THE HISTORY OF EGYPT UNDER THE RO- last gathered into one fold the greater pro MANS. From the Examiner. The History of Egypt under the Romans, by Samuel Sharpe. Moxon. THE battle of Actium dates some twentynine years before the birth of Christ, and it was in the six hundred and fortieth year of the Christian era that haughty Amrou son of Asi, wrote word to his Caliph Omar that he had taken a city which passed all description, in which he found four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, forty thousand Jews paying tribute, four hundred theatres, and twelve thousand sellers of herbs. He meant Alexandria. The period of Mr. Sharpe's history, then, includes six hundred and seventy years: memorable years, for account of which before we received his excellent volume, Gibbon, Lardner, and Mosheim, were our only accessible authorities. The book is a great advance on Mr. Sharpe's former researches in connexion with his favorite study, learned as these were. For not the learning only have we here; but the feeling and life of the subject. Within the province of history is rightly brought whatsoever can vivify its scenes, reanimate its actors. The style is not ambitious, but has a certain measured dignity which we find appropriate a happy mean to have kept, within sound of the sonorous march of Gibbon. And having undergone the labor of original research, with materials in reach for a book of any conceivable size, Mr. Sharpe has been wise enough to write a small book, of little more than two hundred and fifty pages. portion of the before scattered tribes and nations; from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, from the shores of Britain and the borders of the German forests to the sands of the African deserts, the bonds of a common and apparently well settled system now held together the inhabitants of the world; nay more, between these widely separated regions a free and common intercourse had been recently established by public pathways opened for the conquering legions;* when suddenly appeared the first RELIGION that had ever aimed at a conquest as great and universal, which did not proclaim itself the religion of a nation or a tribe, but invited all who lived to come within its ample shelter, as the universal family and brotherhood of MAN. The Poor had the tidings first, but in good time they reached the Philosopher: and then, upon Christianity, rose the Church. No one in the least acquainted with this great subject fails to perceive the effect, to this day, of the Alexandrian Schools of New Platonism on the character of our religious establishment. They date at the commencement of the second century, but through all the prior struggles of the faith, Alexandrians had played an important part. Mr. Sharpe rightly thinks they have hardly had justice done them by the moderns, either in regard to the improvement they wrought in Paganism, or to the share they have had in forming the present opinions of the world. He refers to what their copiers and libraries did for us in preservation of the great Greek writers, and of our earliest manuscripts of the Bible-"while," he adds, "whatever help we have received from grammarians and critics, whatever in history we have gained from chronology, in poetry from prosody, in geography from mathematics, and in medicine from anatomy, was first taught by the Alexandrians.” The glib remark, so often repeated since its incautious use by a great writer, which would associate the rise of the Christian belief with the decline of all literature, is Of the influence of the scenes it records, on habits, feelings, and opinions, which have been the main-spring of modern civilization, this is hardly the place to speak. Soon it fixes the thoughtful reader's atten tion. The opening picture has in itself the germ of much. Octavian-we beg his pardon-AUGUSTUS enters the conquered Alexandria on foot, leaning on the arm of the philosopher Arius, and, with the sounding pretence of a lover of learning as well as mercy, gives out to the motley crowd as-refers to the passage in his excellent Treatise on sembled small swarthy dark Egyptians, lively volatile Greeks, depressed Hebrews, and sour, discontented Romans-that he had spared the place to the prayers of his philosophic friend. To that picture, with Conquest and Philosophy in the front-the field won and the cultivator ready, a background silently rises. ROME had here at * Two centuries later the poet Claudian alluded to these facilities of intercourse, then settled on a firmer basis by the prevalence of peace. Mr. Lewis Dependencies. By the grace of modern science, it is no longer a flight of poetry. Hujus pacificis debemus moribus omnes Quod veluti patriis regionibus utitur hospes; Quod sedem mutare licet; quod cernere Thulen Lusus, et horrendos quondam penetrare recessus; Quod bibimus passim Rhodanum, potamus Orontem; Quod gens una sumus. pied a hill near the shores of the lake Maria, and who seem to have left us one of the earliest known examples of a monastic system. Mr. Sharpe here uses almost the exact words of the historian Philo, to whom we owe this beautiful picture of the contemplative life. "They had left, says the historian Philo, their worldly wealth to their families or friends; they had forsaken wives, children, brethren, parents, certainly, independent of these special considerations offered by Mr. Sharpe, not founded in the fact. Christianity was as yet without influence when the old classic literature, sinking continuously through the interval between Augustus and the Antonnines, dropped at last into irretrievable decay. Not the new Faith, but the civil distractions of the Empire, the increased license of the soldiery, the frequent inroads of the barbarians, and above all, the pro-and the society of men, to bury themselves in gress of internal despotism, had given solitude, and pass their lives in the contemplacheck to lofty aspirations of genius as well tion of the divine essence. Seized by this heavenly love, they were eager to enter upon the as the quiet pursuits of learning. It was next world as though they were already dead an age of iron that preceded what was to this. Each man or woman lived alone in his called the golden age of Trajan and the cell or monastery, caring neither for food nor Antonnines. The nervous hand of Gibbon for raiment, hut having his thoughts wholly has marked with eternal reprobation the turned to the Law and the Prophets, or to savices of the successors of Augustus-the cred hymns of their own composing. They had dark unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Ca- God always in their thoughts, and even the ligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate dreams were treasures of religious wisdom.broken sentences which they uttered in their and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and They prayed each morning at sunrise, and then the timid, inhuman Domitian. That we spent the day in turning over the sacred volshould make farther inquiry as to the degra-umes, and the commentaries which explained dation of a people whom such men ruled, is the allegories or pointed out a secondary meannot incumbent upon us! In the midst of ing as hidden beneath the surface of even the the degradation, Trajan and the Anton-historical books of the Old Testament. At sunnines were an accident: permanently affect- and only meal. set they again prayed, and then tasted their first Self-denial indeed was the ing nothing. And so-uninfluenced alike foundation of all their virtues. Some made only in its decline before the last-named Em-three meals in the week, that their meditations perors, or in its rapid and most precipi- might be more free; while others even attempttate fall between Marcus and Diocletian-ed to prolong their fast to the sixth day. During the old Literature went, to the last not ill-six days of the week they saw nobody, not even attended, to her tomb. For out of even in synagogue. Here they sat, each according one another. On the seventh they met together the vices of these later Emperors had sprung to his age; the women separated from the men. the splendid genius of JUVENAL; the pro- Each wore a plain modest robe, which covered gress of science and the increased know the arms and hands, and they sat in silence ledge of man, which we cannot deny to while one of the elders preached. As they Rome's latter years, had asserted them-studied the mystic powers of numbers, they selves in the composition of the immortal thought the number seven was a holy number, and that seven times seven made a great week, history of TACITUS; the statesmanlike and hence they kept the fiftieth day as a solemn muse of LUCAN, the wise wit of LUCIAN, festival. On that day they dined together, the had sung requiem to a declining his- men lying on one side and the women on the tory and a disappearing faith; the re- other. The rushy papyrus formed the couches; ceding forms of Greek and Roman civi-bread was their only meat, water their drink, lization had been struck into eternal salt the seasoning, and cresses the only delicacy. life by the hand of PLUTARCH; while EPIC- They had no slaves, since all men were born TETUS, SENECA, and the two PLINYS, had equal. Nobody spoke unless it were to propose a question out of the Old Testament, or to anhonorably associated the last efforts of their swer the question of another. The feast ended art, with science, philosophy, and virtue. with a hymn to the praise of God, which they That famous Literature could not have sang, sometimes in full chorus, and sometimes been better waited on to her grave than by in alternate verses." such writers as these, her honored chilIn good lively contrast to which, Dion dren. It was not within the power of Chrysostom supplies the historian with this Christianity to have hastened or retarded not very favorable but very graphic por the end. The Christians were as yet com-trait of the popular characteristics of his posed of the middle and lower classes only. Alexandrian countrymen : Prominent among the Greek Jews of Alexandria, to whom Mr. Sharpe supposes which usually follow or cause the loss of nation"With their wealth, they had all those vices we are indebted for preservation of the Oldal independence. They seemed eager after noTestament, were a little colony who occu- thing but food and horse-races, those never-fail of his government being disapproved of in Rome was his finding himself a prisoner in his own palace. The friends stood motionless with surprise, the centurion produced the emperor's order for what he was doing, and as no resistance was attempted, all passed off quietly; Flaccus was hurried on board the vessel on the same evening, and immediately taken to Rome. ing bribes for which the idle of every country will sell all that a man should hold most dear. They were cool and quiet at their sacrifices and grave in business, but in the theatre or in the stadium, men, women, and children were alike heated into passion, and overcome with eagerness and warmth of feeling. They cared more for the tumble of a favorite charioteer than for the sinking state of the nation. A scurrilous It so happened that on the night that Flacsong or a horse-race would so rouse them into cus was seized, the Jews had met together to a quarrel that they could not hear for their own celebrate their autumnal feast, the feast of the noise, nor see for the dust raised by their own Tabernacles; not as on former years with joy bustle in the hippodrome; while all those acts and pomp, but in fear, in grief, and in prayer. of their rulers which, in a more wholesome state Their chief men were in prison, their nation of society, would have called for notice, passed smarting under its wrongs and in daily fear of by unheeded. In the army they made but sec-fresh cruelties; and it was not without alarm ond rate soldiers, while as singing boys at the that they heard the noise of soldiers moving to supper tables of the wealthy Romans they were and fro through the city, and of the guards much sought after, and all the world acknow- marching by torch-light from the camp to the ledged that there were no fighting-cocks equal palace. But their fear was soon turned into joy to those reared by the Alexandrians." when they heard that Flaccus, the author of all their wrongs, was already a prisoner on board the vessel in the harbor; and they gave glory to God, not, says Philo, that their enemy was going to be punished, but because their own own sufferings were at an end." Here in some sort we find explanation of the palaces, baths, theatres, and sellers of herbs, which crowded themselves by thousands into the Oriental brain of Amrou. Hadrian, Athenæus, and many others might also have been quoted, for curious additions to the picture. The general wisdom of the Roman polity and laws is admitted on every hand: Greece has not done more for Thought than her hardy conqueror for Government. Nor was ever this capacity for affairs more signally shown than in her management of subject provinces: we see here that even the Emperor whom savage passions obscured and blinded in Rome, could yet keep sagacious outlook upon Egypt. A perfect sycophancy never stood him in stead for something better: if he could not keep his province quiet he was brought away on the instant, and punished for his want of Here is the case of poor Flaccus, whose zealous determination to have Caligula's statue worshipped by the Jews, had been the cause of sudden riots in Alexandria. No mercy on that account for Flaccus! success. We close with some general illustrations of the tone and style of Mr. Sharpe's admirable volume. EXHAUSTLESS WEALTH. "The economist will perhaps ask from what source the oppressed Egyptians drew the wealth and where they found the encouragement necessary to finish these gigantic undertakings, which were begun in times of greater prosperity; but the only answer which we can give is, that the chief encouragement at all times to any and the only fund of wealth upon which men great work is a strong sense of religious duty, can draw for their generosity, or nations for their public works, is to be found in self-denial.” GOOD GOVERNMENT. "We should almost think that the seasons were more favorable to the husbandman during the reigns of these good emperors, did we not set it down to the canals being better cleansed by the care of the prefect, and to the mildness of the government leaving the people at liberty to enjoy the bounties of nature, and at the same time making them more grateful in acknowledging them." CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM. "To have found it necessary to call out the troops was of course a fault in a governor ; but doubly so at a time and in a province where "When the crier, standing on the steps of the a successful general might so easily become a portico, in front of the great temples of Alexanformidable rebel. Accordingly a centurion, with dria, called upon the pagans to come near a trusty cohort of soldiers, was sent from Rome and join in the celebration of their mysteries, he for the recall of the prefect. On approaching cried out; All ye who are clean of hands and the coast of Egypt, they kept the vessel in deep pure of heart, all ye who are guiltless in thought water till sunset, and then entered the harbor of and deed, come to the sacrifice.' But many a Alexandria in the dark. The centurion on land-repentant sinner and humble spirit must have ing met with a freedman of the emperor, from whom he learned that the prefect was then at supper, entertaining a large company of friends. The freedman led the cohort quietly into the palace, into the very room where Flaccus was sitting at table; and the first tidings that he heard drawn back in distrust from a summons which to him was so forbidding, and been glad to hear the good tidings of God's mercy offered by Christianity to those who labor and are heavy laden, and to the broken-hearted who would turn away from their wickedness. While such were the chief followers of the gospel, it was not likely to be much noticed by the historians; and we must wait till it forced its way into the schools and the palace before we shall find many traces of the rapidity with which it spread." HINT TO HISTORIANS. CALIPH OMAR-LOVER OF KORAN. "The Arabic historian tells us that when Alexandria was conquered by Amrou he set his seal upon the library, together with the other public property of the city. But John Philiponus begged that the books might be spared, as "The historian in his labors should never lose would have granted the request at once if he had being of no use to the conquerors; and Amrou sight of the coins. They teach us by their work- not thought it necessary to ask leave of the manship the state of the arts, and by their caliph. He therefore wrote to Omar for orders, weight, number, and purity of metal the wealth who answered him that, if the books were the of the country. They also teach dates, titles, same as the Koran, they were useless, and if not and the places where they were struck; and the same they were worse than useless, and that even in those cases where they seem to add lit-in either case they were to be burnt. Amrou tle to what we learn from other sources, they are still the living witnesses to which we appeal, to prove the truth of the authors who have told us more." A GREAT WORLD-GOVERNOR-PAPYRUS. obeyed this order, and sent the books, most of which were of papyrus, to the public baths of Alexandria, and the Arabic historian, in the poetic style of his nation, says that the baths were heated by them for the space of six months." SESTRI. BY THE HON, JULIA AUGUSTA MAYNARD. From Ainsworth's Magazine. "It was grown in the pools of stagnant water which were left after the overflow of the Nile. Its thick knotted roots were used as wood, both for making fires and for furniture, and its graceful feathery head was often entwined round the statues of the gods as a garland. Wicker-work boats were woven out of its stalk, while of the bark were made sails, cordage and cloth. It was chewed as food, both raw and cooked, though the juice only was swallowed. Paper THERE stands a rugged promontory o'er was made of it by splitting it into sheets as thin Fair Sestri, and its most enchanting shore, as possible. The best kind had been called Cover'd with cypresses of richest dyes, Hieratic paper, because it was used for the sa- With spiral verdure pointing to the skies! cred books; but in the time of Augustus two While flow'rs full prodigal of sweets, exhale better kinds were made, which were named Au- Their scents delicious to the mellow gale. gustan and Livian, after himself and his wife. The ripe-ripe fig, and luscious flowing grape, A fourth and fifth of worse quality were called Luxuriant grow, and fruits of every shape Fannian, from the name of a clever Roman And varied color, from the rarest gem maker, and Amphitheatric, from the name of the That decks Autumna's golden diadem, street in Rome where it was sold. A sixth kind To the wild strawberry, whose tassel red was called Saitic, from the city Sais, near which Droops in the woodlands on its leafy bed. it grew in greater quantity, but of a still worse Where herds recumbent chew the tranquil cud. And distant hills the silvery olives stud, quality. A seventh, called Leneotic, was nearer In such displays of overteeming store, the bark, and so much worse as to be sold by What can we dream of, think, or covet more? weight. The eighth and the last kind was the Imagination is at loss to guess Emporetic, which was not good enough to write What else desire could wish of plenteousness. on, and was used in the shop to wrap up parcels. And yet, alas! there are in scenes like these The first two were thirteen inches wide, the A blasting crowd of human agonies! Hieratic eleven, the Fannian ten, the Amphithe- And can we deem it so? Alas! we find atric nine, while the Emporetic was not more Within the Soul alone is bliss enshrined; than six inches wide. After a time the best And nature's gayety to grief can be, kinds were found too thin for books, as the writ-In its sad thought, but bitter mockery! ing on one side often made a blot through to the other; and so in the reign of Claudius Cæsar a new kind was made, called Claudian, of two sheets thick, in which the fibres of one crossed those of the other." EMPEROR JULIAN-LOVER OF LEARNING. George had employed his wealth in getting together a large library, rich in historians, rhet oricians, and philosophers of all sects; and on the murder of the bishop, Julian wrote letter after letter to Alexandria, to beg the prefect and his friend Porphyrius to save these books, and send them to him in Cappadocia. He promised freedom to the librarian if he gave them up, and torture if he hid them; and further begged that no books in favor of Christianity should be destroyed, lest other and better books should be lost with them." The balmy breeze, with its all-perfumed breath, LOUIS BLANC'S HISTORY OF TEN YEARS. L'Histoire de Dix Ans, 1830-1840. Par III. one idea to be sacred, and regard its opponents as priests; you cannot believe one course of policy tyrannous and destructive, yet look upon its ministers as enlightened patriots. All that impartiality can do is to Paris. 1843. make allowance for difference of opinion, THIS is a remarkable work. So strong and not deny the sincerity of an opponent: is the sensation it has created in Germany, to anathematize the doctrine, not the man. as well as in France, that we must intro- M. Louis Blanc is, in this sense, tolerably duce it to the notice of our readers, in impartial. spite of its incomplete state. Three vol- L'Histoire de dix Ans' is not conspicuumes of the promised five have already ap- ous for any profound views; its philosophy peared. Three editions were demanded of is often but philosophic rhetoric. But it is the first volume before the second was not without excellent aperçus, and acute published, although the publication takes penetration of motives. There is a great place by weekly livraisons. The second deal of the Journalist visible in the work. and third volumes have already had two M. Blanc is a young man still, edits 'La large editions, the demand increasing. Revue du Progrès,' and is more familiar And this success is explained by the with Journalism than with social science. talent of the author no less than by the ab- His work manifests both the advantages sorbing interest of the theme. The ten and disadvantages of such a condition. If years, 1830-1840, were troubled, stirring, the Journalist is incapable of that calm reand important times to every European na- view of things, and those laborious genertion to none so much as France. The alizations, which the social philosopher revolution of July-those Glorious Three elaborates from his abstract point of view; Days; the revolutions of Poland and Bel- yet is he the more conversant with the congium; the siege of Antwerp; the insurrec- crete special instances, more familiar with tions at Lyons and Grenoble, with the the motives and passions of political parcountless conspiracies and insurrections at ties, more ready to understand every coup Paris; the cholera morbus, with its eighteen d'état. M. Blanc shows a thorough penethousand victims in Paris alone; the Duch- tration into the spirit of each party, and esse de Berri and La Chouanerie; the tak- sees the germs of strength or of disease. ing of Algiers; five attempts at regicide; St. He has lived amongst conspirators; dined Simonism; Republicanism, and innumerable with legitimatists, been familiar with Boother 'isms: these are brilliant subjects, napartists. Above all, he understands the brilliantly treated by M. Louis Blanc. national spirit: its reckless daring, insou'L'Histoire de Dix Ans' is one of those ciance, gaiety, love of excitement, of miliworks so often libelled by being called as tary glory, idolatry of symbols, and facility interesting as a novel :' were novels a tithe of being led away by a sonorous word, or as interesting, they would be what they pompous formula. One of the people himpretend. It has all that we require in a self, he rightly understands the people's novel, and much more. It is a narrative of nature. We may illustrate this power of events real, striking, absorbing the sub- penetration by the citation of two of the jects of immense interest to all readers, numerous epigrams with which his book and the style unusually excellent. As a narrative we know of few to compare with it, even in French History. Eloquent, earnest, rapid, brief, yet full of detail; it has the vividness of Carlyle or Michelet, without transgressing the rules of classic taste. The style, though not free from an occasional inelegance, is remarkable for concinnity and picturesqueness, alternating between rhetoric and epigram. The spirit of the work is avowedly republican. The author never disguises his sympathies or convictions; yet at the same time is fully alive to all the errors of his party, and reveals the true causes of their ill success. Impartial he is not; no man with strong convictions can be so. You cannot hold abounds. Speaking of the incompetence of the Legitimatists to shake the Orleans dynasty he says: 'Les Révolutions se font avec des haines fortes et de violents désirs: les légitimistes n'avaient guère que des haines."* The second is really a profound mot: of the Buonapartist party he says: il avait un drapeau plutôt qu'un principe. C'était là l'invincible cause de son impuissance.'t An excellence not to be overlooked in his book is the portraiture of remarkable * Revolutions are effected by means of strong hatreds and violent desires: the legitimatists had scarcely any thing but hatreds. ↑ It had a Banner rather than a Principle. Therein lay the invincible cause of its impotence. |