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thirty-six feet; but the water now rises, when at its greatest elevation, nearly eight feet above this mark; while it appears, from an inscription on the wall, made A. D. 300, that the water then rose only a foot above that level. This gives an elevation of about five inches in a century; and it has been collected from other data, that the rise in the circumjacent soil is nearly in the same proportion.、

To secure the blessings of the waters of the Nile, through the whole breadth of their country, the inhabitants of Egypt have, with great labour, in different ages, cut a vast number of trenches and canals in every part.* These canals are not opened till the river has attained a certain height, nor yet all at the same time; for if they were, the distribution of the water would be unequal. When the water begins to subside, these sluices are closed, and they are gradually opened again in the autumn, allowing the waters to pass on to contribute to the irrigation of the Delta. The distribution of the stream has always been subject to minute and distinct regulations, the necessity for which may be estimated from the common statement, that scarcely a tenth part of the water of the Nile reaches the sea in the first three months of the inundation. During the inundation, the whole country appears like a series of ponds and reservoirs; and it is not merely the saturation of the ground, but the deposit of soil which takes place during the overflow, that is so favourable to the agriculture of Egypt. The alluvial matter annually brought down and deposited by the Nile, is estimated by Dr. Shaw as equal to a hundred and twentieth part of the volume of water which it pours into the sea. This soil contains principles so friendly to vegetation, that it is used for manure in those places which have not been adequately benefited by the inundation; while, on the other hand, where the deposit has been abundant, the people mingle sand with it to diminish its strength. As soon as the waters have retired, cultivation commences; and where

* At what period the system of irrigating the Delta of Egypt by canals drawn from the Nile and its branches commenced, it is impossible now to determine. The Egyptians ascribe its invention to Osiris and Sesostris. Osiris, say they, enclosed the river on both sides with strong dykes, and erected sluices in proper places for letting out the waters upon the fields, as they had need of it. The probability is, that as the demand for Agricultural produce would increase with the population, so the idea of increasing the supply to the greatest possible quantity would suggest the propriety of embanking the river, and of drawing canals from it throughout the whole breadth of the country. And this would be done, not in the reign of one prince, but in several successive reigns.

the soil has been sufficiently inundated, very little labour is demanded. The seed is sown in the moistened soil, and vegetation and harvest follow with such rapidity, as to allow a succession of crops wherever water can be commanded.

The influence of the Nile upon the condition and appearance of the country can only be estimated by comparing its aspect in the season which immediately precedes, with that which follows the inundation. Before it occurs, it exhibits

a parched desert of sand and dust, but afterwards a level verdant plain.

There cannot be a finer sight in nature than Egypt exhibits at two seasons of the year. In the months of July and August, if a traveller should ascend some mountain or one of the far-famed pyramids, he would behold a vast sea, in the midst of which numerous towns and villages appear, with several causeways leading from place to place, the whole interspersed with groves and fruit trees, whose tops only are visible. This view is bounded by mountains and woods, which terminate, at the utmost distance the eye can discover, the most beautiful horizon that can be imagined. On the contrary, in January and February, the whole country is, like one continued scene of beautiful meadows, whose verdure, enamelled with flowers, charms the eye. The spectator beholds on every side flocks and herds dispersed over all the plains, with infinite numbers of husbandmen and gardeners. The air is then perfumed by the great quantity of blossoms on the orange, lemon, and other trees, and is so pure that breezes more salubrious or agreeable are not enjoyed in the wide expanse of creation. Contrasting the country at such a season with its inhabitants, we may adopt the language of the poet, who said of the isle and the natives of Ceylon, with beautiful simplicity:

"Every prospect pleases,

And only man is vile."-Heber.

"A man cannot," says De Bruyn, in his Travels, "help observing the admirable providence of God towards this country, who sends, at a fixed season, such great quantities of rain in Ethiopia, in order to water Egypt, where a shower of rain scarcely ever falls; and who, by that means, causes the most barren soil to become the richest and most fruitful country in the universe."

But the Egyptians did not look at this wonderful circumstance in such a pure and Christian light. Feeling their

entire dependence on the Nile, and prone by nature, like the rest of mankind, to look to secondary causes rather than to the infinitely great and good God, from whom all blessings are derived, the Egyptians were led to deify their Nile. › Heliodorus says: "They paid divine honours to this river, and revered it as the first of their gods. They declared him to be the rival of heaven, since he watered the country without the aid of clouds and rains." The priests of Egypt told Herodotus, that one of their kings, Pheron, the son of Sesostris, was struck blind by the river god for an act of impiety: that at a time when the inundation had risen to the extraordinary height of more than eighteen cubits, a violent storm of wind having arisen, which greatly agitated the waters, the king, with a foolish temerity, took a javelin in his hand, and flung it into the midst of the foaming billows, for which he was immediately seized with a pain in his eyes, which made him blind for ten years. The principal festival of this imaginary god, was at the summer solstice, when the inundation commenced; at which season, by a cruel idolatrous rite, the Egyptians sacrificed red-haired persons, principally foreigners, to Typhon, or the power said to preside over tempests, at Busiris, Heliopolis, etc., by burning them alive, and scattering their ashes in the air for the good of the people. Bryant infers the probability that these victims were chosen from among the Israelites during their residence in Egypt.

From all this we learn how excessive was the superstitious adoration which the Egyptians paid to their river. How impressive, then, must those miracles have been in which their sacred river was turned into blood, and made to pour forth loathsome frogs in such abundance, that they covered the whole land of Egypt. See Exod. vii. 15-25, and viii. 115. At the present day, though under the sway of the sterner Moslem religion, the reverence entertained for this stream, still called the Most Holy River, and the rites with which its benefits are celebrated, exhibit in the present inhabitants of Egypt a tendency towards the same superstitious form of adoration and gratitude.

One feature of the Nile remains to be noticed, namely, the qualities of the water. Ancients and moderns, with one voice, declare it to be the most pleasant and nutritive in the world. Why it should be so, Plato could not conceive, but he states such to be the case; and he relates that the Egyptian priests refrained from giving it to their bull-god Apis on account of its fattening properties.

Savary, in his "Letters on Egypt," says, in a note, that Ptolemy Philadelphus, marrying his daughter Berenice to Antiochus king of Syria, sent her water from the Nile, which alone she could drink, (Athenæus ;) that the kings of Persia sent for the waters of the Nile and sal ammoniac, (Dino, Hist. of Persia ;) and that the Egyptians are the only people who preserve the water of the Nile in sealed vases, and drink it when it is old with the same pleasure that we do old wine, (Aristides Rhetor.) The same author also bears his own testimony to the agreeable qualities of the water of the Nile. He says, "The waters of the Nile, also, lighter, softer, and more agreeable to the taste than any I know, greatly influence the health of the inhabitants. All antiquity acknowledges their excellence, and the people certainly drink them with a kind of avidity without being ever injured by the quantity. Being lightly impregnated with nitre, they are only a gentle aperient to those who take them to excess." Maillet is more enthusiastic in his description of the Nile water; affirming, that when a stranger drinks it for the first time, it seems like a drink prepared by art, and that it is among waters what champagne is among wines.

THE LAND OF GOSHEN.

With reference to this part of Egypt, so celebrated in the sacred page, Michaelis remarks:-" Concerning the situation of the land of Goshen, authors have maintained very different opinions; but have withal made it impossible for themselves to ascertain the truth by concurring in the representation of Goshen as the most beautiful and fertile part of Egypt. But is it at all probable that a king of Egypt would have taken the very best part of his territory from his own native subjects to give it to strangers, and these, too, a wandering race of herdsmen, hitherto accustomed only to traverse with their cattle the deserts and uncultivated commons of the east ?" But, notwithstanding that it would appear from this learned writer doubtful where the land of Goshen was, and whether it was a rich land, it has been satisfactorily shown that the "best of the land," as applied to Goshen, means no more than that it was the richest pasture ground of Lower Egypt. It was called Goshen from Gush, in Arabic signifying heart," or whatever is choice or precious; and hence it was that Joseph recommended it to his family as the "best," and as "the fat of the land." See Gen. xlv. 18; xlvii. 11.

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The land of Goshen lay along the Pelusaic, or most easterly branch of the Nile, towards Palestine and Arabia; for it is plain that the Hebrews did not cross that river in their exode from Egypt, as they otherwise must have done. Thus situated, it must have included part of the district of Heliopolis, of which the "On" of the Scriptures is supposed to have been the capital, and which lay on the eastern border of the Delta. Eastward of the river, the land of Goshen appears to have stretched into the desert, where the nomade shepherds might find sustenance for their flocks. In some places it may have extended in this direction to the Gulf of Suez. Thus defined, the land of Goshen included a quantity of fertile land, answering to Joseph's description of it.

In the territory of the tribe of Judah, there was another Goshen, and it was probably so called from being, like the Goshen of Egypt, a district chiefly appropriated to pasture.

THE CLIMATE OF EGYPT.

It will be seen, from the foregoing pages, that Egypt possessed in an eminent degree the three elements of fertilitywater, soil and warmth. Without the latter blessing, the two former would have been of little avail. The climate of Egypt, during the greater part of the year, is indeed most salubrious. The khamseen, or hot south wind, however, which blows in April and May, is oppressive and unhealthy. The exhalations from the soil, also, after the inundation, render the latter part of the autumn less healthy than the summer and winter, and cause opthalmia, dysentery, and other diseases. The summer heat is seldom very oppressive, being accompanied by a refreshing northerly breeze, and the air being extremely dry. But this dryness causes an excessive quantity of dust, which is peculiarly annoying. The thermometer in Lower Egypt, in the depth of winter, is from 50° to 60° in the afternoon, and in the shade in the hottest season, it is from 90° to 100°, and about ten degrees higher in the southern parts of Upper Egypt. The climate of this part of Egypt, though hotter, is much more healthy than that of the lower country. This is proved by the fact that the plague seldom ascends far above Cairo, and that ophthalmia is more common in Lower than in Upper Egypt. The winds in Egypt are in some degree periodical, and governed by the seasons. Thunder occurs in the Delta, accompanied with violent showers, and sometimes with hail. In Lower Egypt, dew is very abundant.

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