The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-02-16
The Land of the Nile.


{ Egypt is the Sphinx Of human history.
From the ages before record she has
stood riddle unsolved. The 'iand Of
Egypt is phrase ingrained with all
this minds of Christendom from the
Fearliest years OF childhood as familiarity
Associated with the ''fand of Canaan"
And yet how nebulous, how my
tbical, misty, mysterious, were the
ideas we all formed Of that Land of the
iNilel How remote from all the common
sympathies of modern men did our child
ish conceptions place that far-of region
whence the Chosen People were drawn
from before the wrath of vindictive Pha-
raohsl 1t stood out in idea more as the
fairy hand of fable, than as any part OF
the solid globe we trod. 1t was the Bib
lieal cloud-and OF our imaginations,
darkened and lowering under the
shadows and storms of Pharaohnic cru.
eltes, and anon frightened and bur-
nished by the genial sun-glow OF Jo-
seph's romantic career.
And now that same Land OF the Nile,
where Moses was born and nurtured
and trained to all the wisdom of the
Egyptians; where Abraham, Joseph,
Jacnh, and Christ found refuge, in turn,
from the dangers that beset them in Pal.
estine; the Land where Thales, Solan,
Lgcurgus, Eratosthenes, Arehimedes,
Heroditus, Euclid, Pythagoras, and
Plato were also schooled, like Moses. In
all Egyptian wisdom; and who carried
that wisdom to Greece, and thereby
gave it to the world as the heritage OF
humanity, that land, the home of mys-
terry and the dwelling-plaee of antiquity.
Is once more coming into consequence
before the modern world, as by resur-
reetion from the stony tombs Of her own
royal pyramids.
The events of but a few years past are
operating in marvellous manner to
place that land OF Mizraim once again In
a position most conspicuous among the
nations OF the world. Its subordination
to the Sultan's sceptre is even now but
merely nominal, and that sceptre is
trembling in the Turks enfeebled grasp.
Its civilization is escaping from those
lrammelS characteristic OF the Hamitic
race from the days of the Flood, and Is
putting on the Japhetic type In the full
tillment oil the prophetic utterance, made
In the days of Noah, that the boundaries
Of Japhet should he enlarged. Where
reigned and where their embalmed
bodies still lay, there are now eleven
hundred miles Of telegraph and a thou
sand miles of railroad in operation.
Steam has been applied to irrigation by
turning the Nile waters upon this desert; ;
and the present ruler has added no less
than three hundred and fifty thousand
Rcres to the arabic soil OF the valley Of
the Nile, reclaimed from the sandy
desert; and the work Of reelamat ion
BtIll goes on.
These are but indices OF what is sure
to follow; they are the shadows that pre-
cede the coming events, when both the
scsptre and the scimeter OF the Turk
shall be shattered in both Europe and
Africa, and those Scythian freebeoters
be driven back to their native plains
within the confines of Asia. When that
pccufs, Egypt. under the circumstances
even now surrounding her, can not pre-
rent assimilation with European ciyiii-
cation, and thereby becoming a partiei-
pant In the Japhetic expansion. That
expansion, by reason of physical condi.
tiohs, can have but one direction, sonth-
ward, up the Mile into the interior OF
Africa; and in that direction the space
for expansion is almost infinite.
/: When Yasco de CANA piloted Europe
around Africa, at the Cape of Good
Hope, into the Eastern Seas, he de-
.stroyed the overland carrying trade be.
tween Asia and Europe. Then the des.
ert sands aud waterless wastes OF the
Isthmus OF suez presented y barrier Sc
formidable that commerce chose The
longer oceanro route around the cape, and
Egypt became country almost forgot.
ten and unknown. But, within the past
five years, The discovery Of de Cana has
been ecilpsed by the achievement OF Les.
seps; and once more commerce takes It's
way through Egypt TO the Eastern Seas
Th6re 10 no where unon the round world
IN As-.---s-e~'-