they were not absolute masters of the island; a memorial of which last circumstance still exists perhaps in the name of the Castle of St. Angelo, one of the most important parts of the fortifications of Malta. 8 Il. 112,

—δ' απίθησε Γερήνιος ιππότα Νέστωρ Νεστορέας μεν επειθ' ιππες θεράποντε κομείτην Ιφθιμοι Σθενελος τε και Ευρυμέδων αγαπήνωρ Τω δ' εις αμφοτερω Διομήδεος αρματα βητην Νεστωρ δ' εν χειρεσσι λαβ' ηνια.

Another country, which our ancestors thought it necessary to possess, in order to secure their influence in India and China, or at least in order to have a ready access to those countries, was Egypt itself.

sense, the

This country was, in a confined very object of the war of the Iliad; it was Πρίαμε πολις, Ilium or Troy, and when a poet of antiquity used this expression, seges ubi Troja fuit, I conceive his intention to have been to insinuate that the ancient Troy was, in part at least, and in a poetical view, constituted by the fertility of the corn-bearing plains of the Delta of

Egypt. It seems to me, however, that there is no country, concerning which more mistaken notions are entertained, than in regard to Egypt. It is commonly imagined that in old times it abounded in the finest cities in the world; whereas, if we except Alexandria, Rosetta, Cairo, Benesuef, Siut, and Girgé, it contained scarcely another city of any note; and when one considers the singularity of its position, in the midst of vast deserts, with only a narrow stripe of cultivable land on the banks of the Nile, and with only the inconsiderable ports of Alexandria and Rosetta, it is really surprizing that so many cities as those should be found there. True it is that many, many temples remain there, the pride of art, the memorials of grandeur, the wonders of the world; but they are altogether insulated; whereas, it cannot be doubted, that if cities had ever existed in their neighbourhood, the ruins of such cities would still be found at their sides. In the Morea; on the coasts of Sicily; on the northern coast of Africa, are scattered multitudes of ruins, which attest the existence in ancient

times of splendid cities, depopulated either by the sword, the plague, or pestilence; and noscenda ruinis, is an expression used by Lucretius, that intimates such remains might be well expected to be found. It is true accordingly, that in India also, a country which has been remarkably subject to political changes, there yet remain the evidences of many ruined cities. Among the frequent notices of such, taken by Mr. Hodges in his Travels, the following instance may be selected. 66 Agra is supposed to be a place of high antiquity; the whole space, or scite of the city, is one mass of ruins.-It was impossible to contemplate the ruins of this grand and venerable city, without feeling the deepest impressions of melancholy. I am indeed well informed, that the ruins extend along the banks of the river, (the Jumna,) not less than fourteen English miles," p. 117.

Denon, in the following passage in p. 243 of his Travels, expresses his very natural astonishment at not finding similar remains in Egypt. "Si la magnificence de l'interieur des maisons

étoit analogue au faste de ces habitations ulterieures, comme on le doit croire d'après les beaux meubles peints dans les tombeaux des rois, qu'il est à regretter de n'en retrouver aucun vestige! Que sont devenues ces maisons qui renfermoient ces richesses? comment ont-elles disparu? elles ne peuvent être sous le limon du Nil, puisque le quai qui est devant Luxor atteste que le sol n'a éprouvé qu'une elevation peu considerable. Etoient-elles en briques non cuites? les grands comme les prêtres habitoient-ils les temples? et le peuple n'avoit-il que des tentes?"- Denon, on another occasion, expressing himself at a loss to conceive why nothing is to be seen in Egypt but temples, is contented with attributing them to the influence of the priesthood; but if, as is highly probable, Egypt was in ancient times considered and treated only as a commodious channel of communication, a mere thoroughfare between Europe and the East, I cannot but think, that by repeating here a passage from one of the dissertations before referred to, (printed and distributed in January, 1806,) the difficulty in ques

tion will be greatly diminished. The passage is this: "Encore des temples!" says Denon, p. 176, after expressing the same surprize in the page preceding, "toujours des temples! et point de quais, ni de ponts, point de thermes, point de theâtres, pas un edifice d'utilité ou de commodité publique: j' observois avec soin, je cherchois même, et je ne voyois que des temples, des murailles couvertes d'emblêmes obscurs, d'hieroglyphes qui attestoient l' ascendant des prêtres, qui sembloient dominer encore sur toutes ces ruines." Yet if, as I have elsewhere expressed myself to suspect, (viz. in this place, in treating of Homer,) Egypt in the most ancient times was the natural possession of the English, the natural masters of the sea; if the same dominion of the sea would in course possess them of the commerce of the East (in one way to which Egypt lay); if the opulence arising from that commerce would furnish abundant funds, and the generosity of our forefathers, after carrying all the arts and sciences to perfection themselves, gave them the wish to transmit the remembrance of their