Virginia Argus. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1796-1816, 1811-05-09
HISTORICAL LETTERS.
To the Editor Of the Virginia Arsus.
LETTER III.
OF The E~ubfi01s.

on the eartt: their commencement i
unknown to us; in searching into their
history we 6nd th-m az an early peri.
cd familiar with the arts and sciences.
and with every species ofhuman know.
ledge, which proves a long-existing
state OF society. They are themselves
as Ignorant as we are of the antiquity
OF their origin, which they magnify in.
10 duration oftwenty thousand years.
Their history is as fabulous as their
chronology. They represent to us that
the Gods were their first rulers after
that, the demi gods; and subsequent-
~, numberlsss dynasties and ,hronr
OF sovereighs in which is TO be found
much OF ianle, great deal of obscuri.
ty, and very few incidents. They
boast, however, OF Sesostris. whose
conquests, or. more properly speaking.
whose military march Gf We could
give credit to i) embraced the major
part OF Asia, and who penetrated 10
the verge of Europe. Be that as il
may, TITS at least certain that this i. the
only time that this people are mention.
ed as conquerors. Their DESTINY has
uniformly been that of subiueation or
submission. We may reduce to three
principal points, all that it WORTHY of
observation of the numerous detail,
which hll the different volumes thar
give an account of The Egyptians that
IS TO say list. The stae of their c;-
v'llzation. I'd. The colonies which
they founded. Sd. The monumen,a
which they have left behind them.
Civilization O. the Egyptians.
The Egyptians lived under reru.
lar governmer,. they were acqr ainted
with the distribution Of power into CT
vi, military, AID religious they rad
resPsefable magistrates, wise laws,
estaHisse horais, and reigning Gus
toms.t "a Ford, they poss sed all
these braMhss of order which charae.
terise STATE of complete civil zation.
Many OF their laws and customs merit
our attention as well as curiosity.
Inc marvellous period OF Egyptian
history, that which excites our aston
Ishment and awakens our admiration.
either by the wisdom of her laws or
the imn~nsity of her monuments, is
precisely that which is least known to
us and 1t would be al.oge ether unavaiI.
ing to attempt to penetrate it. We do
not possess single literary work of
the ancient Egyptians. Al that we
know ancIrnty of these people is der,y.
ed from the Holy Scriptures, or from
the Greeks, and chiefly from Herodo-
tus, who saw the objects which he de-
scrIbes, and received those interpreta-
tons with respect to their monuments
which he has transmitted to us.
About three centuries therea fer.
Manetho, an Egyptian, the high D lest
and guardian of the sacred archives,
has given the history OK his country
by order of one of the Ptolomies. Ill
is from him that we learn the existence
Of The thirty dynasties, which, accord
ing to his calculation, gives to the f.
Egyptian monarchy, computing from its
origin to the time of Alexander the
Great, a duration of $500 years. II
IS well, however, to observe 10 the rea
der, 10 order to- regulate his confidence
in the assertions of Manetho, that al |
though high priest, he was not enabled,
owing to the many revolutions that
had occurred in Egypt, to do more
than afford general Interpretation of
the hieroglyphics, there remaining az
the time he wrote no faithful tradition |
OF the exact sense in which they were
originally iotepded. Moreover, this |
work has been lost, and we are no o. |
therwise acquainted with it than by |
those fragments cited by Josephus, the |
Jewish historian.
Much later still than Manetho and
about the time' of Augustus, Dio-
doros Siculus, S!rabo, and Piny, wrote !
upon the same subject. The concur-
renee or disagreement Of these differ
ent testimonies constitute and will,
most probably, continue to constitute
at all future periods the sum Of our
knowledge relative TO the primitive
Egyptians. In vain the expedition of
the French into Egypt, the talents and
the zeal Of those philosophers who fol-
lowed IN the train of Bonaparte's army,
held out the prospect of new discove-
O.