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acknowledged to be of divine origin, and were looked upon with superstitious reverence. To have disobeyed them, would have been considered rebellion against the deity, and would have called forth vengeance upon the head of the offender, even should that offender have been the monarch on his throne. These laws were framed with the strictest regard to the welfare of the community as the ancient history of the Egyptians abundantly proves. Diodorus observes on this subject: "This unparalleled country could never have continued throughout ages in such a flourishing condition if it had not enjoyed the best laws and customs, and if the people had not been guided by the most salutary regulations.”

In

When a sovereign, having been educated in the military class, was ignorant of the mysteries of his religion, due care was taken, on his accession to the throne, to have him informed therein, and to enrol him in the college of the priests. He was instructed in all that related to the gods, the temple, the laws of the country, and the duties of a monarch. order to preserve his dignity, and his morality, it was carefully provided that neither slave nor hired servant should hold any office about his person, but that the children of the priestly order, who were remarkable for a refined education, should alone be permitted to attend him. This measure was dictated by the persuasion that no monarch gives way to the impulse of evil passions, unless he finds those about him ready to serve as instruments to his caprices, and abettors of his

excesses.

This, it may be mentioned, agrees very well with the sculptures, which represent priests as pages and fan bearers. Diodorus says, that the king's sons also held such offices. Reynier indeed, questions whether slavery existed at all in Egypt previous to the period when its ancient institutions. became in a great degree changed. His doubts arise from the difficulty of reconciling the existence of slaves with the organization of the Egyptians under their theocracy. But that they did possess slaves at the earliest period, we learn from Scripture. The king of Egypt gave male and female slaves to Abraham, Gen. xii. 16; and Joseph, the beloved son of good old Israel, was sold as a slave "unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah's, and captain of the guard," Gen. xxxvii. 36. This latter fact is met by the author named, by an observation, that the domination of the shepherd kings_must have operated in modifying the peculiar usages of the Egyp tians. Among the Egyptian laws, however, as cited by Dio

dorus, there is one that inflicts the punishment of death on a person who kills his slave, and another that denounces a severe punishment against one who violates a free woman; which proves there were some not free. The former of these laws is illustrated by the conduct which Potiphar pursued towards his slave Joseph. On the report of his mistress, Potiphar believed his slave had dealt most perfidiously and ungratefully towards him, acting in a way calculated to provoke indignation and summary punishment; but he committed no violence upon him; he respected the laws of his country, and sent him to the royal prison, apparently intending that, after trial and conviction, he should receive the punishment adjudged by the laws to his offence. See Gen. xxxix.

13-20.

The first slaves were, doubtless, prisoners taken in war, who became the property of the captors. Afterwards, these prisoners were sold to others who might require servants; and, eventually, any persons offered for sale were bought solely as a trading speculation, as we see in the case of Joseph, and as they are to this day in that country. The captives brought to Egypt were employed in the service of the monarch, in building temples, cutting canals, raising dykes and embankments, and other public works, as in the days of Sesostris; and some, who were purchased by the grandees, were employed in the same capacity as the Memlooks of the present. Women slaves were also engaged in the service of families, like the Greeks and Circassians in Modern Egypt, and other parts of the Turkish empire; and, from finding them represented in the sculptures of Thebes, accompanying men of their own nation, who bear tribute to the Egyptian monarch, we may conclude that a certain number were annually sent to Egypt from the conquered provinces of the north and east, as well as from Ethiopia. It is evident that both white and black slaves were employed as servants. They attended on the guests when invited to the house of their master; and, from their being in the families of priests as well as of the military chiefs, we may infer that they were purchased with money, and that the right of possessing slaves was not confined to those who had taken them in war. traffic in slaves was tolerated; and it is reasonable to suppose that many persons were engaged, as at present, in bringing them to Egypt for public sale, independent of those who were sent as part of the tribute, and who were probably at first the property of the monarch.

The

The kings of Egypt freely permitted not only the quality and proportion of what they ate and drank to be prescribed them, but that all their hours, and almost every action, should be under the regulation of the laws. In the morning at daybreak, when the head is clearest, and the thoughts unperplexed, they read the several letters they had received, thereby forming a distinct idea of the affairs which would fall under their consideration during the day. As soon as they were dressed they went to the daily sacrifice performed in the temple; where, surrounded by their whole court, and the victims placed before the altar, they assisted at the prayer pronounced aloud by the high priest, in which he asked of the gods health and all other blessings for the king, because he governed his people with clemency and justice, and made the laws of his kingdom the rule and standard of his actions. The high priest then entered into a long detail of his royal virtues, observing, that a king was religious to the gods, affable to men, moderate, just, magnanimous, sincere, an enemy to falsehood, liberal, master of his passions, punishing crimes with the utmost lenity, but boundless in rewarding merit. He next mentioned the faults of which kings might be guilty, but supposed, at the same time, that they never committed any, except by surprise or ignorance; and they loaded such of their ministers, as gave them ill counsel, and suppressed or disguised the truth, with imprecations. After the prayers and sacrifices were ended, the counsels and actions of great men were read to the king out of the sacred books, in order that the king might govern his dominions according to their maxims, and maintain the laws which had made his predecessors and their subjects happy.

The paramount function of kings is the administration of justice to their subjects. Accordingly, the kings of Egypt diligently cultivated this duty, convinced that on this depended both the comfort of individuals and the happiness of the state. To assist them in the administration of justice they selected thirty judges out of the principal cities, as will be seen in a future page.

Great respect was paid in Egypt to the monarch. They were honoured, indeed, whilst living, as so many visible representations of the Deity; and, after their death, lamented for as the fathers of their country. These sentiments of respect and tenderness proceeded from a strong persuasion that the Divinity himself had placed them upon the throne, as he distinguished them so greatly from all other human

beings; and that kings bore the most noble characteristics of the Supreme Being, as the power and will of doing good to others were united in their persons. It was the blind adoration they paid to their monarchs, which led them to believe that after death their spirits passed into, and became the animating principle of some heavenly body, and consequently they became the object of their worship. Thus Thoth (2nd) or Hermes Trismegistus, the thirty-fifth king of Thebes, is said to have been deified, because he was the reviver and second founder of the theology, laws, and social institutions of the Egyptians, all of which he brought into that system which has been regarded with wonder in every subsequent age.

On the death of every Egyptian king, a general mourning was instituted throughout all Egypt for seventy-two days; hymns commemorating his virtues were sung; the temples were closed; sacrifices were no longer offered; and no feasts or festivals were celebrated during that period. The people tore their garments, and covering their heads with dust and mud, formed a procession of two or three hundred persons of both sexes, who met publicly twice a day, to sing the funeral dirge. A general fast was also observed, and they neither allowed themselves to taste meat or wheat bread, and abstained from wine and every luxury. In the mean time, the funeral was prepared, and on the last day the body was placed in state within the vestibule of the tomb, and an account was given of the life and conduct of the deceased. It was permitted to any present to offer himself as an accuser, and the voice of a people might prevent a sovereign from receiving funeral honours. This was an ordeal, the dread of which would, doubtless, tend to stimulate the Egyptian monarchs to the practice of their duty; for there is planted in the human breast, in all ages, and in all countries of the world, an ardent desire that a last tribute of respect should be paid to frail humanity.

CASTES OF THE PEOPLE.

The division of Egyptian society into separate classes, or castes has been noticed by many ancient writers. Herodotus says, they were divided into seven tribes,-priests, soldiers, herdsmen, swineherds, shopkeepers, interpreters, and boatmen. Diodorus states, that like the Athenians (who, being an Egyptian colony, derived this institution. from the parent country,) they were distributed into three

classes, the priests, husbandmen, from whom the soldiers were levied, and the artizans, who were employed in handicraft, and other similar occupations, and in common offices, among the people. This author, however, in another page, extends the number of castes to five, reckoning the pastors, husbandmen, and artificers, independently of the soldiers and priests. Strabo limits them to three, the priests, soldiers, and husbandmen; and Plato divides them into six bodies, the priests, soldiers, artificers, huntsmen, husbandmen, and shepherds; each peculiar art, or occupation, he observes, being confined to a certain subdivision of the caste, and every one engaged in his own branch, without interfering with the occupation of another, as in India and China, where the same trade or employment is followed in succession by father and son.

From these statements it will be perceived, that the exact number of classes into which the Egyptians were divided is uncertain the most probable inference we can draw from them is, that there were five distinct castes in Egypt, with certain subdivisions.

The Priestly Power.

The priesthood formed the second, and the ruling power in Egypt. The authority and paramount influence, indeed, of the priestly order were such as to render the Egyptian government rather ecclesiastical than monarchical. We have seen that when a king was elected, who was not previously of the sacerdotal caste, he was adopted into that caste, and instructed in its mysteries and science. This may explain the union of Joseph with Asenath, the daughter of the "priest of On." The desire of the priesthood to concentrate all power into their own body, may have induced them to wish that Joseph should be connected with them; or, the king may have desired it to establish him in his position, by securing him the support and countenance of the priestly order in his undertakings, without which all his plans must have proved abortive, though dictated by ever so much wisdom.

The priests of Egypt possessed great privileges and reve

This class appears to have comprehended those who sought the young of gazelles, and other wild animals of the desert, and those who, as fowlers, sought for birds in a wild state, which they caught in large clap-nets. It is supposed that, like a similar class of persons in India, as described by Megasthenes, they led a wandering life, dwelling in tents.

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