that, whenever occasion requires, they may be ready to march immediately, carrying with them nothing else than their bodies. The sixth are the inspectors, whose business it is to pry into all matters that are carried on, and report them privately to the king; for which purpose, in the cities they employ women of the town, and in the army the followers of the camp. They are chosen from the most upright and honourable men. The seventh class are the counsellors and assessors of the king, by whom the government laws and administration are conducted.

It is unlawful either to contract marriages from another caste, or to change one profession or occupation for another, or for one man to undertake more than one, unless the person so doing shall be one of the philosophers, which is permitted on account of their dignity.

Of the governors, some preside over rural, others over civil, others again over military affairs. To the first class is intrusted the inspection of the rivers, and the admeasurements of the fields, after the inundations as in Egypt, and the covered aqueducts by which the water is distributed into channels for the equal supply of all according to their wants. The same have the care of the huntsmen, with the power of dispensing rewards and punishments according to their deserts. They collect also the tribute, and inspect all the arts which are exercised upon the land, as of wrights and carpenters, and the workers of brass and other metals. They also construct the highways, and at every ten

stadia place a milestone, to point out the turnings and distances.

The civil governors are divided into six pentads, some of whom overlook the operative works, and others have charge of all aliens, distributing to them an allowance, and taking cognizance of their lives, if they give them habitations; some they send away, but they take care of the goods of such as happen to die, or are unwell, and bury them when dead. The third class registers the births and deaths, how and when they take place; and this for the sake of the tribute, that no births either of good or evil, nor any deaths, may be unnoticed. The fourth has the care of the tavern keepers and exchanges: these have charge also of the measures and qualities of the goods, that they may be sold according to the proper stamps. Nor is any one permitted to barter more, unless he pay a double tribute. The fifth class presides over the manufactured articles, arranging them, and separating the stamped from the common, the old from the new, and laying a fine upon those who mix them. The sixth and last exacts the tithe of all things sold, with the power of inflicting death on all such as cheat. Each, therefore, has his private duties. But it is the public business of them all to control the private as well as civil affairs of the nation, and to inspect the repairs of the public works, the prices, markets, ports, and temples.

After the civil governors, is the third college, which presides over military affairs, and this in like manner is divided into six pentads, of which the

first is associated with the governor of the fleet; the second, with him who presides over the yokes of oxen, by which the instruments are conveyed, the provisions for themselves and the oxen, and all the other baggage of the army: they have with them, moreover, attendants who play upon drums and bells, together with grooms, smiths, and their underworkmen and they send forth their foragers to the sound of bells, recompensing their speed with honour or punishment, and attending to their safety. The third class has the charge of the infantry. The fourth, of the cavalry. The fifth, of the chariots. The sixth, of the elephants. Moreover, there are royal stables for the horses and beasts, and a royal arsenal, in which the soldier deposits his accoutrements when he has done with them, and gives up his horse to the master of the horse, and the same with respect to his beasts. They ride without bridles: the oxen draw the chariots along the roads; while the horses are led in halters, that their legs may not be injured, nor their spirit impaired by the draught of the chariots. In addition to the charioteer, each chariot contains two riders; but in the equipment of an elephant its conductor is the fourth, there being three bowmen also upon it.

Such is the account given by Megasthenes of the Indian castes.

The Egyptian nobles were of the upper classes, either of the priestly or military orders; and though Diodorus tells us all the Egyptians were equally

*Diod. i. 92.

noble, it is not to be supposed that this applied to their rank in society, during life, since in no country, except perhaps India, does the distinction of castes appear to have been so arbitrarily maintained as with the ancient Egyptians. After death, however, no grade was regarded, and every good soul was supposed to become united to that essence from which it derived its origin; and the title of Osiris was applied indiscriminately to men and women of every rank.

THE KING.

It was also from one or other of those two orders that the king was obliged to be chosen; and if he had been a member of the military class, previous to his ascending the throne, it was peremptorily required by the laws that he should then be admitted into the sacerdotal order, and be instructed in all the secret learning of the priests.

*

He was the chief of the religion and of the state, he regulated the sacrifices in the temples, and had the peculiar right of offering them to the gods upon grand occasions; the title and office of

* Plutarch. de Is. ix. "If the choice fell on a soldier, he was immediately initiated into the order of priests, and instructed in their abstruse and hidden philosophy."

Like the caliphs and Moslem sultans.

In the absence of the kings, the priests officiated. Psammaticus offered libations with the other eleven kings. Herod. ii. 151. In the sculptures the kings always make the offerings in the temples. At Rome, the sovereign held the office of Pontifex maximus. Conf. also Aristotle, “ στρατηγος ην και δικαστης ὁ βασιλευς, και των προς τους θεους KupLog." Arist. Polit. iii. 14. Melchizedec was king, priest, and prophet. Among the Indians of America, the sovereign was also a priest. The Lacedæmonian monarchs were consecrated, at their coronation, priests of Jupiter Uranius. The kings of Athens were intrusted with the R 3

VOL. I.

"president of the assemblies" belonged exclusively to him, and he superintended the feasts and festivals in honour of the deities. He had the right of proclaiming peace and war; he commanded the armies of the state, and rewarded those whose conduct in the field, or on other occasions, merited his approbation; and every privilege was granted him which was not at variance with good policy or the welfare of his people.

son;

The sovereign power descended from father to but in the event of an heir failing, the claims for succession were determined by proximity of parentage, or by right of marriage.* Nor were queens forbidden to undertake the management of affairs t; and on the demise of their husbands they assumed the office of regent; but, though introduced into the annals of Manetho, and Nitocris is mentioned by Herodotus as a queen, their names do not appear in the lists of sovereigns sculptured in the temples of Thebes and Abydus.

In some instances the kingdom was usurped by

care of divine worship and the performance of the sacred rites; and many ancient monarchs are mentioned, as uniting the office of priest and king: thus Virgil, "Rex Anius, rex idem hominum, Phœbique sacerdos." With the Jews, the King provided the offering, and the priest officiated. Ezek. xlv. 17. 2 Chron. xxix. 24. Numb. iii. 10. and xvi. 40. It was imputed to Saul a sin for having offered a burnt offering in the place of Samuel. 1 Sam. xiii. 9. 13.

*This I conclude from the mode of deriving their right from ancient kings, sometimes passing over many intermediate names, when they mention their predecessors.

The Egyptians, at a later period, do not seem to have been favourable to female government, and obliged Cleopatra to marry her younger brother, on the death of the elder Ptolemy; and even afterwards we find the name of her son, Neocæsar, introduced into the sculptures with her own. v. vol. ii. p. 59.