them to infinite disadvantage, and must have greatly retarded the progress of all science.

THE TROJAN WAR.

1. It is generally agreed, that a hereditary enmity had subsisted between the Greeks and Trojans. Paris, the son of Priam, the most beautiful man of his time, having been allured by the fame of Helen, the queen of Sparta, went over into Greece, and visited the Spartan court. Helen is celebrated by the poets as possessing every personal charm in its highest perfection, and as the most perfect beauty of ancient times. Her susceptible heart was too easily captivated by the artful address and polished manners of the perfidious Paris. She listened to his insinuations, and, lost to a sense of honor and duty, she made her escape with him, and took refuge amidst the towers of Troy.

What method of writing succeeded hieroglyphics, and was used by the Peruvians?What nation now has no other language than arbitrary characters?-How many of these characters are the Chinese said to inve?-What occasioned the Trojan war?

2. The king of Sparta, stung with the treachery of his beauteous queen, whom he adored, and enraged at the baseness and perfidy of the Trojan prince, to whom he had shown all the rights of hospitality, loudly complained of the injury, and appealed to the justice of his countrymen. His brother Agamemnon, the most powerful prince of Greece, seconded his complaints, and used his influence and authority to rouse the resentment of the whole extensive confederation. He succeeded; for the princes and people of Greece, no less wounded in their pride than stung with a sense of the atrocious villany, determined to extinguish the flames of their resentment in the blood of Priam and his people, who refused to restore the illustrious fugitive.

3. A powerful army was accordingly sent to wage war with the Trojans ; but the enterprise was found to be attended with unforeseen difficulties. The Trojans were a brave and gallant people, of considerable resources, and very great courage. Hector, the son of Priam, equalled only by Achilles, commanded the Trojans, and often disputed the field of victory with invincible bravery and various success; and when, after the death of Hector, the Trojans could no longer keep the field, the city of Troy was defended by lofty towers and impregnable walls.

4. The fortune of Greece prevailed; not however by arms, but by stratagem. The Greeks, worn out by a war of ten years, determined to risk their hopes on one desperate effort, which, if successful, would end the war in victory; if not, would exterminate all hope of conquest for the present, if not for ever. They made preparations for returning home, embarked in their ships, and set sail; but they left near the city a wooden horse of vast size, in which was enclosed a band of their bravest heroes. This image, they pretended as an offering to the goddess Minerva, to be placed in the Trojan citadel. To give effect to this stratagem, Sinon was despatched over to the Trojans, with an artful and fictitious story, pretending he had made his escape from the Greeks. The superstition of the times gave them complete success. The whim struck the Trojans favorably. They laid open their walls, and, by various means, dragged the baneful monster, pregnant with destruction, into the city.

Who commanded the Trojans ?-How was Troy finally taken?

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