of every person's estate, obtained for Sesostris the credit of having been the first to intersect the plains of Egypt with canals, and of having introduced the science of mensuration and land surveying. Herodotus supposes that Egypt, "previous to his reign, was conveniently adapted to those who travelled on horses or in carriages," and that afterwards it became disagreeable to traverse the country on horseback, and utterly impossible in chariots; but as many dykes were raised, as at present, to facilitate the communication from one town to another, and as the journey along the edge of the desert is not only more commodious, but shorter, for those who go by land from Lower to Upper Egypt, neither Sesostris nor his predecessors were guilty of the great impediments complained of by the historian. Nor is it probable that this monarch was the first to suggest the expediency of ascertaining the quantity of land irrigated by the rising Nile, or the justice of proportioning the taxes to the benefits derived from its fertilising influence; and however we may be inclined to believe that geometry may have originated in Egypt, in consequence of the necessity of ascertaining the changes which annually take place on the banks of the Nile, we cannot suppose that no means were devised for this purpose previous to his reign.

Sesostris is reported to have raised a wall on the east side of Egypt*, extending from Pelusium

*In my Egypt and Thebes (p. 368.) I have shown that Voltaire is wrong in the inference he draws from this fact.

along the edge of the desert by Heliopolis*, 1500 stadia in length, or about 187 Roman miles; and that such a wall was actually made by one of the Egyptian monarchs, we have positive proof from the vestiges which remain in different parts of the valley. It was not confined to Lower Egypt, or to the east of the Delta, from Pelusium to Heliopolis, but continued to the Ethiopian frontier at Syene; and though the increase of the alluvial deposit has almost concealed it in the low lands overflowed during the inundation by the waters of the Nile, it is traced in many of the higher parts, especially when founded upon the rocky eminences bordering the river. The modern Egyptians have several idle legends respecting this wall, some of which ascribe it to a king anxious to prevent an obnoxious stranger from intruding on the retirement of his beautiful daughter: and the name applied to it is Gisr el Agoós, or "the old man's dyke." It is of crude brick; the principal portion that remains may be seen at Gebel e'Tayrt, a little below Minyeh; and I have even traced small fragments of the same kind of building on the western side of the valley, particularly in the Fyoom.

Of the humane character of the ancient Egyptians, we have several strong proofs; but, if we may trust the authority of Diodorus ‡ and Pliny S,

* Diod. (i. 57.) says to Heliopolis.

I have already noticed it in my Egypt and Thebes, p. 367.
Diod. i. 58.

Plin. xxxiii. 15. "Sesostri Ægypti rege, tam superbo, ut prodatur annis quibusque sorte reges singulos e subjectis jungere ad currum solitus, atque ita triumphare."

Sesostris tarnished his glory by an act of great oppression, compelling captive monarchs to draw his chariot as he proceeded to celebrate his triumph. And the Theban artists have not been ashamed to introduce a similar instance of cruelty in the sculptures of the temple at Medeenet Haboo, representing the triumphal return of Remeses III.*, after his conquests in the Eastern war: where three captives are tied beneath the axle of his chariot, while others bound with ropes walk by his horse's side, to be presented to the deity of the place. +

The latter days of Sesostris were embittered by the misfortune of losing his sight, which so affected him that he put a period to his existence: an act far from being considered unworthy of a pious and good man, but looked upon by his subjects, and even by the priests themselves, as becoming a hero admired by men and beloved by the gods, whose merited gifts of eternal happiness he had hastened to enjoy.

He was succeeded by his son, the Pheron of Herodotus, the Sesoosis II. of Diodorus, and the Nuncoreus of Pliny. Like his father, he was affected by a weakness of the eyes, which terminated in total blindness: but though it continued during eleven years, he at length recovered, owing more probably to some operation which the noted skill of the Egyptian surgeons had suggested, than to the ridiculous cause assigned by Herodotus. Diodorus and Pliny both agree with the historian * And of Osirei, at Karnak. + Vide Plate I.