 | LETTER I. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage |  |
1. LETTER I.
It is with emotions of no ordinary kind, that I
find myself amid the scenes familiar to your eyes, when
forty-six years ago, a young man, you visited Egypt.
Every object upon which I gaze is invested with new
interest as I reflect—“And this my father also saw. On
this pylon he has stood and surveyed the landscape;
and along these corridors, his feet have awakened the
echoes which respond to mine.”
The letters which you wrote from Egypt, during the
reign of the wise Queen Amense, addressed to my royal
grandmother, and which are now in my possession, early
familiarized my mind with this wonderful land; and I
recognize every place of interest, from your descriptions.
There are, however, some changes. Pharaoh-Mœris,
who has been long dead, and his son Meiphra-Thothmes,
Thothmeses his grandson, and Thothmeses IV., the present
king, all inaugurated their reigns by laying the
foundations of temples, palaces, and pyramids; while
the ancient temple of Thoth, in the Island of Rhoda,
where Prince Remeses was hidden three months, and
also all other temples in Egypt. His reign, though
tyrannical, was distinguished by improvement in arts,
in letters, in astronomy, architecture, and arms. His
pyramid is an imposing one, and singularly pre-eminent,
by having an obelisk at each angle. His lake, however,
is this Pharaoh's greatest monument, if I may so
term it.
This lake was begun by former princes, and enlarged
by Queen Amense, in order to receive the surplus waters
of the Nile, when the inundations, as sometimes happen,
arise and overflow the fields after the corn is up. The
lake, however, was not large enough wholly to correct
this evil, and King Mœris still further enlarged it, by
means of the services of the Hebrews, three hundred
thousand of whom, it is said, perished in the work, before
it was completed. It is ample enough in breadth
and depth to contain the excess of the Nile. One of
the wonders of the world, it is only paralleled in grandeur
by the pyramids. In the midst of this magnificent
inland sea—for such it seems—arise two pyramids,
upon the summit of each of which, three hundred and
eight feet in the air, stands upon a throne, shaped like a
chariot, a statue, one being that of Thoth, the other of
Mœris. Upon the former is inscribed—
“The god prospered;” on the other, “Pharaoh builded.”
Beneath this inscription is written—
“This lake is three hundred and forty miles in circumference,
and one hundred and fifty feet in depth. Within
its bounds it can contain all the rivers of the earth.”
This sublime work, my dear father, has upon the east
side a canal eighty feet broad, and four leagues in
length. At its entrance are seated two colossi, figures
of Apis and Mnevis; and along its shores are double
rows of trees, bordering a terrace, upon which face palaces,
villas, temples, gardens, and squares. At the Nile
termination stands a single colossus, representing the
god Nilus. He is astride the canal, his feet upon the
bases of pyramids, and beneath him are great floodgates,
that let in or exclude the waters of the river. On
the south of the lake, upon a plain of sand, Mœris
erected a vast temple to Serapis, dedicated it with great
pomp, and inclosed it by gardens a mile square, the
earth of which was carried by Hebrews in baskets,
from the excavations of the lake. He commenced a
noble avenue of sphinxes, leading from the lake to the
temple, and which has been recently completed by
Thothmeses IV., who last week invited me to be present
at its inauguration. It was a magnificent spectacle,
first the procession of priests and soldiers, nobles and
citizens, with the king and his court, in a thousand galleys,
sailing across the lake; then the landing at the
majestic pylon, the march of the procession for a mile
between the double row of sphinxes, the mighty temple
terminating the vista, and the solemn invocations, libations,
and sacrifices before the god.
I marvel, my dear father, at such splendor having no
other object than a black bull; such glory leading to
an enshrined brute, before whom all this magnificence,
power, and rank fall prostrate, as to God! Happy am
I, O my wise and good father, to have been early instructed
in the knowledge of the true God. I pity while
man, and I often feel like saying to him, “O king,
dost thou believe in thy heart that this bull is God?”
The shores of this vast artificial sea are lined with
groves, palaces, and waving fields. The sides of the
Libyan hills are terraced and adorned with marble palaces
and gardens. At one point, where the cliffs stretch
into the lake, are four temples, facing four ways, respectively
dedicated to Athor, Pthah, Apis, and Bubastis,
the four deities of Memphis; and their sides are covered
with golden bronze, so that, in the sunlight, nothing can
be more gorgeous.
Upon a small island, opposite this gilded promontory,
and left for the purpose, Thothmeses II. erected, during
his brief reign, a temple of Syenite stone to the goddess
Isis, before which is a recumbent figure of Osiris, seventy
feet in length. Its vestibule is enriched with sculpture,
and is the most splendid portico in Egypt. In the interior
it is surrounded by a peristyle of statues representing
the twelve constellations, each eighteen feet in
height.
Besides all these, I have visited, my dear father, during
the six weeks I have been in Egypt, the “Plain of the
Mummies,” the Catacombs, the Labyrinth—a marvel of
mystery and perplexity to one not initiated into the
intricacies of its mazes—the chief pyramids, and that
also of Queen Amense, at the entrance of which I placed
fresh flowers for your sake.
Pharaoh-Mœris greatly extended the bounds of Memphis.
It is not less than twelve miles in circuit. He
covered with it a large portion of the plain westward of
the pyramids; and where once was a barren waste, are
aqueducts, causeways, and all the splendor of metropolitan
magnificence. Avenues of sphinxes are almost innumerable;
colossal statues, obelisks, and pyramids
meet the eye everywhere. Near the foot of the hills
he formed a chariot-course, that extends three miles
along the lake. In the rock of the cliff he caused to be
hewn fourteen sarcophagi of black marble, and of gigantic
dimensions. In these he entombed the bodies of as
many tributary kings, when, in succession, they died;
commanding their mummies to be brought into Egypt
for the purpose. He has everywhere multiplied, with
singular variety, his statues; and in front of this tomb of
kings stands one of them upon a pedestal, the feet of
which are fourteen sculptured crowns, representatives
of their own.
But, my dear father, Egypt is so familiar to you, that I
will not weary you with any more descriptions, unless,
indeed, I should visit the City of a Hundred Gates, as
you were not able to go thither. I will speak, however,
of a visit that I paid yesterday to the sphinx that stands
before Chephres, and near Cheops. I was impressed, as
you were, with the grandeur of the whole. But the
great ancient temple, which you spoke of as ruinous,
has, in forty-five years, become still more defaced. Indeed,
the reigning Pharaoh has expressed his intention
of removing it altogether, so that the pyramids may
stand forth in solitary majesty.
Among other events of the reign of Mœris, was the
discovery, by him, that the tradition which represented
the great sphinx as being hollowed into chambers was a
true one. He found the entrance, which was beneath
What he discovered is known to no man; but it is
certain that he suddenly displayed vast treasures of gold
and silver, jewels and precious stones, with which he
carried on his magnificent and expensive works.
You have not forgotten the Ethiopian captive king,
Occhoris. He still exists, though his beard is snow-white
and his form bent. He remains a captive, each
monarch in succession retaining so important a personage
in chains, annually to grace their processions to the
temples of the gods.
The condition, my dear father, of the Hebrew people,
in whom you are so deeply interested, has enlisted all
my sympathies also. Forty years have multiplied their
number, notwithstanding all the ingenious efforts of
the Pharaohs to destroy them by deadly labors, until
they amount to three millions and a half of souls. The
population of Egypt is only seven millions; and thus,
for every two Egyptians there is one Hebrew. This
alarming state of things fills the mind of Thothmeses
IV. with ceaseless anxiety. He does not hesitate to
confess to me, freely, his fears for the security of his
crown.
I have not yet described this monarch to you. When
I arrived and presented your letters, he received me
with marked courtesy; inquired after your welfare and
the prosperity of your reign; asked your age, and when
I told him you were seventy-three, he said he knew of
no king so aged, unless it was Jethro, king of Midian.
He inquired why I had delayed coming to Egypt until
I was forty-two (for I told him my age, which exactly
corresponds with his own); and when I informed him
my kingdom of Damascus, which I inherited from my
mother, and which the Sabæans had thrice invaded and
devastated before I came of age, he expressed his pleasure
that peace was restored, and that I had come into
Egypt, at last. He seems naturally superstitious, credulous,
and irresolute. I think he possesses little or no
stability of character, and that he is easily influenced to
do evil. He is timid in his policy, yet rash; vain of his
wisdom, yet constantly guilty of follies; a devout worshipper
of his gods, yet a slave to the basest personal
vices; jealous of his rights, yet, from want of courage,
suffering them continually to be invaded, both by his
subjects and tributary princes; a man whose word is
kept, only so far as his present interest demands; who
will pardon to-night a suppliant, from irresolution and
morbid pity, and execute him in the morning when the
coldness of his nature returns. Were he my friend, I
should distrust him; were he my foe, I would not delay
to place the sea between me and his sword.
Under such a prince, you may imagine that the condition
of the Hebrew people is not less pitiable than under
his predecessors. Fearing them, he doubles their tasks
and resorts to every device of destruction, short of open
and indiscriminate slaughter. Yet even this infernal
idea has been suggested by him to his private council;
but it was opposed, on the ground that the burial of so
many millions would be impossible, and that a plague
would result fatal to the population of Egypt.
So the Hebrews still exist, feared, suspected, and
crushed by additional burdens. I have been among
them, and, as you directed, have made many cautious
more enlightened than when you saw them. The idea
of God is less obscure in their minds, while their hope
of a deliverer is bright and ever present. Few of the
old men remember Remeses, or Moses; and none of them
know any thing of his present abode, but seem sure he
is long since dead. I have become deeply interested in
some of these venerable men, in whose majestic features,
set off by flowing beards, I recognize the lineaments of
Abram, their ancestor, as sculptured on the mausoleum
of his servant, “Eliezer of Damascus.” The beauty of the
children and young women, amid all their degradation,
is wonderful. I was struck with the seeming good feeling
which existed among these and the women of Egypt.
The latter, either from pity, or because the Hebrew
women are gentle and attractive, hold kind intercourse
with them; and at a marriage, which I witnessed in one
of their huts, the Hebrew females, especially the bride,
were decked with jewels loaned to them by their friends,
the Egyptian maidens. I have also been struck with
the patient, uncomplaining, and gentle manner in which
the Hebrews speak of the Egyptians, excepting their
task-officers—who are brutal soldiers—and the king.
Generations of oppression have made them forbearing
and submissive; and, besides, the Egyptians and Hebrews,
who now know one another, knew each other
as children, before either could understand their different
positions.
Here and there I have met a lord who recalled your
visit, dear father, with pleasure; but were you now here
you would feel a stranger indeed.
Farewell, my honored and revered father. I will continue
Amense, and her husband, Sisiris, king of Sidon, give
my kindest greetings.
| LETTER I. The pillar of fire, or, Israel in bondage | |