shoulder, there is this inscription in the sacred characters of Egypt, "I conquered this country by the force of my arms." Who the person here represented is, or of what country, is not specified; both are told elsewhere. Some have been induced, on examination, to pronounce this to be the figure of Memnon, but they must certainly be mistaken.

CVII. The same priests informed me that Sesostris returned to Egypt with an immense number of captives, of the different nations which he had conquered. On his arrival at the Pelusian Daphne, his brother, to whom he had confided the government in his absence, invited him and his family to take up their abode with him; which when they had done, he surrounded their apartments with combustibles, and set fire to the building 187. As soon as Sesostris discovered the villany, he deliberated with his wife, who hap

pened

*The following line from Claudian appears, says Larcher, to be a translation of this passage of Herodotus :

Ast ego quæ terras humeris pontumque subegi. 187 Set fire to the building.]—Diodorus Siculus relates the matter differently. The brother of Sesostris made him and his attendants drunk, and in the night set fire to his apartment. The guards, being intoxicated, were unable to assist their master; but Sesostris, imploring the interposition of the gods, fortunately escaped. lie expressed his gratitude to the deities in general, and to Vulcan in particular, to whose kindness principally he thought himself indebted.-T.

pened to be with him, what measures to pursue: she advised him to place two of their six children across the parts which were burning, that they might serve as a bridge for the preservation of themselves and of the rest. This Sesostris exe

cuted two of the children consequently perished, the remainder were saved with their father.

CVIII. Sesostris did not omit to avenge himself on his brother on his return to Ægypt, he employed the captives of the different nations he had vanquished, to collect those immense stones which were employed in the temple of Vulcan. They were also compelled to make those vast and numerous canals 188 by which Egypt is intersected.

188 Numerous canals.]-Probably one reason why Sesostris opened canals, was to prevent these hurtful inundations, as well as to convey water to those places where they might think proper to have villages built, and to water the lands more conveniently, at such times as the waters might retire early; for they might find by experience, after the canals were opened, that, instead of apprehending inundations, they had greater reason, as at present, to fear a want of water.Pococke.

There are still eighty canals in Ægypt like rivers, several of which are twenty, thirty, and forty leagues in length.— Savary.

The same author adds, that the chain-buckets used in Ægypt to disperse the water over the high lands, gave to Archimedes, during his voyage in Ægypt, the idea of his ingenious screw, which is still in use.

A country

tersected. In consequence of their involuntary labours, Ægypt, which was before conveniently adapted to those who travelled on horseback or in carriages, became unfit for both. The canals

Occur

A country where nothing is so seldom met with as a spring, and where rain is an extraordinary phenomenon, could only have been fertilized by the Nile. Accordingly from times of the most remote antiquity, fourscore considerable canals were digged at the entrance of the kingdom, beside a great number of small ones, which distributed these waters all over Egypt.-Raynal.

The following note, abridged, from Larcher, is highly honourable to him:

Sesostris, says Volney, lived before Moses, and, according to Herodotus, cut so many canals in Egypt, that it became impossible to travel in chariots. The Bible, therefore, must relate a fable, for it says that Pharaoh pursued the Israelites in six hundred chariots.

Unluckily for Volney, replies Larcher, the first assertion is not true. The passage of the Red Sea took place one hundred and seventy-five years before the time of Sesostris. This miracle took place in the year 3183, of the Julian period, 1531 years before our æra. Sesostris mounted the throne in the year 3358, of the Julian year, which is 1356 years before our æra.

Volney should have remembered that he was a candidate for a prize at the Academy of Belles Lettres, on a subject relating to chronology. His memoir was indignantly rejected, as indeed it deserved. I advise him to study chronology, or rather never again to write on subjects connected with it.

I have much satisfaction in introducing the above castigation of an author, whose bold assertions and fallacious reasonings have done so much mischief to the public, particularly from a pen so well qualified to detect and expose his errors and falshoods.

occur so often, and in so many winding directions, that to travel on horseback is disagreeable, but in carriages impossible. The prince however was influenced by a patriotic motive: before his time those who inhabited the inland parts of the country, at a distance from the river, on the ebbing of the Nile, suffered great distress from the want of water, of which they had none but from muddy wells.

CIX. The same authority informed me, that Sesostris made a regular distribution of the lands of Ægypt. He assigned to each Egyptian a square piece of ground; and his revenues were drawn from the rent, which every individual annually paid him. Whoever was a sufferer by the inundation of the Nile, was permitted to make the king acquainted with his loss. Certain officers were appointed to inquire into the particulars of the injury, that no man might be taxed beyond his ability. It may not be improbable to suppose that this was the origin of geometry 189, and that the Greeks learned it from hence. As

to

189 Origin of geometry.]-The natives of Thebes, above all others, were renowned for their great wisdom. Their im provements in geometry are thought to have been owing to the nature of their country; for, the land of Ægypt being annually overflowed, and all property confounded, they were obliged, upon the retreat of the waters, to have recourse to geometrical decision, in order to determine the limits of their possessions.-Bryant.

to the pole, the gnomon 19°, and the division of the day 19 into twelve parts, the Greeks received them from the Babylonians.

190 The pole, the gnomon.]-The text is a literal translation of the original, to which, as it stands, it will not be very easy to annex any meaning. My own opinion, from reflecting on the context, is, that it signifies a dial with its index. Wesseling, in his note on this passage, informs us from Pollux, that many considered oλ and wpoλoyson as synonymous expressions. Scaliger is of the same opinion, to which Wesseling himself accedes. Salmasius thinks differently, and says of this particular passage, ne hoc quidem quidquam ad horologiorum usum facit. Larcher's interpretation seems far-fetched. "Ie," says the learned Frenchman, "who wishes to form a solar quadrant must necessarily know the altitude of the pole."-When it is considered that the more ancient dials were divided by the first twelve letters of the alphabet, I cannot help adhering to the interpretation I have given of it.-T.

191 Division of the day.]-From this passage it appears, that in the time of Herodotus the day was divided into twelve parts: at the same time we may not conclude, with Leo Allatius, and Wesseling, that to these twelve parts the name of hours was given. It is by no means certain when the twenty-four parts of the day were first distinguished by the name of hours, but it was doubtless very late; and the passages cited from Anacreon and Xenophon to prove the contrary, ought not to be interpreted by what we call hours.

The passage in Anacreon, μεσονυκτίοις ποθ ̓ ὥραις, means nothing more than the middle of the night, Νυκτος αμολγῷ, in Homer, which signifies an advanced time of the night, is explained by the Scholiast ή το μεσονυκτια ωρα, the very expression of Anacreon. The passage from Xenophon is not more decisive.-Larcher.

Upon this subject we have the following curious note in the Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis:-Of the dials of the ancients we may form some idea from the following example: Palladius Rutilius, who lived about the fifth century, and

who