esirous
here only of conveying to the general reader, in an intelligible manner,
some idea of the discoveries that are now unfolding themselves to the
Egyptian antiquarian, and of wandering with him for a moment amid the
marvellous creations of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, with a talisman
which shall unfold for his instruction and amusement their mystical and
romantic history.

I approach this mighty temple. A goose and globe, encircled in an oval,
at once inform me that it was constructed by a 'Son of the Sun,' or
a 'Phrah,' or 'Pharaoh.' It is remarkable that the Greeks never once
mention this memorable title, simply because they have always translated
it by their celebrated personification, 'Sol,' or 'Apollo.' In the
obelisk of Hermapion, given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we should therefore
read, in the third column, instead of 'the powerful Apollo,' 'the
powerful Phrah, the all-splendid Son of the Sun.' Proceeding with the
inscription, I also discover that the temple was constructed by Rameses
the Second, a monarch of whom we have more to hear, and who also raised
some of the most wonderful monuments of Thebes.

The first step of the Egyptian student should be to eradicate from his
mind all recollection of ancient authors. When he has arrived at his
own results, he may open Herodotus with interest, read Diodorus with
suspicion; but, above all, he will then learn to estimate the value of
the hitherto reviled Manetho, undoubtedly the fragments of the work of a
genuine Egyptian writer. The history and theology of ancient Egypt must
be studied on the sculptured walls of its palaces and temples, breathing
with sacred mysteries and heroic warfare; its manners and customs in its
catacombs and sepulchres, where the painter has celebrated the minutest
traits of the social life and the domestic economy of the most ancient
of nations.

Even in the time of Strabo, Egyptian Thebes was a city of enormous
ruins, the origin of which no antiquary could penetrate. We now know
by the inscriptions we decipher that these mighty monuments chiefly
celebrate the achievements of a great conqueror,--Rameses the Second, or
the Great, whom the most rigid critic would be rash to place later than
fifteen hundred years before Christ. These great creations, therefore,
demonstrate the mature civilisation of Egypt far beyond three thousand
years back. Rameses and his illustrious predecessors, the Thothmes
and the Amunophs, are described as monar