Receive, dear friend, the truths I teachSo shalt thou live beyond the reachOf adverse Fortune's power;Not always tempt the distant deep,Nor always timorously creepAlong the treacherous shore.He that holds fast the golden mean,And lives contentedly betweenThe little and the great,Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,Embittering all his state.The tallest pines feel most the powerOf wintry blasts; the loftiest towerComes heaviest to the ground;The bolts that spare the mountain's side,His cloud-capt eminence divide,And spread the ruin round.The well-inform'd philosopherRejoices with an wholesome fear,And hopes, in spite of pain;If Winter bellow from the north,Soon the sweet Spring comes dancing forth,And Nature laughs again.What if thine heaven be overcast?[819]The dark appearance will not last;Expect a brighter sky;The god that strings the silver bow,Awakes sometimes the Muses, too,And lays his arrows by.If hindrances obstruct thy way,Thy magnanimity display,And let thy strength be seen;But oh! if Fortune fill thy sailWith more than a propitious gale,Take half thy canvas in.Cowper.
Receive, dear friend, the truths I teachSo shalt thou live beyond the reachOf adverse Fortune's power;Not always tempt the distant deep,Nor always timorously creepAlong the treacherous shore.
He that holds fast the golden mean,And lives contentedly betweenThe little and the great,Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,Embittering all his state.
The tallest pines feel most the powerOf wintry blasts; the loftiest towerComes heaviest to the ground;The bolts that spare the mountain's side,His cloud-capt eminence divide,And spread the ruin round.
The well-inform'd philosopherRejoices with an wholesome fear,And hopes, in spite of pain;If Winter bellow from the north,Soon the sweet Spring comes dancing forth,And Nature laughs again.
What if thine heaven be overcast?[819]The dark appearance will not last;Expect a brighter sky;The god that strings the silver bow,Awakes sometimes the Muses, too,And lays his arrows by.
If hindrances obstruct thy way,Thy magnanimity display,And let thy strength be seen;But oh! if Fortune fill thy sailWith more than a propitious gale,Take half thy canvas in.Cowper.
What youth, O Pyrrha! blooming fair,With rose-twined wreath and perfumed hair,Woos thee beneath yon grotto's shade,Urgent in prayer and amorous glance?For whom dost thou thy tresses braid,Simple in thine elegance?Alas! full soon shall he deploreThy broken faith, thy altered mien:Like one astonished at the roarOf breakers on a leeward shore,Whom gentle airs and skies sereneHad tempted on the treacherous deep,So he thy perfidy shall weepWho now enjoys thee fair and kind,But dreams not of the shifting wind.Thrice wretched they, deluded and betrayed,Who trust thy glittering smile and Siren tongue!I have escaped the shipwreck, and have hungIn Neptune's fane my dripping vest displayed[820]With votive tablet on his altar laid,Thanking the sea-god for his timely aid.Lord Ravensworth.
What youth, O Pyrrha! blooming fair,With rose-twined wreath and perfumed hair,Woos thee beneath yon grotto's shade,Urgent in prayer and amorous glance?For whom dost thou thy tresses braid,Simple in thine elegance?Alas! full soon shall he deploreThy broken faith, thy altered mien:Like one astonished at the roarOf breakers on a leeward shore,Whom gentle airs and skies sereneHad tempted on the treacherous deep,So he thy perfidy shall weepWho now enjoys thee fair and kind,But dreams not of the shifting wind.Thrice wretched they, deluded and betrayed,Who trust thy glittering smile and Siren tongue!I have escaped the shipwreck, and have hungIn Neptune's fane my dripping vest displayed[820]With votive tablet on his altar laid,Thanking the sea-god for his timely aid.Lord Ravensworth.
Seneca was born 7 B.C. and died 65 A.D. His writings were of a philosophical nature. His character was much doubted. His great misfortune was to have known Nero, who ordered him to be put to death, to which he merely replied that he who had murdered his brother and his mother could not be expected to spare his teacher. He had been absent from Rome some time, and when he returned to visit his mother in the country, he was spied, and Nero sent a squad of armed men to the house to ask him to choose the manner of his death. His fame rests on his numerous writings, which, with all their faults, have great merits. His principal works, which are of a philosophical character, are essays "On Anger," "On Consolation," "On Providence," "On Tranquillity of Mind," "On the Firmness of the Wise Man," "On Clemency," "On the Brevity of Human Life," "On a Happy Life," etc., together with "Epistles of Lucilius," one hundred and twenty-four in number. Besides these, there are extant ten tragedies attributed to him, entitled,Hercules Furens,Thyestes,ThebaisorPhœnissæ,HippolytusorPhædra,Œdipus,TroadesorHecuba,Medea,Agamemnon,Hercules ŒtæusandOctavia. These were never intended for the stage, but were designed for reading or recitation, after the Roman fashion. They contain many striking passages, and have some merits as poems.
Taking it for granted thathuman happinessis founded uponwisdomandvirtue, we shall treat of these two points in order as they lie, andfirstofwisdom; not in the latitude of its various operations, but only as it has a regard to good life and the happiness of mankind.
Wisdom is a right understanding; a faculty of discerning good from evil; what is to be chosen, and what rejected; a judgment grounded upon the value of things, and not the common opinion of them; an equality of force and strength of resolution. It sets a watch over our words and deeds, it takes us up with the contemplation of the works of nature, and makes us invincible by either good or evil fortune. It is large and spacious, and requires a great deal of room to work in; it ransacks heaven and earth; it has for its object things past and to come, transitory and eternal. It examines all the circumstances of time; "what it is, when it began, and how long it will continue;" and so for the mind; "whence it came; what it is; when it begins; how long it lasts; whether or no it passes from one form to another, or serves only one, and wanders when it leaves us; where it abides in the state of separation, and what the action of it; what use it makes of its liberty; whether or no it retains the memory of things past, and comes to the knowledge of itself." It is the habit of a perfect mind and the perfection of humanity, raised as high as nature can carry it. It differs fromphilosophy, as avarice and money; the one desires, and the other is desired; the one is the effect and the reward of the other. To be wise is the use of wisdom, as seeing is the use of eyes and well-speaking the use of eloquence. He that is perfectly wise is perfectly happy; nay, the very beginning of wisdom makes life easy to us. Neitheris it enough to know this, unless we print it in our minds by daily meditation, and so bring agood willto a good habit. And we must practice what we preach, forphilosophyis not a subject for popular ostentation, nor does it rest in words, but in things. It is not an entertainment taken up for delight, or to give a taste to leisure, but it fashions the mind, governs our actions, tells us what we are to do, and what not. It sits at the helm, and guides us through all hazards; nay, we can not be safe without it, for every hour gives us occasion to make use of it. It informs us in all the duties of life, piety to our parents, faith to our friends, charity to the miserable, judgment in counsel; it gives uspeace, byfearingnothing, andriches, bycoveting nothing.
There is no condition of life that excludes a wise man from discharging his duty. If his fortune be good, hetempersit; if bad, hemastersit; if he has an estate, he will exercise his virtue in plenty, if none, in poverty; if he can not do it in his country, he will do it in banishment; if he has no command, he will do the office of a common soldier. Some people have the skill of reclaiming the fiercest of beasts: they will make a lion embrace his keeper, a tiger kiss him, and an elephant kneel to him. This is the case of a wise man in the extremest difficulties; let them be never so terrible in themselves, when they come to him once, they are perfectly tame. They that ascribe the invention of tillage, architecture, navigation, etc., to wise men, may perchance be in the right, that they were invented by wise men; but they were not invented by wise men, aswise men; for wisdom does not teach our fingers, but our minds: fiddling and dancing, arms and fortifications, were the works of luxury and discord; but wisdom instructs us in the way of nature, and in the arts of unity and concord; not in the instruments, but in the government of life; nor to make us live only, but to live happily. She teaches us what things are good, what evil, and what only appear so; andto distinguish betwixt true greatness and tumor. She clears our minds of dross and vanity; she raises up our thoughts to heaven, and carries them down to hell; she discourses on the nature of the soul, the powers and faculties of it; the first principles of things; the order of providence: she exalts us from things corporeal to things incorporeal; and retrieves the truth of all: she searches nature, gives laws to life; and tells us, "that it is not enough to know God unless we obey Him." She looks upon all accidents as acts of providence; sets a true value upon things; delivers us from false opinions, and condemns all pleasures that are attended with repentance. She allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful, that is not master of himself;—and this is the felicity of human life; a felicity that can neither be corrupted nor extinguished.
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EUCLID.ToList
It is good for every man to fortify himself on his weak side; and if he loves his peace, he must not be inquisitive and harken to tale-bearers; for the man that is over-curious to hear and see everything, multiplies troubles to himself; for a man does not feel what he does not know. He that is listening after private discourse, and what people say of him, shall never be at peace. How many things that are innocent in themselves, are made injurious yet by misconstruction? Wherefore some things we are to pause upon, others to laugh at, and others again to pardon. Or if we can not avoid the sense of indignities, let us, however, shun the open profession of it; which may be easily done, asappears by many examples of those who have suppressed their anger, under the awe of a greater fear. It is a good caution not to believe anything until you are very certain of it; for many probable things prove false, and a short time will make evidence of the undoubted truth. We are prone to believe many things which we are unwilling to hear, and so we conclude, and take up a prejudice before we can judge. Never condemn a friend unheard; or without letting him know his accuser, or his crime. It is a common thing to say, "Do not tell that you had it from me; for if you do, I will deny it; and never tell you anything again." By which means friends are set together by the ears, and the informer slips his neck out of the collar. Admit no stories, upon these terms; for it is an unjust thing to believe in private, and be angry openly. He that delivers himself up to guess and conjecture, runs a great hazard; for there can be no suspicion without some probable grounds; so that without much candor and simplicity, and making the best of everything, there is no living in society with mankind. Some things that offend us we have by report; others we see or hear. In the first case, let us not be too credulous; some people frame stories that may deceive us; others only tell us what they hear, and are deceived themselves; some make it their sport to do ill offices; others do them only to receive thanks; there are some that would part the dearest friends in the world; others love to do mischief, and stand off aloof to see what comes of it. If it be a small matter, I would have witnesses; but if it be a greater, I would have it upon oath, and allow time to the accused, and counsel, too, and hear it over and over again.
It is not well done to be still murmuring against nature and fortune, as if it were their unkindness that makes you inconsiderable, when it is only by your own weakness that you make yourself so; for it is virtue, not pedigree, that renders a man either valuable or happy. Philosophy does not either reject or choose any man for his quality. Socrates was nopatrician, Cleanthes but anunder-gardener; neither did Plato dignify philosophy by his birth, but by his goodness. All these worthy men are ourprogenitors, if we will but do ourselves the honor to become theirdisciples. The original of all mankind was the same, and it is only a clear conscience that makes any man noble, for that derives even from heaven itself. It is the saying of a great man, that if we could trace our descents we should find all slaves to come from princes and all princes from slaves. But fortune has turned all things topsy-turvy, in a long story of revolutions. It is most certain that our beginning had nothing before it, and our ancestors were some of them splendid, others sordid, as it happened. We have lost the memorials of our extraction; and, in truth, it matters not whence we come, but whither we go. Nor is it any more to our honor the glory of our predecessors, than it is to their shame the wickedness of their posterity. We are all of us composed of the same elements; why should we, then, value ourselves upon our nobility of blood, as if we were not all of us equal, if we could but recover our evidence? But when we can carry it no farther, theheraldprovides us someheroto supply the place of an illustrious original, and there is the rise of arms and families. For a man to spend his life in pursuit of a title, that serves only when he dies, to furnish out anepitaph, is below a wise man's business.
Every man knows without telling, that this wonderful fabric of the universe is not without a Governor, and that a constant order can not be the work of chance, for the parts would then fall foul one upon another. The motions of the stars, and their influences, are acted by the command of an eternal decree. It is by the dictate of an Almighty Power, that the heavy body of the earth hangs in balance. Whence come the revolutions of the seasons and the flux of the rivers? the wonderful virtue of the smallest seeds? as anoakto arise from anacorn. To say nothing of those things that seem to be most irregular and uncertain; as clouds, rain, thunder, the eruptions of fire out of mountains, earthquakes, and those tumultuary motions in the lower region of the air, which have their ordinate causes, and so have those things, too, which appear to us more admirable because less frequent; as scalding fountains and new islands started out of the sea; or what shall we say of the ebbing and flowing out of the ocean, the constant times and measures of the tides, according to the changes of the moon that influences most bodies; but this needs not, for it is not that we doubt of providence, but complain of it. And it were a good office to reconcile mankind to the gods, who are undoubtedly best to the best. It is against nature that good should hurt good. A good man is not only the friend of God, but the very image, the disciple, and the imitator of Him, and a true child of his heavenly Father. He is true to himself, and acts with constancy and resolution.
Plutarch was born A.D. 90, in Chæronea, a city of Bœotia. To him we are indebted for so many of the lives of the philosophers, poets, orators and generals of antiquity. No book has been more generally sought after or read with greater avidity than "Plutarch's Lives." However ancient, either Greek or Latin, none has received such a universal popularity. But the character of Plutarch himself, not less than his method of writing biography, explains his universal popularity, and gives its special charm and value to his book. He was a man of large and generous nature, of strong feeling, of refined tastes, of quick perceptions. His mind had been cultivated in the acquisition of the best learning of his times, and was disciplined by the study of books as well as of men. He deserves the title of philosopher; but his philosophy was of a practical rather than a speculative character—though he was versed in the wisest doctrines of the great masters of ancient thought, and in some of his moral works shows himself their not unworthy follower. Above all, he was a man of cheerful and genial temper. A lover of justice and of liberty, his sympathies are always on the side of what is right, noble and honorable.
He was educated at Delphi and improved himself by the advantages of foreign travel. On his return he was employed by his country on an embassy to Rome, where he opened a school for youth, employing all his leisure time at that capital of the world and chief seat of erudition in acquiring those vast stores of learning which he afterwards read for the delight and instruction of mankind. "It must be borne in mind," he says, "that my design is not to write histories, but lives. And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearestdiscoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever. Therefore, as portrait-painters are more exact in the lines and features of the face, in which the character is seen, than in the other parts of the body, so I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks and indications of the souls of men; and, while I endeavor by these to portray their lives, may be free to leave more weighty matters and great battles to be treated by others."
Sylla being thus wholly bent upon slaughter, and filling the city with executions without number or limit, many wholly uninterested persons falling a sacrifice to private enmity, through his permission and indulgence to his friends, Caius Metellus, one of the younger men, made bold in the senate to ask him what end there was of these evils, and at what point he might be expected to stop? "We do not ask you," said he, "to pardon any whom you have resolved to destroy, but to free from doubt those whom you are pleased to save." Sylla answering, that he knew not as yet whom to spare, "Why, then," said he, "tell us whom you will punish." This Sylla said he would do. These last words, some authors say, were spoken not by Metellus, but by Afidus, one of Sylla's fawning companions. Immediately upon this, without communicating with any of the magistrates, Sylla proscribed eighty persons, and notwithstanding the general indignation, after one day's respite he posted two hundred andtwenty more, and on the third, again, as many. In an address to the people on this occasion, he told them he had put up as many names as he could think of; those that had escaped his memory he would publish at a future time. He issued an edict likewise, making death the punishment of humanity, proscribing any who should dare to receive and cherish a proscribed person, without exception to brother, son, or parents. And to him who should slay any one proscribed person, he ordained two talents reward, even were it a slave who had killed his master, or a son his father. And what was thought most unjust of all, he caused the attainder to pass upon their sons, and son's sons, and made open sale of all their property. Nor did the proscription prevail only at Rome, but throughout all the cities of Italy the effusion of blood was such, that neither sanctuary of the gods, nor hearth of hospitality, nor ancestral home escaped. Men were butchered in the embraces of their wives, children in the arms of their mothers. Those who perished through public animosity, or private enmity, were nothing in comparison of the numbers of those who suffered for their riches. Even the murderers began to say, that "his fine house killed this man, a garden that, a third, his hot baths." Quintus Aurelius, a quiet, peaceable man, and one who thought all his part in the common calamity consisted in condoling with the misfortunes of others, coming into the forum to read the list, and finding himself among the proscribed, cried out, "Woe is me, my Alban farm has informed against me." He had not gone far, before he was dispatched by a ruffian, sent on that errand.
Omitting an exact comparison of the respective faculties in speaking of Demosthenes and Cicero, yet this much seems fit to be said; that Demosthenes, to make himself a master in rhetoric, applied all the faculties he had, natural or acquired, wholly that way; that he far surpassed in force and strength of eloquence all his cotemporaries in political and judicial speaking, in grandeur and majesty all the panegyrical orators, and in accuracy and science all the logicians and rhetoricans of his day; that Cicero was highly educated, and by his diligent study became a most accomplished general scholar in all these branches, having left behind him numerous philosophical treatises of his own on Academic principles; as, indeed, even in his written speeches, both political and judicial, we see him continually trying to show his learning by the way. And one may discover the different temper of each of them in their speeches. For Demosthenes' oratory was without all embellishment and jesting, wholly composed for real effect and seriousness; not smelling of the lamp, as Pytheas scoffingly said, but of the temperance, thoughtfulness, austerity, and grave earnestness of his temper. Whereas Cicero's love for mockery often ran him into scurrility; and in his love of laughing away serious arguments in judicial cases by jests and facetious remarks, with a view to the advantage of his clients, he paid too little regard to what was decent. Indeed, Cicero was by natural temper very much disposed to mirth and pleasantry, and always appeared with a smiling and serene countenance. But Demosthenes had constant care and thoughtfulness in his look, and a serious anxiety, which he seldom, if ever, set aside, and, therefore, was accounted by his enemies, as he himself confessed, morose and ill-mannered.
ALEXANDER SEVERUS.ALEXANDER SEVERUS.ToList
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Also, it is very evident, out of their several writings, that Demosthenes never touched upon his own praises but decently and without offense when there was need of it, and for some weightier end; but, upon other occasions, modestly and sparingly. But Cicero's immeasurable boasting of himself in his orations argues him guilty of an uncontrollable appetite for distinction, his cry being evermore that arms should give place to the gown, and the soldier's laurel to the tongue. And at last we find him extolling not only his deeds and actions, but his orations, also, as well those that were only spoken, as those that were published. * *
The power of persuading and governing the people did, indeed, equally belong to both, so that those who had armies and camps at command stood in need of their assistance. But what are thought and commonly said most to demonstrate and try the tempers of men, namely, authority and place, by moving every passion, and discovering every frailty, these are things which Demosthenes never received; nor was he ever in a position to give such proof of himself, having never obtained any eminent office, nor led any of those armies into the field against Philip which he raised by his eloquence. Cicero, on the other hand, was sent quæstor into Sicily, and proconsul into Cilicia and Cappadocia, at a time when avarice was at the height, and the commanders and governors who were employed abroad, as though they thought it a mean thing to steal, set themselves to seize by open force; so that it seemed no heinous matter to take bribes, but he that did it most moderately was in good esteem. And yet he, at this time, gavethe most abundant proofs alike of his contempt of riches and of his humanity and good nature. And at Rome, when he was created consul in name, but indeed received sovereign and dictatorial authority against Catiline and his conspirators, he attested the truth of Plato's prediction, that then the miseries of states would be at an end, when by a happy fortune supreme power, wisdom and justice should be united in one. * *
Finally, Cicero's death excites our pity; for an old man to be miserably carried up and down by his servants, flying and hiding himself from that death which was, in the course of nature, so near at hand, and yet at last to be murdered. Demosthenes, though he seemed at first a little to supplicate, yet, by his preparing and keeping the poison by him, demands our admiration; and still more admirable was his using it. When the temple of the god no longer afforded him a sanctuary, he took refuge, as it were, at a mightier altar, freeing himself from arms and soldiers, and laughing to scorn the cruelty of Antipater.
[This seems to have been Plutarch's views of suicide, and, in fact, the spirit of the age in which he lived. From the standpoint of the philosophy of our day, suicide manifests nothing but a weakness and very generally insanity.]
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School of the Vestal VirginsEngraved & Printed by Illman Brothers.SCHOOL OF THE VESTAL VIRGINSToList(WALL-PAINTING POMPEII)FOR THE MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITY
Engraved & Printed by Illman Brothers.
SCHOOL OF THE VESTAL VIRGINSToList
(WALL-PAINTING POMPEII)
FOR THE MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITY
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Respect for the dead, and a considerate regard for the due performance of the rites of burial, have been distinctive features in man in all ages and countries. Among the Greeks and Romans great importance was attached to the burial of the dead, as, if a corpse remained unburied, it was believed that the spirit of the departed wandered for a hundred years on the hither side of the Styx. Hence it became a religious duty to scatter earth over any unburied body which any one might chance to meet. This was considered sufficient to appease the infernal gods. The earliest tomb was the tumulus or mound of earth, heaped over the dead. It is a form naturally suggested to man in the early stages of his development. There are two classes of primitive tombs, which are evidently of the highest antiquity. Thehypergæan, or raised mounds, or tumuli, andhypogæan, which are subterranean or excavated. The tumulus may be considered as the most simple and the most ancient form of sepulture. Its adoption was universal among all primitive nations. Such was the memorial raised by the Greeks over the bodies of their heroes. These raised mounds are to be met with in all countries. The Etruscans improved upon this form by surroundingthe base with a podium, or supporting wall of masonry, as at the Cocumella at Vulci, and in the Regulini-Galassi tomb. The Lydians adopted a similar improvement in the tomb of Alyattes, near Sardis. The pyramid, which is but a further development in stone of this form of sepulture, is not peculiar to Egypt alone, it has been adopted in several other countries. Examples of subterranean tombs are to be found in Egypt, Etruria, Greece. Those of Egypt and Etruria afford instances of extraordinary labor bestowed in excavating and constructing these subterranean abodes of the dead. The great reverence paid by the Egyptians to the bodies of their ancestors, and their careful preservation of them by embalmment, necessitated a great number and vast extent of tombs. The Egyptians called their earthly dwellings inns, because men stay there but a brief while; the tombs of the departed they called everlasting mansions, because the dead dwelt in them forever.
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The pyramids were tombs. These monuments were the last abode of the Kings of the early dynasties. They are to be met with in Lower Egypt alone. The Theban Kings and their subjects erected no pyramids, and none of their tombs are structural. In Upper Egypt numerous excavations from the living rock in the mountains of the Thebaid received their mortal remains. Nothing can exceed the magnificence and care with which these tombs of the Kings were excavated and decorated. It appears to have been the custom with their Kings, so soon as they ascended the throne, to begin preparing their final resting place. The excavation seems to have gone on uninterruptedly, year by year, the painting and adornment being finished as it progressed, till the hand of death ended the King's reign, and simultaneously the works of his tomb. The tomb thus became an index of the length of a King's reign as well as of his magnificence. Their entrance, carefully closed, was frequently indicated by a facade cut on the side of the hill. A number of passages,sometimes intersected by deep wells and large halls, finally led, frequently by concealed entrances, to the large chamber where was the sarcophagus, generally of granite, basalt, or alabaster. The sides of the entire excavation, as well as the roof, were covered with paintings, colored sculptures, and hieroglyphic inscriptions in which the name of the deceased King was frequently repeated. We generally find represented in them the funeral ceremonies, the procession, the visit of the soul of the deceased to the principal divinities, its offerings to each of them, lastly, its presentation by the god who protected it to the supreme god of the Amenti, the under-world or Hades. The splendor of these works, and the richness and variety of their ornamentation, exceed all conception; the figures, though in great number, are sometimes of colossal size; frequently scenes of civil life are mingled with funeral representations; the labors of agriculture, domestic occupations, musicians, dances, and furniture of wonderful richness and elegance, are also figured on them; on the ceiling are generally astronomical or astrological subjects. Several tombs of the Kings of the eighteenth dynasty and subsequent dynasties have been found in the valley of Biban-el-Molouk on the western side of the plain of Thebes. One of the most splendid of these is that opened by Belzoni, and now known as that of Osirei Menepthah, of the nineteenth dynasty. A sloping passage leads to a chamber which has been called "The Hall of Beauty."
Forcing his way farther on, Belzoni found as a termination to a series of chambers a large vaulted hall which contained the sarcophagus which held the body of the monarch, now in Sir John Soane's Museum. The entire extent of this succession of chambers and passages is hollowed to a length of 320 feet into the heart of the rock, and they are profusely covered with the paintings and hieroglyphics usually found in those sepulchral chambers. The tombs of the other Kings, Remeses III. andRemeses Miamun, exhibit similar series of passages and chambers, covered with paintings and sculptures, in endless variety, some representing the deepest mysteries of the Egyptian religion; but, as Mr. Fergusson says, like all the tombs, they depend for their magnificence more on the paintings that adorn the walls than on anything which can strictly be called architecture. One of the tombs atBiban-el Moloukis 862 feet in length without reckoning the lateral chambers; the total area of excavation is 23,809, occupying an acre and a quarter of space for one chamber.
Private individuals were buried according to their rank and fortune. Their tombs, also excavated from the living rock, consisted of one or of several chambers ornamented with paintings and sculptures; the last contained the sarcophagus and the mummy. According to Sir G. Wilkinson, the tombs were the property of the priests, and a sufficient number being always kept ready, the purchase was made at the shortest notice, nothing being requisite to complete even the sculptures or inscriptions but the insertion of the deceased's name and a few statements respecting his family and profession. The numerous subjects representing agricultural scenes, the trades of the people, in short, the various occupations of the Egyptians, varying only in their details and the mode of their execution, were figured in these tombs, and were intended as a short epitome of human life, which suited equally every future occupant. The tombs at Beni Hassan are even of an earlier date than those of Thebes. Among these the tomb of a monarch or provincial governor is of the age of Osirtasen I. The walls of this tomb are covered with a series of representations, setting forth the ordinary occupations and daily avocations of the deceased, thus illustrating the manners and customs of the Egyptians of that age. These representations are a sort of epitome of life, or the career of man, previous to his admission to the mansions of the dead. They were therefore intended to show that the deceased had carefully and dulyfulfilled and performed all the duties and avocations which his situation in life and the reverence due to the gods required. In the cemeteries of Gizeh and Sakkara are tombs of the time of Nephercheres, sixth King of the second dynasty, probably the most ancient in Egypt. Around the great pyramid are numerous tombs of different periods; among them are the tombs of the princes, and other members of the family or time of Khufu. One of the most interesting is that known as Campbell's tomb, of the supposed date of about 660 B.C. It contained a tomb built up in its center, covered by three stones as struts, over which was a semicircular arch of brick. Near it, also, are several tombs of private individuals, who were mostly priests of Memphis. Many of these have false entrances, and several have pits with their mouths at the top of the tomb. The walls are covered with the usual paintings representing the ordinary occupations of the deceased.
Mummies.—The origin of the process of embalming has been variously accounted for. The real origin appears to be this: it was a part of the religious belief of the Egyptians that, as a reward of a well-spent and virtuous life, their bodies after death should exist and remain undecayed forever in their tombs, for we find in the "Book of the Dead" the following inscription placed over the spirits who have found favor in the eyes of the Great God: "The bodies which they have forsaken shallsleep foreverin their sepulchres, while they rejoice in the presence of God most high." This inscription evidently shows a belief in a separate eternity for soul and body; of an eternal existence of the body in the tomb, and of the soul in the presence of God. The soul was supposed to exist as long as the body existed. Hence the necessity of embalming the body as a means to insure its eternal existence. Some have considered that the want of ground for cemeteries, and also the excavations made in the mountains for the extraction of materials employed in the immense buildingsof Egypt, compelled them to have recourse to the expedient of mummification. Others consider the custom arose rather from a sanitary regulation for the benefit of the living. According to Mr. Gliddon, mummification preceded, in all probability, the building of the pyramids and tombs, because vestiges of mummies have been found in the oldest of these, and, in fact, the first mummies were buried in the sand before the Egyptians possessed the necessary tools for excavating sepulchres in the rock. The earliest mode of mummification was extremely simple; the bodies were prepared with natron, or dried in ovens, and wrapped in woolen cloth. At a later period every provincial temple was provided with an establishment for the purpose of mummification. The bodies were delivered to the priests to be embalmed, and after seventy days restored to their friends, to be carried to the place of deposit. The mode of embalming depended on the rank and position of the deceased. There were three modes of embalming; the first is said to have cost a talent of silver (about $1,250); the second, 22 minæ ($300); the third was extremely cheap. The process is thus described by Herodotus;—"In Egypt certain persons are appointed by law to exercise this art as their peculiar business, and when a dead body is brought them they produce patterns of mummies in wood, imitated in painting. In preparing the body according to the most expensive mode, they commence by extracting the brain from the nostrils by a curved hook, partly cleansing the head by these means, and partly by pouring in certain drugs; then making an incision in the side with a sharp Ethiopian stone (black flint), they draw out the intestines through the aperture. Having cleansed and washed them with palm wine, they cover them with pounded aromatics, and afterwards filling the cavity with powder of pure myrrh, cassia, and other fragrant substances, frankincense excepted, they sew it up again. This being done, they salt the body, keeping it in natron during seventy days, to which period they are strictlyconfined. When the seventy days are over, they wash the body, and wrap it up entirely in bands of fine linen smeared on the inner side with gum. The relatives then take away the body, and have a wooden case made in the form of a man, in which they deposit it; and when fastened up they keep it in a room in their house, placing it upright against the wall. (This style of mummy was supposed to represent the deceased in the form of Osiris.) This is the most costly mode of embalming.
"For those who choose the middle kind, on account of the expense, they prepare the body as follows:—They fill syringes with oil of cedar, and inject this into the abdomen without making any incision or removing the bowels; and, taking care that the liquid shall not escape, they keep it in salt during the specified number of days. The cedar-oil is then taken out, and such is its strength that it brings with it the bowels and all the inside in a state of dissolution. The natron also dissolves the flesh, so that nothing remains but the skin and bones. This process being over, they restore the body without any further operation.
"The third kind of embalming is only adapted for the poor. In this they merely cleanse the body by an injection of syrmæa, and salt it during seventy days, after which it is returned to the friends who brought it."
Sir G. Wilkinson gives some further information with regard to the more expensive mode of embalming. The body, having been prepared with the proper spices and drugs, was enveloped in linen bandages sometimes 1,000 yards in length. It was then enclosed in a cartonage fitting close to the mummied body, which was richly painted and covered in front with a network of beads and bugles arranged in a tasteful form, the face being laid over with a thick gold leaf, and the eyes made of enamel. The three or four cases which successively covered the cartonage were ornamented in like manner with painting and gilding, andthe whole was enclosed in a sarcophagus of wood or stone, profusely charged with painting or sculpture. These cases, as well as the cartonage, varied in style and richness, according to the expense incurred by the friends of the deceased. The bodies thus embalmed were generally of priests of various grades. Sometimes the skin itself was covered with gold leaf; sometimes the whole body, the face, or eyelids; sometimes the nails alone. In many instances the body or the cartonage was beautified in an expensive manner, and the outer cases were little ornamented; but some preferred the external show of rich cases and sarcophagi. Some mummies have been found with the face covered by a mask of cloth fitting closely to it, and overlaid with a coating of composition, so painted as to resemble the deceased, and to have the appearance of flesh. These, according to Sir G. Wilkinson, are probably of a Greek epoch. Greek mummies usually differed from those of the Egyptians in the manner of disposing the bandages of the armsand legs. No Egyptian is found with the limbs bandaged separately, as those of Greek mummies. On the breast was frequently placed a scarabæus in immediate contact with the flesh. These scarabæi, when of stone, had their extended wings made of lead or silver. On the cartonage and case, in a corresponding situation above, the same emblem was also placed, to indicate the protecting influence of the Deity. The subjects painted upon the cartonage were the four genii of Amenti, and various emblems belonging to deities connected with the dead. A long line of hieroglyphics extending down the front usually contained the name and quality of the deceased, and the offerings presented by him to the gods; and transverse bands frequently repeated the former, with similar donations to other deities. On the breast was placed the figure of Netpe, with expanded wings, protecting the deceased; sacred arks, boats, and other things were arranged in different compartments, and Osiris, Isis, Anubis, and other deities, were frequently introduced. In some instances Isis was represented throwing her arms round the feet of the mummy, with this appropriate legend: "I embrace thy feet." A plaited beard was attached to the chin when the mummy was that of a man; the absence of this appendage indicated the mummy of a woman.