CHAPTER X.
HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.— INQUIRY INTO THEIR
__RELATION TO OTHER RACES OF MEN. .
S e c t io n l^General Remarks on the History of the Egyptians
and other Nations coeval and supposeçl to have been
connected with them.
The banks and estuaries of rivers affording secure havens on
the sea, and the means of communication with inland countries,
have been at all times the principal,, centres of population.
The cradles or nurseries of the first nations appear to
have been extensive plains or valleÿs 'tràyersed by navigable
channels and irrigated by perennial and fertilizing streams.
Three such regions were scenes of the most ancient'-cultivation
of the human race, of the first foundation of cities, of
the earliest political institutions, and of the invention pti arts
which embellish human life. In one of these, the Semitic
nations exchanged the simple habits of wandering shepherds
for the splendour and luxury of Nineveh, and Babylon, In
another an Indo-European or Japetic people brought to its
perfection the most elaborate of human dialects, destined to
become in later ages under different modifications the mother-
tongue of the nations of Europe.. In a third, the land of
Ham, watered by the Nile, were invented hieroglyphic literature
and the arts for which Egypt was celebrated in the earliest
ages of history. '
Two of these nations, widely separated from each other by
an ocean which was scarcely navigated in early times, and,
on the continent, by the whole region occupied by the Semitic
tribes, are yet found to display numerous and striking
phenomena of resemblance in their manners, their superstitions,
and in the entire system of their social and. political
institutions. The Egyptians and Indians have often been compared.
The same religious and ’ philosophical dogmas were
common to' both nations. Both believed, the emanation of
souls which animate men, animals, planets, rivers, all parts of
the universe from a primitive ‘source, their predestined transmigration
through various orders èfebeing and their ultimate
refusion into the divinity. Both nations adorned and exhibited
these common principles in-a ’similar manner 'ahdtonder similar
emblematical représentations.' The system -T»f religious observances,
the superstitious veneration1 of animals;^ oft the
elements of material nature and of the heavenly bodies, .corresponded
among both nations. Social regulations, the divisions
and subdivisions of hereditaryivOafstes, the dtistjjjbution
Of offices among them, the privileges and TestriCtions of
different orders in the community bdife, in both regions, a
Striking and even-surprising* analôgÿ. ' Human -natu/ref'us*'
éûm^lliimilar aspects under similar conditions, 1 ana#1^ ^ undoubted
feet yfîll sufficiently ^account for br dàti outlines^of
resemblance between nations which have existed without intercourse
in?-’countries situated alike with .fespbbb tdîblimate
and’ local circumstances. But no person who fully considers
the intimate relation and almost' exact parallelism that lias
been traced between'the Egyptians hn#r the Hindoospwill'béK
satisfied withsuch a solution in that.particular example.
So many arbitrary combinations and arrangements
thé social and political institutions of Egypt .and of India
display, so remarkable a congruity in ^aflarly all the philosophical
or speculative dogmas and in the extèriïal représentations
and superstitious observances* adopted1 by these-two
nations, can hardly be imagined to have resulted from the
mere influence of external conditions in any two regions of
the earth, or to have existed, otherwise than as the consequence
of intercourse or communication.
We cannot refuse to admit a community :of origin to the
mental culture of the Indians and Egyptians, but there' are
various considerations which render this, corioession more
difficult than on first adverting ’fóithé? subject it appears to
be, and which oblige us in admitting it to carry backtiùr view
to very remote ages; In order to perceive the truth and .all
the hearings of this observation^ it Will be requisite to.consi-
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