a powerful chief, as in the case of Amasis, or by some Ethiopian prince, who either claiming a right to the Egyptian crown from relationship with the reigning family, or taking advantage of a disturbed state of the country, secured a party there, and obtained possession of it by force of arms; but there are no grounds for supposing that the Egyptian monarchy was elective, as Synesius would lead us to conclude. He affirms that the candidates for the throne of Egypt repaired to a mountain at Thebes, on the Libyan side of the Nile, where all the voters assembled, and according to the show of hands and the proportionate consequence of each voter, who was either of the sacerdotal or military order, the election of the king was decided. But his authority is not of sufficient weight on so doubtful a question, and from being at variance with all that history and monumental record have imparted to us, cannot possibly be admitted.

*

We find the kings recorded on the monuments as having succeeded from father to son for several generations; and if the election of a king ever took place in Egypt it could only have been when all lawful aspirants were wanting. Diodorus says, "In ancient times kings, instead of succeeding by right of inheritance, were selected for their merits:" but whether this really was the case at the commencement of the Egyptian monarchy it is difficult to determine. Indeed, both Herodotus and Diodorus mention the first kings being succeeded by their children; and we have positive

* Diod. i. 43.

authority from the sculptures that this was the case during the eighteenth and succeeding dynasties : nor did Plutarch*, in saying "the kings were chosen from the priests or the warriors," mean that the monarchy was elective, except when an heir was wanting. And this is further confirmed by the formula in the Rosetta stone: "The kingdom being established unto him and unto his children for ever." But they did not presume, in consequence of the right of succession, to infringe the regulations enacted for their public and private conduct; and the laws of Egypt, which formed part of the sacred books, were acknowledged to be of divine origin, and were looked upon with superstitious reverence. To have called them in question, or to have disobeyed them, would have been considered rebellion against the Deity, and the offender would have paid the forfeit of his presumption and impiety.

That their laws were framed with the greatest regard to the welfare of the community is abundantly proved by all that ancient history has imparted to us; and Diodorust observes, "this unparalleled country could never have continued throughout ages in such a flourishing condition, if it had not enjoyed the best of laws and customs, and if the people had not been guided by the most salutary regulations." Nor were these framed for the lower orders only; and their kings, says the same author‡, so far from indulging in those acts

of arbitrary will, unrestrained by the fear of censure, which stain the character of sovereigns in other monarchical states, were contented to submit to the rules of public duty, and even of private life, which had been established by law from the earliest times. Even their daily food was regulated by prescribed rules, and the quantity of wine was limited with scrupulous exactitude.

When a sovereign, having been brought up in the military class*, was ignorant of the secrets of his religion, the first step, as I have already observed, on his accession to the throne, was to make him acquainted with those mysteries, and to enrol him in the college of the priests. He was instructed in all that related to the gods, the service of the temple, the laws of the country, and the duties of a monarch; and, in order to prevent any intercourse with improper persons, who might instil into his mind ideas unworthy of a prince, or at variance with morality, it was carefully provided that no slave or hired servant should hold any office about his person, but that the children of the first families of the priestly ordert, who had arrived at man's estate, and were remarkable for having received the best education and profited by it, should alone be permitted to attend him. And this precautionary measure was dictated by the persuasion that no monarch gives way to the im

The greater part of the kings, if we may judge from the sculptures, appear to have been of the military caste, at least during the glorious era of the 18th dynasty.

This agrees very well with the sculptures. The king's sons also held the offices of pages and fan-bearers. Diod. i. 70.

pulse of evil passions, unless he finds those about him ready to serve as instruments to his caprices, and to encourage his excesses.

It was not on his own will that his occupations depended, but on those rules of duty and propriety which the wisdom of his ancestors had framed, with a just regard to the welfare of the king and of his people.* They argued that he was an officer of the state; that the situation he held had not been made for his sole benefit, but for that of the nation, which he was bound to serve as well as to govern; and the king was thought rather to belong to the nation than the nation to the king. Impressed with these ideas, the Egyptian monarchs refused not to obey those lessons which the laws had laid down for their conduct: their occupations, both by day and night, were regulated by prescribed rules; a time was set apart for every duty, and a systematic method of transacting business was found to lead to those results which a disregard of order usually fails to produce. At break of day† public business commenced, all the epistolary correspondence was then examined, and the subject of each letter was considered with the attention it required. The ablutions for prayer were then performed, and the monarch, having put on the robes of ceremony, and attended by proper officers, with the insignia of royalty, repaired to the temple to superintend

* A few injunctions for the conduct of a Jewish king are given in Deut. xvii. 16.

+ Diod. i. 70. Herodotus (ii. 173.) says that Amasis employed himself about public business from daybreak till market time, or about the third hour of day.

*

the customary sacrifices to the gods of the sanctuary. The victims being brought to the altar, it was usual for the high priest to place himself close to the king, while the whole congregation present on the occasion stood round at a short distance from them, and to offer up prayers for the monarcht, beseeching the gods to bestow on him health and all other blessingst, in return for his respect to the laws, his love of justice, and his general conduct towards the people he ruled. His qualities were then separately enumerated; and the high priest particularly noticed his piety towards the gods, and his clemency and affable demeanour towards men. He lauded his self-command, his justice, his magnanimity, his love of truth, his munificence and generosity, and, above all, his entire freedom from envy § and covetousness.

He

* This ceremony must have taken place in the court of the temple and not in the sanctuary, since the people were admitted to it. The entrance into the holy of holies, or the sanctuary, was only on particular occasions, as with the Jews. Ezek. xlii. 13, 14., in speaking of the temple, and Exod. xxviii. 29.

As in the Moslem mosks, from the times of the caliphs to the present day. On the conquest of Egypt by Soltan Seleem, the aristocracy of the Memlooks was left, on condition of annual tribute to the Osmanlis, obedience in matters of faith to the Mooftee of Constantinople, and the insertion of the name of the soltan in the public prayers and on the coin. Mohammed Ali had an idea of introducing his own instead of Soltan Mahmood's name during the war of Syria in 1832 -1833.

Conf. the Rosetta stone: "In return for which, the gods have given him health, victory, power, and all other good things, the kingdom being established unto him and unto his children for ever," which is, perhaps, the real formula here alluded to by Diodorus.

§ Some of the king's names seem even to bear a similar meaning, if we may believe the Laterculus of Eratosthenes, where one is translated Abascantus, i. e. invidiâ carens, though I confess Sirios does not appear to admit of that interpretation. Many of these eulogistic epithets occur in the obelisk inscription of Hermapion; as," the mighty lover of truth," "whom the Sun has preferred;" "to whom the gods have given a life free from satiety," &c.