ty of fully appreciating it; and falsehood was
not only considered disgraceful, but when it entailed an injury on any
other person was punishable by law.

A calumniator of the dead was condemned to a severe punishment; and a
false accuser was doomed to the same sentence which would have been
awarded to the accused, if the offense had been proved against him;
but to maintain a falsehood by an oath was deemed the blackest crime,
and one which, from its complicated nature, could be punished by
nothing short of death. For they considered that it involved two
distinct crimes--a contempt for the gods, and a violation of faith
towards man; the former the direct promoter of every sin, the latter
destructive of all those ties which are most essential for the welfare
of society.

The willful murder of a freeman, or even of a _slave_, was punished
with death, from the conviction that men ought to be restrained from
the commission of sin, not on account of any distinction of station in
life, but from the light in which they viewed the crime itself; while
at the same time it had the effect of showing that if the murder of a
slave was deemed an offense deserving of so severe a punishment, they
ought still more to shrink from the murder of one who was a compatriot
and a free-born citizen.

In this law we observe a scrupulous regard to justice and humanity,
and have an unquestionable proof of the great advancement made by the
Egyptians in the most essential points of civilization. Indeed, the
Egyptians considered it so heinous a crime to deprive a man of life,
that to be the accidental witness of an attempt to murder, without
endeavoring to prevent it, was a capital offense, which could only be
palliated by bringing proofs of inability to act.

With the same spirit they decided that to be present when any one
inflicted a personal injury on another, without interfering, was
tantamount to being a party, and was punishable according to the
extent of the assault; and every one who witnessed a robbery was bound
either to arrest, or, if that was out of his power, to lay an
information, and to prosecute the offenders; and any neglect on this
score being proved against him, the delinquent was condemned to
receive a stated number of stripes, and to be kept without food for
three whole days.

Although, in the case of murder, the Egyptian law was inexorable and
severe, the royal prerogative might be exerted in favor of a culprit,
and the p