BOOK II. THE GREAT MONARCHIES OF THE EAST. FROM THE EARLIEST EGYPTIAN TRADITIONS TO THE N.B.-The Note respecting the early Chronology, on page 1, needs repetition here, especially as the computed Egyptian chronology goes back beyond the date assigned by Ussher to the Flood. The dates given in the two Chapters, VI. and VII., are merely intended to represent the opinions of Egyptologers. A similar remark applies to the early Babylonian chronology in Chapter IX. CONTENTS OF BOOK II. CHAP. VI. THE HISTORY OF EGYPT TO THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. VII. THE HISTORY OF EGYPT FROM THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. VIII. HISTORY OF THE HEBREW THEOCRACY AND MONARCHY. IX.—THE CHALDEAN, ASSYRIAN, AND BABYLONIAN EMPIRES. X. THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE TO DARIUS HYSTASPIS. ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT. CHAPTER VI. THE HISTORY OF EGYPT TO THE SHEPHERD INVASION. B.C. 2717? TO B.C. 2080? "Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last, when Egypt's fall."-YOUNG. 69 ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT-NAMES OF THE COUNTRY-GEOGRAPHY OF EGYPT-THE NILE—ITS INUNDATION-LIMITS AND AREA OF EGYPT-ANCIENT CONDITION AND PRODUCTIONSADVANTAGES OF ITS POSITION-RELATION TO ITS NEIGHBOURS-ORIGINAL POPULATION —A MIXED RACE, CHIEFLY HAMITIO-AUTHORITIES-SCRIPTURE-GREEK WRITERSMONUMENTS AND PAPYRI-EGYPTIAN WRITING-MANETHO-ASTRONOMICAL RECORDS― DATE OF THE PYRAMIDS-EGYPTIAN TECHNICAL CHRONOLOGY-HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY -TRADITIONAL HISTORY-RULE OF THE GODS FIRST DYNASTY: MENES-SECOND DYNASTY QUEEN NITOCRIS-MEMPHITE DYNASTIES: THIRD, FOURTH, AND SIXTH— HIGH STATE OF CIVILIZATION-HERACLEOPOLITE DYNASTIES: NINTH AND TENTHTHEBAN KINGDOM: ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH DYNASTIES-INVASION OF THE SHEPHERDS-MONUMENTS OF THE EARLY PHARAOHS-PYRAMIDS AND TOMBS-EGYPTIAN BELIEF CONCERNING THE DEAD-DESCRIPTION OF THE PYRAMIDS. Or the two regions in which the race of Ham founded the earliest known kingdoms and made the first advances in learning and civilization, namely, the valley of the Nile and that of the Tigris and the Euphrates, we must allow Egypt the precedence in antiquity. The mere claim of the people to be the oldest among mankind is, indeed, of little more value than the strange experiment of Psammetichus to test its truth. That king of Egypt, Herodotus tells us, caused two new-born children to be brought up in a hut, upon the milk of goats, with no other attendant than the goatherd, who was forbidden to utter a word in their presence. When they had passed the age of inarticulate mutterings, the herdsman was one day astonished to see the children toddle up to him crying bekos. But when this had happened often, and the king had found upon inquiry that bekos was the Phrygian for bread, the experiment seemed decisive. That the Egyptians, upon such evidence as this, yielded the honour of antiquity to the Phrygians, would have been altogether incredible, had not the historian related the test as if he himself believed in its value. And yet we can hardly tell, in this and other instances, how much sly humour is hidden under the quiet gravity of Herodotus. Very different is the real evidence for the antiquity of the nation, its government, and its civilization. While the sacred |