sufficient for the growth of human food, at the time of man’s introduction; and on
the other (after this nomad had been transmuted by time and circumstance into a
far,mer and then into a monument-building citizen) by the pyramids and tombs of the
IVth Memphite dynasty; placed by Lepsius’s discoveries in the thirty-fifth century b .c.
II.—The p y r a m i d a l period, or Old Empire.—Occupying, according to late scientific views,
about fifteen centuries; probably beginning with Manetho’s first dynasty (k in g
O u e n e p h i s ) ; and ending with the Xllth or XHIth, about twenty-two centuries prior
to the Christian era. The Xllth dynasty is marked architecturally by the employment
of obelisks.-
III. — The period of the H y k s o s , or Middle Empire.—There being few monuments for this
period extant, we are dependent, apart from Greek lists, upon the Turin Papyrus, and
on the names chronicled long after on the “ Chamber of Karnac ” &c. Here is the
grand difficulty in Egyptian chronology; it having been hitherto impossible to determine
its duration; which i s ' now generally considered to be far shorter than is estimated
in Bunsen’s “ iEgyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte,” and perhaps to embrace
all Scriptural connexions with Egypt from Abraham to the Exodus inclusive,; on every
one W)f which the hieroglyphics are utterly silent. It includes, however, the XlVth,
XVth, and XVIth dynasties.
IV. — The positive h i s t o r i c a l period, or New Empire. — Commencing about 1600 to 1800
years b . c . , with the Restoration (after the expulsion of the Hyksos tribes), u nder
A a h m e s , the founder of the XYIIth dynasty. It may be called the Temple-p e rio d ;
because, although temples existed in the Old Empire, all the grand s a n c tu a r i e s
standing at present upon the alluvia belong to the XYIIth dynasty downward.
Dated hieroglyphical records descend to the third century after Christ, with the name of
the Emperor D e g i t j s : (485) but demotic papyri and mummies are extant as recent as the 4th
century of the same era. (486) Greek inscriptions at Phil® corroborate Priscianus, who
relates how, about a . d . 451, a treaty, between the Christian Emperor of Constantinople
and the heathen Blemmyes, stipulated that — “ every year, according to ancient customs,
the Ethiopians were to take the statue of Isis from Phil® to Ethiopia ;”(487) and a Grecian
traveller bears witness, in an inscription, that he was once present at the temple when the
goddess returned. In fact, history proves that ISIS was yet worshipped at Phil®, if not
throughout Egypt, even in the year a . d . 486 : and the pagan emblem of “ eternal life,”*
Ankh, continued still to be inscribed, in lieu ofthe Christian cross, over orthodox churches;
as in the following instance discovered by the accurate Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson (488):—
“ KAQO^AIKH + EKKAH^CIA ”
Gatho^Uc + Chu^rch.
Finally, to enable the reader to classify, chronologically, the Egyptian data comprised
in “ Types of Mankind,” a table is subjoined which the forthcoming “ Book of Kings” will
show to be in the main correct. It is made up, in part from the first volume of the Chro-
nologie der JEgypter, and in part from Chevalier Lepsius’s oral communications to the
writer at Berlin, in May, 1849.(489) To it are added such excerpts of the C h ev a lie r’s
subsequent epistolary correspondence with the authors as may give a general idea of his
system, and a precise one of his scientific liberality.
(485) Lepsius’: Vorläufige Nachricht, 1849; pp. 17, 29.
(486) Birch, in Otia Ægyptiaca, p. 87.
(487) L e t r o n n e : Matériaux pour servir à VHistoire du Christianisme.
(488) L e t ro n n e : Examen Archéologique, “ Croix Ansée Egyptienne,” 1846 ; p. 23.
(489) Guddon : Hand-book to the Nile : London, Madden, 1849 ; pp. 20-2, 5L
M a n e t h o ’s S y s t em o p E g y p t ia n Ch ro n o l o g y , -a s r e s t o r e d b y L e p s iu s .
E poohas anterior to Me n é s — Cyclic Periods : —
Divine, dynasties 19 gods reigned 13,870 Julian years = 19 Sothic « ¿ p e rio d s :
30 demirgods « 3,650 . . “ | ' = 30 twelfths of a Sothie-period.
17,520 . “ = 12 SotMo-periods of 1460 years.«
/YIP TVTPVPQ - I.Vi > ' 1 -- - . I. --—— VA €J> ivijw uuuuvrpc iwu.,
Ante-historical dyn. : 10 Manes, Thinites, ■ 350 gjj . >=§• commencement of a new Sothiiwperiod..
Epoch op Menes — commencement of historical period ; thirty dynasties : —
Old Empire:— 1st dynasty—Accession of Menes ........,................ •.......... gggg B c
Commencement of monumental period; third dynasty.
4th dynasty — Pyramids and tombs extant — began................... l§j 3425 «
Subdivisions : —
5th dynasty— Began about. . 7 . . . . . . . . ........................ 3100 «
7ttl I i sti ..................................... 2900 «
lo th * . - 2500^“
12th. u Ends about.................................l....vl.............. i#............................. 2124 '«
18th “ “ 2100 S
Invasion ofthe Hyksos — comprising the
14th, 15th, and 16th dynasties ^ from about b. o. 2101 to about ............ 1590 «
New Empire— Restoration :—
17th dynasty —Began................................................................. je71 «
30th “ Ending on the second Persian Invasion.................................... 340 «
Conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great ........................................................... ......... 332 <t
Ptolemaic dynasty began b. 0. 323 — ends................................................. * 44 «
Romm dominion. ..,4, , . ............... ..** > g0 (f
Hieroglyphiad records of the Emperor. Decius ........................................ 250 a d
Thus, from an indefinite period prior to the year b . c . 3893, down to 250 years after the
Christian era, the hieroglyphical character is proved to have been in uninterrupted use;
while, from the year b . c . 3893, modern hierology has determined the chronologic order of
Egyptian dynasties, through present archæological re-construction of the Nile’s monuments.
The Romans held Egypt from the 27th year b . c . until 395 a . d . ; ‘when the sons of,
Theodosius divided the Empiré. Egypt lingered under the sovereignty of the Eastern
Emperors until a . d. 640-1 ; when, subjected by Aamer-ebn-el-As, she became a province
of O m a r’s Saracenic caliphate. In the year a . d . 1517— 953—her valley was overrun
by the Ottoman hordes of S o o l t a n S e e e em ; and has ever since been the spoil of the
Turk:— "
O! Egypte, Egypte! . . . Sola} mpererunt fabuloe et oeque incredibiles posteris . . . sola supe-
rerunt verba lapidibus incisa. Et inhabilabit Ægyptum Scijthus aut (ANGLO-) Indus, aut
aliguis ialfs.[490)
CHRO NO LO G Y — C H IN E S E .
“ The Philosopher said : Sa n 1 (name of his disciple T hseng-tseu) my doctrine is simple and easy
to be understood. Thseng-tseu replied: ‘ th a t is certain.’ The Philosopher having gone' out, his
disciples asked what their master had meant to say. Thseng-tseu responded : ‘ The doctrine of our
master consists uniquely in possessing rectitude of heart, and in loving one’s neiilihor as
oneself.’ ” (491)
Such were the ethics put forth in China by that “ pure Sage ” whom three hundred and
seventy millions of humanity still commemorate, after the lapse of 2330 years, as the
“ most saintly, the most wise, and the most virtuous of human legislatir?:” this was
Chinese “ positive philosophy” in the Vlth century before Christ; already at the second
period of its historical development. (492)
. f bcrat a century later, in a distinct Asiatic world, the school of E zra at Jerusalem embodied
a similar conception in the compilation termed Deuteronomy, or “ secondary law:” (493)
(490) Bootes of H ermes-Me ro ciud s T r ism h h s t o s ’s dialogue witfi Ascfep*«,— GumoN : Appeal to the Anti-
quaries: London, Madden, 1841, passim.
(491) The LUN-YU, or The Philosophical Conversations, of K u o d n s-i s e u (Confucius); ch. iv. v. 15: Livres
Sacrés de l’Orient, p. 183.
(492) P a ü t h ie r : Histoiredelà Philosophie Chinoise; Bevue Indépendante, Aug. 1844; tirage h p a rt p ,9.
( 93) N. B. My justification of this date is contained in the suppressed portions of our vol. ; supra, pp. 626-7.