stars are divided into companies, called constellations. Each constellation is described on the globe under the figure of some animal-the similitude of a goat, scorpion, or lion. These "uncouth shapes" are only used for convenience; they are the invention perhaps of some Chaldean astronomer; and the "star in the east," which guided the pilgrims, and "stood over the place where the young child was," "could not be numbered among those they were accustomed to class within the outline of some "monster of the earth or of the main."

means, that in the country of ancient Egypt, men first practised the useful arts, and that they there first discovered the sciences. About fifteen centuries before Christ, Moses was skilled in the learning of Egypt, and before that time, the history of Joseph shows that the Egyptians understood political government, and the arts which embellish the dignity of high rank.

2. "And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; and he made him ride in the second chariot which he had." The ring, the linen garments, and the chariot, show that this people practised the ornamental and useful arts.

3. Egypt is very clearly laid down upon the maps. It is about six hundred miles from north to south, from the Mediterranean to Nubia; and its greatest breadth is one hundred and fifty miles, from Alexandria to Damietta. The desart of Lybia lies on the west of this country, and the Red sea washes its eastern shore.

4. Ancient Egypt was immensely populous. The inundations of the Nile make the soil fertile ; and the wants of man are less pressing in a warm climate. Slight habitations, a few garments, and a little fuel, with the fruits of a productive soil, easily supply all the necessaries of life.

5. The ancient Egyptians have left some splendid monuments of their strength, their industry and skill, in architecture and sculpture. The Pyramids are very extraordinary edifices; it is presumed that they were designed for burial places.

6. The obelisks are very high, quadrangular and taper columns of stone, engraved with hiero

glyphics. The sphynxes are figures of stone, which represent the head of a human female, and the body and limbs of some brute animal. Both the obelisks and sphynxes abound in Egypt.

7. The banks of the Nile are covered with ruins of great antiquity, from Cairo to the cataracts, and even far beyond, into those remoter regions which the civilized and intelligent traveller has rarely penetrated. The ruins of Denderah are the first after the pyramids, as the traveller proceeds up the Nile. These ruins are a temple of Isis, the front of which measures one hundred and forty-five feet; the height is seventy feet, and the depth seventy-two feet. The whole is built of hewn stones of immense size. On the top of this ruin, are the remains of a miserable village built by the peasants, as if to bring into one view the amazing power of former ages, and the comparative degeneracy of the present time.

8. Concerning the ruins of Denderah, Denon, a celebrated French traveller writes thus: "I want words to express what I felt under the portico. of Tentira. I felt myself, I really was, in the sanctuary of the arts and sciences. What epochs arose on my imagination, at the view of such a building! How many ages must it have required to bring a creative people to such results, to such perfection and sublimity in the arts! How many ages more to bring on an oblivion of such things, and reduce man, on a soil once fertile of such wonders, to the state of nature in which we found him! Never was such a space crowded into such a point, and yet no where is the march of time so obvious and regular.

9. "What enduring power, what wealth, what

abundance, what superfluity of resources must not the government have possessed, which reared these structures, and which could conceive, execute and adorn them with every thing which speaks to the eye or the mind? Never had the works of man given me an image so distinct of his greatness and antiquity. Among the ruins of Tentira, the Egyptians seemed to me pygmies."

10. In Egypt it seldom rains. In the interior of the country there are four or five showers in a year. Near the sea coast the rains are more frequent. During the winter months, when nature is to us dead, Egypt is like an extensive garden. Flocks and herds, husbandmen and gardeners, give animation to every part of the country; and the delightful odour of innumerable flowers from the surface of the ground, with the blossoms of the orange, the lemon, and the citron tree, perfume the whole atmosphere.

11. "In the opposite season, this same country exhibits nothing but a brown soil, either miry, or dry, hard, and dusty; immense fields laid under water, and vast spaces unoccupied and void of culture; plains in which the only objects to be seen are date trees; camels and buffaloes led by miserable peasants, naked and sun-burnt, wrinkled and lean; a scorching sun, a cloudless sky, and constant winds, varying in force."

12. About the middle of March, the Khamseen, or south wind begins to blow. This wind is the Samiel of Arabia, and the Samoon of the desert. During the period in which these winds prevail, a dry, burning heat penetrates every place. The fine sand is forced into the houses, and every thing

is filled with it; and whirlwinds, like the blasts of a heated furnace, sweep over the country.

15. Opthalmia, a disease of the eyes, is one consequence of this wind, and a large proportion of the inhabitants of Egypt are blind. The Plague, a very mortal malady, also makes its appearance at the time of the Khamseen. Wheat, tobacco, cotton, flax, the most delicious fruits, and most beautiful flowers, grow in this country. The date or fruit of the palm, is more esteemed and more cultivated than any other. The olive, the grape, and the fig are less abundant; the peach, the pear, the apple, and the plum, do not grow to their greatest perfection in Egypt.

16. The Lotus, a flower often mentioned in poetry, is supposed to be a species of Nymphea, or water lily, which grows in Egypt. The Papyrus from which paper was first made, is another native plant. Egypt has no forests. The banks of

the Nile, and of the canals are, in some places, adorned with acacias, (the locust tree) and willows.

17. Among the curiosities of Egypt, are the mummies. These are dead bodies of men and animals, which are embalmed; that is, dried, and preserved from entire decay. It is supposed that many brute animals were worshipped as Gods, by the ancient Egyptians; and the sentiment of veneration induced those idolaters to embalm the deified animals. Among the sacred birds, the most celebrated was the Ibis, a sort of Curlew.

1. The moral character of any nation is more interesting than a relation of its physical resources.