ship of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack45.' That Arabia, a country, as Mr. Gibbon observes, encompassed by the most civilised nations of the ancient world should never have adopted foreign manners, nor have been subdued by a foreign power, as the prophecy leads us to expect, is surely an extraordinary fact; and which no human foresight could predict. But although we should not be authorised in denying, that any natural causes exist, which have operated in a manner highly favorable to the independence of the Arabs; it may at the same time be remarked, that if the Deity foresaw, that their independence would upon the whole promote those schemes of benevolence, and those measures of government, which are best suited to this lower world, and this state of imperfection and discipline, and if he thought fit to predict that independence; it is by no means unreasonable to suppose, that, in order to prevent the subjugation of Arabia, he would, were the intervention necessary, arrest the arm of conquest, and baffle the best concerted schemes of policy. The prediction relative to the Arabs, recorded in Genesis, plainly intimates the preservation of national independence. The prophecy on the fate of the neighboring country of Egypt, which I am next to illustrate, announces a very different event. Egypt, says Ezekiel in ch. xxix4, shall be a base kingdom. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms: neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. And again in the following chapter, I will sell the land into the hands of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt. The language of the prediction is not dark and doubtful, but peremptory and explicit. To history, 46 Vol. IX. p. 239. 48 V. 12, 13.1 45 Gibbon, vol. IX. p. 230. " therefore, and not to verbal criticism, it is necessary to recur for its illustration. This remarkable prophecy, according to Prideaux, was pronounced by Ezekiel in the year 587 B. C49. It was in a great degree fulfilled in the year 571, when Egypt, at that time torn by intestine division and civil war, was invaded by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; and it approached still nearer to its complete accomplishment in the year 525, when the Egyptians were subdued by the arms of Cambysus, the son of Cyrus. But there is reason to think, that it was not intended to receive its perfect completion antecedently to the year 3505%, when Egypt was completely reduced by Ochus into a province of the Persian empire. From this year to the present time, 2144 years have elapsed and certainly it is not a little extraordinary, that, notwithstanding the great length of this period, and the numerous revolutions which in the course of it have been accomplished in Egypt, not a single prince of Egyptian origin has ever been raised, even for a short interval, to the throne of the country. It surely was not to have been expected, that, amidst a crowd of political changes, and the greatest reverses of fortune, the natives of the country should never once have had the good fortune to succeed in establishing even a transient independence. Satisfactorily to account for the existence of this prophecy, and its corresponding fulfilment, on the supposition that it is a sally of enthusiasm, or an invention of imposture, is not a task of very easy accomplisment. At the promulgation of this prophecy, Egypt had been governed, with little interruption, by its native princes; and the general tenor of the Egyptian annals evinced, that, 49 Connect. of the Old and New Test. vol. I. fol. p. 67. According to the chronology of Blair, Ezekiel commenced his prophetic office in the year 593, B. C: according to Prideaux in the year 594. 50 These three dates are taken from the chronological tables of Blair and archbishop Usher, who are in agreement with Prideaux, excepting that he places the invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar two years ear. lier. in point of fertility, populousness, and power", it deserved to be ranked among the most favored as well as independent nations. Nature also had separated it from every other country; and it was by no means peculiarly exposed to insult and attack. On the contrary, its geographical boundaries, no less than its past history, seemed to promise a long continuance of national prosperity. Such was its situation that it was more than usually sheltered from invasion, and seemed naturally designed to constitute a great and independent nation. On no side was Egypt touched by any powerful empire. Being, indeed, surrounded by the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the deserts of Africa, un 51 As Egypt,' says Mr. Bryant, was one of the most ancient, so was it one of the most extensive kingdoms, that for many ages subsisted in the world.-Egypt seems to have been respectable from the beginning; and the most early accounts, that we can arrive at, bear witness of its eminence and power. And he mentions a number of circumstances, which, he says, must raise in us a high idea of the affluence and power which this knowing people were possessed of.' Observations upon the Ancient History of the Egyptians, 4to. 1767, p. 101. 52 That impervious country' is the expression by which Mr. Gibbon characterises Egypt (vol. VIII. p. 222); and speaking of the difficulties which the forces of the caliph Omar had to surmount in its conquest, he elsewhere says, the cities of Egypt were many and populous ;' their architecture was strong and solid;' and the Nile, with its numerous branches, was alone an insuperable barrier' (vol. IX. p. 428.). After writing the observations in the text, I met with the following remarks of Bochart. Egypt was anciently called the land of Mizraim; and this word is the dual of masor, which signifies a fortified place. • Nor,' says Bochart, is there any region more secure from its natural situation.' "From the fortified nature of the country it appears," says Diodorus, greatly to surpass those tracts of territory which are marked out for sovereignty." And in what follows he proves this by a long induction of particulars. Namely, on the west, it has an inaccessible desert; on the south, the cataracts of the Nile and the mountains of Ethiopia; on the east, also a desert, and the Serbønian bog, and sinking sands; towards the north, a sea almost destitute of any port: for from Joppa in Phænicia even unto Parætonium in Lybia there is no port excepting Pharos. After Diodorus had stated these circumstances at large, he thus concludes: Egypt then is on all sides fenced in by natural fortifications." Of these things he treats in the 1st book. And in the xvth, speaking of Nectanebis, king of Egypt, at the time the Persians were approaching, he says, 6 like other countries, it had scarcely any reason to guard against the approach of danger, excepting from a single point, namely from the isthmus of Suez, which joins Africa to Asia, and reaches from the Red Sea to the most Eastern mouth of the Niles. Egypt also, though no where of any great breadth, was notwithstanding a country of very respectable size. Its whole extent from north to south was,' says Mr. Bryant, computed to be about 600 miles? Knowlege, it has been observed, is power; and therefore the disciplined armies of civilised and enlightened nations, though comparatively inconsiderable in point of number, have often conquered countries of great extent, when inhabited by a people involved in barbarism. But it can never be urged, that Egypt was likely to be subdued on account of its marked inferiority to other countries in knowlege, or the discoveries of science, in maxims of policy and government, or the practice of the useful arts. Egypt, on the contrary, was greatly celebrated for its wisdom;ss "but he most of all confided in the fortified nature of the country, since Egypt is on all sides difficult of access. Thus also Strabo, in his xvith book. "Even from the beginning Egypt was extremely tranquil, because it had every thing it wanted within itself, and it was difficult of access to foreigners." And this he afterwards demonstrates by the same arguments by which Diodorus had proved it.' Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 24. Both Strabo and Diodorus Siculus had travelled into Egypt. Not very different is the statement of a modern traveller, though comprised in fewer words. Egypt,' says Volney, is protected from a foreign enemy, on the landside, by her deserts, and on that of the sea, by her dangerous coast.' Travels, vol. II. p. 363. 6 53 Pelusium, which stood at the entrance into Egypt, and at one extremity of the isthmus of Suez, was situated, says Mr. Bryant, upon the extremity of Arabia; from whence extended a vast desert, not fit for the march or encampment of an army,' but which is destitute of water, and greatly infested by venomous reptiles. Strabo, mentioning the same part of Arabia from the Nile to the Red Sea, represents it as a sandy waste, that could scarcely be passed, except upon camels.-This desert, which began at Pelusium and the Nile, reached in the way to Palestine as far as Gaza, which was situated on the edge of it.' Obs. on the Anc Hist. of Egypt, p. 76–89. 54 Obs. on the Anc. Hist. of Egypt, p. 105. 55 The Egyptians, says Mr. Bryant, were esteemed a very wise and learned people; so that Moses is said to have been learned in all the wis and there was scarcely any part of it, which did not bear an unequivocal testimony to the skilful industry of its inhabitants, and which did not contain some work, distin 101. " dom of the Egyptians? Acts vii. 22. Obs. on the Anc. Hist. of Egypt, p. Egypt,' says Rollin, was ever considered by all the ancients as the most renowned school for wisdom and politics, and the source from whence most arts and sciences were derived. This kingdom bestowed its noblest labors and finest arts on the improving mankind; and Greece was so sensible of this, that its most illustrious men, as Homer, Pythagoras, Plato, even its great legislators, Lycurgus and Solon, with many more whom it is needless to mention, travelled into Egypt to complete their studies, and draw from that fountain whatever was most rare and valuable in every kind of learning-—The Egyptians were the first people who rightly understood the rules of government. A nation so grave and serious immediately perceived, that the true end of politics is to make life easy, and a people happy. The kingdom was hereditary; but, according to Diodorus, the Egyptian princes conducted themselves in a different manner from what is usually seen in other monarchies, where the prince acknowleges no other rule of his actions, but his arbitrary will and pleasure. But here, kings were under greater restraint from the laws than their subjects.' They freely permitted, not only the quality and proportion of their eatables and liquids to be prescribed them (a thing customary in Egypt, the inhabitants of which were all sober, and whose air inspired frugality), but even that all their hours, and almost every action, should be under the regulation of the laws.-Thirty judges were selected out of the principal cities to form a body or assembly for judging the whole kingdom. The prince, in filling these vacancies, chose such as were most renowned for their honesty; and put at their head him who was most distinguished for his knowlege and love of the laws.-Honorably subsisted by the generosity of the prince, they administered justice gratuitously to the people.' But the most excellent circumstance in the laws of the Egyptians was, that every individual, from his infancy, was nurtured in the strictest observance of them.-The virtue in the highest esteem among the Egyptians was gratitude. The glory, which has been given them of being the most grateful of all men, shews, that they were the best formed of any nation for social life.' Anc. Hist. vol. I. 12mo. p. 22-27. This account of Rollin, it must be acknowleged, is too favorably drawn. At the same time it must be admitted, that much which is recorded to their praise is here omitted; and that enough will remain, after a fair subtraction of what is exaggerated, to entitle the Egyptians to be honorably distinguished above almost every other nation of early antiquity. In proof of this, let the whole of the second book of Herodotus be perused, |