gradation of ranks. this," says Plato, in his Republic, "that we established the city to have any one tribe in it remarkably happy beyond the rest; but that the whole city might be in the happiest condition ****. Do not oblige us to confer such a happiness on our guardians, (to make them exclusively happy): for we know, too, how to array the husbandmen in rich and costly robes, and to enjoin them to cultivate the ground only with a view to pleasure; and, in like manner, those who make earthenware, to lie at their ease by the fire, to drink and feast, neglecting the wheel, and working only so much as they incline and we know how to confer a felicity of this nature on every individual, in order to render the whole state happy: but do not advise us to act after this manner; since, if we obey you, neither would the husbandman really be a husbandman, nor the potter be a potter; nor would any other really be of any of those professions of which the city is composed. But, as to others, it is less matter; for when shoemakers become bad, and are degenerate, and profess to be shoemakers when they are not, no great mischief happens to the state: but when the guardians of the law and of the state are not so in reality, but only in appearance, you see how they entirely destroy the whole constitution, if they alone shall have the privilege of an affluent and happy life." (p. 136-7, Spens' Translation.)

"It was not with an eye to

The caution of Machiavel, however, is that of an old and experienced politician: “Mankind being naturally averse to any alteration in their laws and customs, care should be taken that innovation should retain as much as possible the resemblance, at least, of their antient constitution." Mahomed Ali seems to be acting, and has always acted, upon this principle.-EDITOR.

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CHAPTER IX.

Leaving Cairo for Upper Egypt - Saccara-Arab ChristeningMinieh-Siout-Account of the Discovery of Ezra's Hebrew Manuscript, by Mr. S.-Cotton Manufactory at Siout-Effect of the Climate on Machinery-Excavations near Siout-CemeterySale of a Young Slave-El Arabat-Ruins-Gournah.

ON Sunday, the 24th, we left Cairo with three camels' loads of provisions, on a journey into Upper Egypt. The day was fine, and the Nile glittering in the sun. Towards evening we walked

along the sands. Fellahs were at labour in the rich fields adjacent, the river lay an unruffled mirror of the cloudless sky above it, when, on a slight breath of wind rising, we suddenly heard the people of the boat shouting and giving orders. They had just time to furl the great sail, when the wind came on, shaking the palms and rolling clouds of dust along.

On Monday we got to Saccara at 10 A.M., and went up to the village, where we met Georgio, a Greek, employed in excavating. He accompanied us to Mr. Caviglia's house, near the Colossus. In the evening we were hailed by a shouting from the village. A villager had just been blessed with a son, and it being considered a good omen to have a name from a boat ascending the Nile, we were to give one. We gave Hassan, which was acknowledged with shouts, and, shortly after, a sort of singing and beating time with the hands, from a great number of persons assembled on the occasion.

The Nile-that river which once seemed almost fabulous, produced no great impression upon us, by its beauty or adjacent scenery. The Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube, and the Dnieper, seen in succession, had created too extravagant expectations of the stream, which was to surpass them all. But this feeling of partial disappointment, vanishes before the unqualified gratification experienced, on reflecting that the

river before you has been the wonder of the mighty ones of yore, of the Pharaohs and Cæsars. In such a moment you seem to overstep the limits of destiny and to be communing with past ages-not, as on the Tiber, with ages that have acquired renown from authentic history, and where the certainty of facts fetters the imagination, and reduces things to the level of common life, but with dynasties that preceded history, or despised written records, and transmitted their glories to posterity by visible and imperishable memorials. The reflections, therefore, to which this country gives rise, differ much from those excited by visiting Italy--they are mixed with a kind of awe -they relate to objects almost unknown, and pass naturally into the infinite. The delight with which the traveller looks upon the Nile is truly great. Much of the country is waste-endless plains of sand stretch round it, and it owes its social existence to the overflows of the Nile, which created Egypt, and still shields it from the encroachments of a relentless enemy.

Our excursion to Upper Egypt proved to be a most prosperous and interesting journey. By the great success of a new instrument, we made sketches of all the principal remains. Daily we rejoiced that the political clouds at Constantinople did not prevent our pursuing our journey. Europeans judge harshly of the Turks, and hence, under exciting circumstances, believe that the laws