ed the island of
Cyprus and Cole-Syria, including Judaea; and his throne became stronger
as his life drew to an end. With a wisdom rare in kings and conquerors,
he had never let his ambition pass his means; he never aimed at
universal power; and he was led, both by his kind feelings and
wise policy, to befriend all those states which, like his own, were
threatened by that mad ambition in others.

His history of Alexander's wars is lost, and we therefore cannot judge
of his merits as an author; but we may still point out with pleasure how
much his people gained from his love of letters; though indeed we do not
need the example of Ptolemy to show that learning and philosophy are as
much in place, and find as wide a field of usefulness, in governing
a kingdom as in the employments of the teacher, the lawyer, or the
physician, who so often claim them as their own.

His last public act, in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, was ordered
by the same forbearance which had governed every part of his life.
Feeling the weight of years press heavily upon him, that he was less
able than formerly to bear the duties of his office, and wishing to see
his son firmly seated on the throne, he laid aside his diadem and
his title, and, without consulting either the army or the capital,
proclaimed Ptolemy, his son by Berenice, king, and contented himself
with the modest rank of somatophylax, or satrap, to his successor. He
had used his power so justly that he was not afraid to lay it down;
and he has taught us how little of true greatness there is in rank by
showing how much more there is in resigning it. This is perhaps the most
successful instance known of a king, who had been used to be obeyed by
armies and by nations, willingly giving up his power when he found his
bodily strength no longer equal to it. Ptolemy Soter had the happiness
of having a son willing to follow in the track which he had laid down
for him, and of living to see the wisdom of his own laws proved by the
well-being of the kingdom under his son and successor.

But while we are watching the success of Ptolemy's plans, and the rise
of this Greek monarchy at Alexandria, we cannot help being pained with
the thought that the Kopts of Upper Egypt are forgotten, and asking
whether it would not have been still better to have raised Thebes to
the place which it once held, and to have recalled the days of Ramses,
instead of trying what might seem the hopeless task of planting