feudal system, which had anciently prevailed
among the chiefs of nomes or cantons, re-established itself for the
advantage of the members of the reigning house. The Pharaoh of the time
continued to reside at Memphis, or at Bubastis, to receive the taxes, to
direct as far as was possible the central administration, and to preside
at the grand ceremonies of religion, such as the enthronement or the
burial of an Apis-Bull; but, in point of fact, Egypt found itself
divided into a certain number of principalities, some of which comprised
only a few towns, while others extended over several continuous cantons.
After a time the chiefs of these principalities were emboldened to
reject the sovereignty of the Pharaoh altogether; relying on their bands
of Libyan mercenaries, they usurped, not only the functions of royalty,
but even the title of king, while the legitimate dynasty, cooped up in a
corner of the Delta, with difficulty preserved a certain remnant of
authority."

Upon disintegration followed, as a natural consequence, quarrel and
disturbance. In the reign of Takelut II., the grandson of Osorkon II.,
troubles broke out both in the north and in the south. Takelut's eldest
son, Osorkon, who was High-Priest of Ammon, and held the government of
Thebes and the other provinces of the south, was only able to maintain
the integrity of the kingdom by means of perpetual civil wars. Under his
successors, Sheshonk III., Pamai, and Sheshonk IV., the revolts became
more and more serious. Rival dynasties established themselves at Thebes,
Tanis, Memphis, and elsewhere. Ethiopia grew more powerful as Egypt
declined, and threatened ere long to establish a preponderating
influence over the entire Nile valley. But the Egyptian princes were too
jealous of each other to appreciate the danger which threatened them. A
very epidemic of decentralization set in; and by the middle of the
eighth century, just at the time when Assyria was uniting together and
blending into one all the long-divided tribes and nations of Western
Asia, Egypt suicidally broke itself up into no fewer than twenty
governments!

Such a condition of things was, of course, fatal to literature and art.
Art, as has been said, "did not so much decline as disappear." After
Sheshonk I. no monarch of the line left any building or sculpture of the
slightest importance. The very tombs became unpretentious, and merely
repeated antique forms without any of the antique spirit. Each Api