s after him. They kept the temples shut
during the whole time of their long reigns; and forbid the offering of
sacrifices under the severest penalties. On the other hand, they oppressed
their subjects by employing them in the most grievous and useless works;
and sacrificed the lives of numberless multitudes of men, merely to
gratify a senseless ambition of immortalizing their names by edifices of
an enormous magnitude, and a boundless expense. It is remarkable, that
those stately pyramids, which have so long been the admiration of the
whole world, were the effect of the irreligion and merciless cruelty of
those princes.

MYCERINUS.(433) He was the son of Cheops, but of a character opposite to
that of his father. So far from walking in his steps, he detested his
conduct, and pursued quite different measures. He again opened the temples
of the gods, restored the sacrifices, did all that lay in his power to
comfort his subjects, and make them forget their past miseries; and
believed himself set over them for no other purpose but to exercise
justice, and to make them taste all the blessings of an equitable and
peaceful administration. He heard their complaints, dried their tears,
alleviated their misery, and thought himself not so much the master as the
father of his people. This procured him the love of them all. Egypt
resounded with his praises, and his name commanded veneration in all
places.

One would naturally conclude, that so prudent and humane a conduct must
have drawn down on Mycerinus the protection of the gods. But it happened
far otherwise. His misfortunes began from the death of a darling and only
daughter, in whom his whole felicity consisted. He ordered extraordinary
honours to be paid to her memory, which were still continued in
Herodotus's time. This historian informs us, that in the city of Sais,
exquisite odours were burnt, in the day-time, at the tomb of this
princess; and that during the night, a lamp was kept constantly burning.

He was told by an oracle, that his reign would continue but seven years.
And as he complained of this to the gods, and inquired the reason why so
long and prosperous a reign had been granted to his father and uncle, who
were equally cruel and impious, whilst his own, which he had endeavoured
so carefully to render as equitable and mild as it was possible for him to
do, should be so short and unhappy; he was answered, that these were the
very causes of it, it being the will