where they would not become its grandeft ornament.

Such, Sir, are the most remarkable monuments found at prefent on the eaftern fide of Thebes. Their very afpect would awaken the genius of a polifhed nation, but the Turks and Copts, crushed to duft beneath an iron fceptre, behold them without aftonishment, and build huts, which fcarcely can fcreen them from the fun, in their neighbourhood. Thefe barbarians, if they want a millftone, do not blush to overturn a column, the fupport of a temple or portico, and faw it in pieces. Thus abject does defpotifm render men!"

Avifit to the tombs of the kings of Thebes, dug in the mountain, thro' fubterranean paffages. Sarcophagi, galleries, and hieroglyphics defcribed. Obfervations on on the grand temple, the roof of which was supported by Square pillars, bearing ftatues. Parts of a prodigious coloffal figure found among thefe ruins. The ruins of Memnonium, denoted by heaps of marble and rows of ftatues, either mutilated or funk a third of their height in the earth, and particularly by the celebrated coloffal figure of Memnon, famous among the antients for the founds it articulated at fun-rifing. From the fame work.

narchs of the Thebais. The road to them is ftrewed with marbles and fragments, and we arrive at them by a winding narrow pass, the fides of which, in various places, have been hollowed out. Large excavations have been made in the rock, which were antecedent to the building of houfes and palaces. The valley widens at the farther end about two hundred fathoms, and here, at the foot of the mountain, are the paf fages which lead to the tombs. Strabo counts forty of them*, Diodorus Siculus forty-fevent; but he adds, that in the time of Auguftus feventeen only remained, fome of which were very much damaged. At prefent most of them are clofed up, and nine of them only can be entered. The fubterranean galleries leading to them are in general ten feet high, and as many in breadth. The walls and roofs, cut in a white rock, preferve the brilliant polish of ftucco. At the far end of four principal alleys, longer and higher than the reft, is the door of a large hall, in the centre of which a marble tomb is feen, on the top of which a figure is fculptured in baffo-relievo, and another holding a fceptre in one hand on the wall; a third alfo on the ceiling, bearing a fceptre, with wings defcending as low as his heels.

The fecond grotto is fpacious and much embellifhed, containing on the ceiling numerous golden ftars; birds painted in colours which feem to have loft nothing of their freshness and brilliancy; and hieroglyphics divided in columns, and engraved in the walls. Two men are feated befide the gate, the paffage to which is a long gentle

torian, "is the admirable one of Ofymandyas. The entrance to it is by a veftibule of various coloured ftones, two hundred feet long and fixty-eight high. Leaving this we enter a fquare periftyle, each fide of which is four hundred feet in length. Animals twenty-four feet high, cut from blocks of granite, ferve as columns, and fupport the ceiling, which is compofed of marble flabs twenty-feven feet fquare, and embellished throughout by golden stars, glittering on a ground of azure. Beyond this periftyle is another entrance, and after that a veftibule, built like the first, but containing more fculptures of all kinds. At the entrance are three ftatues, formed from a fingle ftone by Memnon Sycnite, the principal of which, reprefenting the king, is feated, and is the largest in Egypt. One of its feet exactly measured is above feven cubits. The other two figures fupported on his knees, the one on the right, the other on the left, are thofe of his mother and daughter. The whole work is lefs valuable for its enormous grandeur than for the beauty of the sculpture and the choice of the granite, which, tho' fo extenfive, has neither flaw nor blemish on its furface. The coloffus bears this infcription, I am Ofymandyas, king of kings: he who would comprehend my greatness, and where I reft, let him destroy fome one

of these works *. Befides this is another ftatue of his mother, cut from a fingle block of granite thirty feet high. Three queens are fculptured on her head, intimating that fhe was daughter, wife, and mother of a king.

"After this portico is a periftyle ftill more beautiful than the first, on the ftones of which is engraved the hiftory of the war of,Ofymandyas against the rebels of Bactriana. The façade of the front wall exhibits this prince attacking ramparts, at the foot of which the river flows; he is combating advanced troops, and by his fide is a terrible lion, ardent in his defence. On the right wall are captives in chains, with their hands and genitals cut off, as marks of reproach for their cowardice. The wall on the left contains fymbolical figures, of exceedingly good fculpture, defcriptive of the triumphs and facrifice of Ofymandyas returning from this war. the centre of the periftyle, where the roof is open, an altar was erected of a fingle ftone of marvellous bulk and exquifite workmanship; and at the farther wall are two coloffal figures, each hewn from a fingle block of marble forty feet high, feated on their pedestals. This admirable periftyle has three gates, one between the two ftatues, and the others on each fide. These lead to an edifice two hundred feet. fquare, the roof of which is fup

In

ported

ported by high columns. It refembles a magnificent theatre. Several figures carved in wood reprefent a tribunal adminiftering juftice. Thirty judges are feen on one of the walls, and in the midst of them the chief juftice, with a pile of books at his feet, and a figure of Truth, with her eyes fhut, fufpended from his neck.

"Beyond is a walk furrounded by edifices of various forms, in which were tables ftored with all kinds of most delicious viands. In one of thefe Ofymandyas, cloathed in magnificent robes, offers up the gold and filver which he annually drew from the mines of Egypt to the gods. Beneath, the amount of this revenue, which, was thirty-two million minas of filver, was inscribed. Another building contained the facred library, at the entrance of which these words were read, PHYSIC FOR THE SOUL. A fourth contained all the deities of Egypt, with the king offering fuitable prefents to each, and calling Ofiris and the furrounding divinities to witnefs he had exercifed piety toward the gods, and juftice toward men. Befide the library stood one of the finest of these edifices, and in it twenty couches to recline on while feasting; alfo the ftatues of Jupiter, Juno, and Ofymandyas, whofe body it is fuppofed was depofited here. Various adjoining apartments contained representations of all the confecrated animals of Egypt. Hence was the afcent to the fepulchre of the king, on the fummit

of which was placed a circle of gold in thickness one cubit, and three hundred and fixty-five in circumference; each cubit correfponded to a day in the year, and on it were engraved the rifing and fetting of the ftars for that day, with fuch aftrological indications as the fuperftition of the Egyptians had affixed to them. Cambyfes is faid to have carried off this circle when he ravaged Egypt. Such, according to hiftorians, was the tomb of Ofymandyas, which furpaffed all others, as well by its wealth as by the workmanship of the fkilful artifts employed *."

I dare not, Sir, warrant all that Diodorus Siculus advances on the faith of preceding writers; for in his time the greatest part of these edifices were no longer in exiftence. Nay, 1 confefs that, in any other country, fuch marvellous edifices would pafs for mere chimæras; but in this land of fecundity, which feems to have been first honoured by the creative genius of the arts, they acquire probability. Let us examine the remains of those monuments, and our eyes will oblige us to believe in miracles. Thefe remains are heaped together near Medinet-About, in the circumference of about half a league. The temple, veftibules, and periftyles, prefent only piles of ruins, among which fome pyramidal gates rear their heads, whofe folidity has rendered them indeftructible; but the numerous coloffal figures defcribed by Diodorus, though mutilated, ftill fubfift. That neareft the

ruins, which is of yellow marble, is funk in the earth one third of its height. On a line with it is another of spotted marble, black and white, thirty feet long, with many hieroglyphics fculptured on its back. In the space between them, the ground is covered with fragments of columns, and broken ftatues, denoting the arrangement of the veftibules. Beyond are two other coloffal ftatues, totally disfigured; and a hundred fathom ftill further the traveller is ftruck with astonishment at the fight of two gigantic figures, which feem like rocks, and are feated befide each other! Their pedestals are nearly equal, and formed from blocks of granite thirty feet long, and eighteen wide. The fmallest of these ftatues is alfo one fole stone; the other, the largest in Egypt, is formed of five different pieces of granite, and broken in the middle. This fhould feem to be the ftatue of Olymandyas *, for we find two figures, fculptured in baffo-relievo, the length of his legs, and rifing one third as high as himfelf. These were the mother and daughter of this prince. The other coloffus, of one fingle ftone, correfponding to the dimenfions Diodorus Siculus gives, alfo reprefented the mother of the king. You will form fome idea of the gigantic fize of the grand coloffus, when you are told that its foot alone is near eleven feet long, which answers to the feven cubits of Diodorus. This ftatue, the half of which remains on

its bafe, and which Strabo calls the ftatue of Memnon, uttered a found at fun-ring. Its fame formerly was very great. Several writers have spoken of it with enthusiasm, regarding it as one of the seven wonders of the world. A crowd of Greek and Latin infcriptions, which are ftill legible on the base and legs of the coloffus, attest that princes, generals, governors, and men of all conditions, have heard this miraculous found. You know, Sir, what the judicious Strabo thought, and, I hope, you will be of his opinion. Such, Sir, are the remains of Thebes, and her hundred gates, the antiquity of which is loft in the obfcurity of ages, and which ftill contains proofs of the perfection of the arts in those most distant times. All here is fublime, all majeftic. Its kings feem to have acquired the glory of never dying, while their obelisks and coloffal ftatues exist, and to have only laboured for immortality. They could preferve their memory against the efforts of time, but not against the barbarifm of conquerors; those moft dreadful fcourges of fcience and nations, which, in their pride, they have too often erased from the face of the earth"

Dr. Glafs's letter to William Marf den, Ejq; on the affinity of certain words in the language of the Sandwich and Friendly Ifles in the Pa