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self very sedulous in propagating the same doctrine among the Romans. (Georg. iv. 220-7; Æn. vi. 750.) These two nations were of opinion, that death separated the soul from the body; they were, therefore, no longer concerned about the perishable part of man; and being enlightened by the rays of rational philosophy through the mists of error and superstition, they looked forward to a future state, as a reward for the virtuous, and a punishment for the damned. The Egyptians, on the contrary, were more solicitous to preserve the material part from putrefaction and injury, conceiving that the soul was inseparable from its body so long as the latter was free from corruption. Inspired by this superstition, they studied and put in practice every means of preserving the human frame: they applied to the study of natural history to discover the virtues of simples, and provided buildings of the greatest magnitude and durability as depositories for the dead, which still remain the most stupendous monuments of human labor in the world. That the pyramids were built as sepulchres for the Kings, there appears no reason to doubt; this is fully testified by modern travellers. Besides, Diodorus says expressly, that Chemmis aud Cephron constructed them for this purpose.3 The principal care of the Egyptians was turned to the preserving the dead; they looked upon their houses as temporary dwellings, but to their cemeteries they gave the name of the Eternal Mansions. (Diod. 1. i. p. 60.)

Among the three modes of embalming, that adopted by the rich was very tedious in its process, and expensive in its preparation. As soon as a man of any consideration died, the relations of the deceased, after the most violent expressions of grief, sent for the embalmer, who carried away the corpse. The first part of the operation was, to extract the brains through the nostrils with a crooked instrument of iron; for the more ready performance of which the medium septum of the nose was

At cum frigida mors anima seduxerit artus. Virg.
Θυμὸν ἀπὸ μελέων δῦναι δόμον Αϊδος εἴσω, Hom.

Επειδὰν (ἡ ψυχὴ) τοῦ σώματος δίχα γένηται. Xenoph.

2 It is remarkable that Homer does not mention the pyramids, although he celebrates Thebes and its hundred gates, and frequently alludes to Egypt. This is a presumption that they were built a little before or after the age in which this poet florished. Diodorus informs us, that these extraordinary works were built a thousand years before his time; this agrees very nearly with the age of Homer.

3 Pliny's words, pecuniæ otiosa ac stulta ostentatio, are more idle and foolish than the conduct which he condemns; for the motive of building these enormous works was political as well as religious.

1

cut away; the vacuities were then filled up with perfumes and aromatic compositions. After this, the body was opened with much ceremony. For this purpose the priest made a mark on the left side just above the hip, to show how far the incision was to be made. A particular officer made an opening with a very sharp Ethiopian stone. As soon as the people saw this, they pelted him with stones, and pursued him with maledictions; for the Egyptians looked with abhorrence upon any one who offered violence to a human body either dead or alive. The embalmer then inserted his hand, and drew out all the viscera except the heart and kidneys, while the bowels were washed with odours. (Diod. p. 102.) The entrails were not restored to the abdomen, but from a religious motive they were thrown into the Nile. (Plut. vol. ii. p. 159, fol. Paris, 1624.) Afterwards, the belly was filled with cinnamon, myrrh, and other odoriferous drugs; and then the orifice of the wound was closed. The body outwardly was anointed with the oil of cedars and other preservatives for 30 days. This length of time was necessary to administer the preparations for drying it and preventing its putrefaction. At the expiration of this term the corpse was again washed, and wrapped up in many folds of linen, painted with sacred characters, and seasoned with gums and other glutinous matter. This renders the cloth so durable, that it has preserved its consistence even to the present day, as many of the specimens, lately exhibited in this country, fully testify. These swathes of cere-cloth were so manifold, that there are seldom less than a thousand yards of filleting about one body; and so ingeniously were the wrappings managed, that the lineaments of the deceased were easily discernible, even though the face was covered with a kind of mask fitted with mastic. the breast was spread a broader piece of cere-cloth, on which was inscribed some memorable sentiment; but, for the most part, having the figure of a woman with expanded arms. The embalmer having done his duty, the mummy4 was sent back to

On

'Probably the same kind of stone used in circumcision. Exod. ch. iv.

v. 25.

2 Mr. Belzoni assures us, that the vases or urns exhibited in London contained the bowels of mummies; but it is more probable that they are the reconditories of the ibis, or other sacred animals.

̓Αποθανόντας δὲ ταριχεύοντες, θάπτουσι ἐν ἱρῇσι θήκησι. Herod.

3 The spices, which the Ishmaelitish merchants were carrying into Egypt when Joseph was sold, were no doubt designed for embalming. Gen. ch. xxxvii. v. 25.

+ Momia or Mumia, quasi Amomia, i. e. cadaver amomo conditum:

the kindred of the defunct, who deposited it in a wooden coffin, made of a species of sycamore, called in Egypt Pharaoh's fig-tree. Some few coffins have been found of solid stone; a miniature model of one in marble was to be seen at Belzoni's exhibition, from which he says the body had been taken. The top of the wooden coffin or mummy-chest was carved in the shape of a woman's head, the face being richly painted; the rest of the trunk was adorned with hieroglyphics, and the lower end was broad and flat like a pedestal, on which the coffin was placed erect in the place designed for its reception. The body of Joseph was put in a coffin. Gen. ch. 1. v. 26. The corpse was lastly conveyed down the Nile to its final destination, in a vessel called Baris. The mode just described was the most expensive, and adopted by the rich only; those, however, who were unable or unwilling to go to so great an expense, had recourse to a more simple process.

A quantity of cedar-oil and aromatic liquors was injected, by means of a syringe, into the body at the anus; after this it was laid in nitre for seventy days, when the pipe was withdrawn, and the oil, running out, carried with it the paunch and entrails, while the nitre consumed the flesh, leaving nothing but skin and bones.

The bodies of the poorer people were filled with a nitrous composition, which had such virtue and efficacy as to consume the intestines. They were afterwards wrapt up in bundles of reed, or branches of the palm-tree. (Herod. lib. ii. c. 87.) The same care was bestowed on the sacred animals, such as the ibis, the dog, the cat, the ape, the scarabæus, the sheep, and in some parts, the crocodile ;3 but more especially, on the sacred apis, or ox, whose festivals were celebrated with great solemnity and rejoicings.

What raillery have this superstitious people been exposed to from their sottish veneration for irrational creatures! Herodotus,

Vossius. For the Amomus, brought from Syria, was a principal ingredient in the medicaments; it was mixed with spices to make that ointment with which the body was seasoned.

The catacombs were ransacked by the Persians on the invasion of Egypt by Cambyses, son of the great Cyrus. Herodotus states, that this infuriate prince ordered the body of Amasis, the late king, to be untombed and burnt. Lib. iii. c. 16.

2 Bápis, navigii genus, Suidas: hence is probably derived our English word, bier.

3 Τοῖσι μὲν δὴ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἱροί εἰσι οἱ κροκόδειλοι, τοῖσι δ ̓ οὔ, ἀλλ ̓ ἅτε πολεμίους Apérov, Herod. Omne fere genus bestiarum Ægyptii consecrarunt. Cic. de Nat. iii, 39.

Diodorus, and Ælian, are consentient in their ridicule of this stupid idolatry. When a house was on fire, the father of a family would be more anxious to rescue his cat from the flames, than to save his wife, his children, or property. (Herod. I. ii. c. 66.) So infatuated were they, that mothers accounted it a blessing (oh, horror!) for their children to be devoured by the ravenous crocodile; they gloried that their offspring became food to that fierce creature. (Ælian. de Nat. Animal. 1. 10. c. 21.) Nay, more, in the extremities of famine it is said that this deluded people would rather eat one another than lay violent hands on these disgusting objects of worship. (Diod. lib. i. p. 93.) Juvenal exposes these enormities in nervous and eloquent language:

Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens
Ægyptus portenta colat? Crocodilon adorat
Pars hæc; illa pavet saturam serpentibus ibim.
Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitheci,
Dimidio magicæ resonant ubi Memnone chordæ,
Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis.
Illic caruleos, hic piscem fluminis, illic

Oppida tota canem venerantur; nemo Dianam.
Porrum et cepe nefas violare et frangere morsu!
O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis
Numina! Lanatis animalibus abstinet omnis
Mensa. Nefas illic fœtum jugulare capellæ :
Carnibus humanis vesci licet!-

Juv. Sat. xv. 1-13.

C. H.

NOTICE OF

IDYLLIA HEROICA DECEM, Librum Phaleuciorum Unum, partim jam primo partim iterum atque tertio edit Savagius LANDOR. Accedit Quæstiuncula cur Poëtæ Latini recentiores minus legantur. Pisis, MDCCCxx.

No. III. [Continued from No. LII. p. 232.]

THE length to which this article has already reached, extending through two numbers of the Journal, renders it necessary for us to confine our notice of Mr. Landor's Quæstiuncula" within as narrow limits as possible. It

is a dissertation on the benefits to be derived from the cultivation of the Latin tongue as the language of literature, and especially of poetry; and on the causes of the neglect which the modern Latin poets have so generally experienced; with a multitude of collateral remarks "de rebus omnibus et quibusdam aliis"-on all matters, philological, critical, and political, which are in any way connected with the above subject. We shall not enter into an examination of the arguments by which Mr. L. supports his hypotheses; still less shall we propound any opinions of our own; as such a discussion, besides transcending our limits, would demand a knowledge of the subject to which we have no pretensions. We shall content ourselves with a brief character of the work, and a selection of some of the most prominent passages. Were we, indeed, to quote all that we think good, we should transcribe nearly the whole essay. There is scarcely a sentence which is not either original, brilliant, or caustic, just in conception, or happy in illustration. The work is indeed rendered more fit for the purposes of quotation by being rather a succession of shining parts, than a systematic whole; so that, although the main subject is seldom lost sight of, yet it is often difficult to discover any arrangement. It resembles nothing so much as one of his friend Southey's excursive articles in the Quarterly Review; there is the same vivacity of manner, the same unhesitating confidence of assertion, and the same proneness to step out of the direct line of the subject for the purpose of introducing an original remark or curious anecdote. The Essay is indeed less valuable for the information it communicates on its ostensible subject, than for the golden sentences and exquisite imagery which drop from the author as it were unconsciously, like the distillations from a spice-tree. His opinions are a singular medley of good sense and eccentricity; the most extravagant paradoxes occur side by side with the profoundest truths: and both are alike promulgated with a reckless daring which almost defies criticism. Yet there is truth even in his wildest errors; nor can we avoid respecting the manly independence with which he tramples on the prejudices of party and system, unfettered by a servile adherence to old opinions, and undazzled by the sophistries and pretensions of false liberality. It is refreshing to meet with a writer who takes so enlarged and commanding a view of all subjects. To him the age in which he lives is only one of many, to each of which he is called to mete its

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