which he did at the fuggeftion of a certain Ægyptian who had entertained an enmity against his mafter. This man was a phyfician, and when Cyrus had once requested of Amafis the best medical advice which Ægypt could afford, for a diforder in his eyes, the king had forced him, in preference to all others, from his wife and family, and fent him into Perfia. In revenge for which treatment this Ægyptian inftigated Cambyfes to require the daughter of Amafis, that he might either fuffer affliction from the lofs of his child, or by refufing to fend her, provoke the refentment of

According to Paufanias, there were originally no more than three mufes, whofe names were Μελέτη, Μνημη, and on. Their number was afterwards encreased to nine, their refidence confined to Farnaffus, and the direction or patronage of them, if thefe be not improper terms, affigned to Apollo. Their conteft for fuperiority with the nine daughters of Evippe, and confequent victory, is agreeably defcribed by Ovid. Met. book v. Their order and influence feems in a great measure to have been arbitrary. The names of the books of Herodotus have been generally adopted as determinate with refpect to their order. This was, however, without any affigned motive, perverted by Aufonius, in the fubjoined epigram:

Clio gefta canens, tranfactis tempora reddit
Melpomene tragico proclamat mæfta boatu.
Comica lafcivo gaudet fermone Thalia.
Dulciloquos calamos Euterpe flatibus urget.

Terpsichore affectus citharis movet, imperat, auget.
Plectra gerens Erato faltat pede, carmine vultu.
Carmina Calliope libris heroica mandat

Uranie cœli motus fcrutatur et aftra.

Signat cuncta manu loquitur Polyhymnia geftu
Mentis Apollineæ vis has movet undique mufas
In medio refidens complectitur omnia Phœbus.-T.

Cambyfes.

Cambyfes. Amafis both dreaded and detefted the power of Perfia, and was unwilling to accept, though fearful of refufing the overture. But he well knew that his daughter was meant to be not the wife but the concubine of Cambyfes, and therefore he determined on this mode of conduct: Apries, the former king, had left an only daughter: her name was Nitetis", and fhe was poffeffed of much elegance and beauty. The king, having decorated her with great fplendour of drefs, fent her into Perfia as his own child. Not long after, when Cambyfes occafionally addreffed her as the daughter of Amafis, "Sir," said fhe, "you are greatly mistaken, and "Amafis has deceived you; he has adorned my per"fon, and sent me to you as his daughter, but Apries "was my father, whom he, with his other rebelli"ous fubjects, dethroned and put to death." This fpeech and this occafion immediately prompted Cambyfes in great wrath to commence hoftilities

2 Nitetis.]-Cambyfes had not long been king, ere he refolved upon a war with the Ægyptians, by reafon of some offence taken against Amafis their king. Herodotus tells us it was because Amafis, when he desired of him one of his daughters to wife, fent him a daughter of Apries instead of his own. But this could not be true, because Apries having been dead above forty years before, no daughter of his could be young enough to be acceptable to Cambyfes.-So far Prideaux; but Larcher endeavours to reconcile the apparent improbability, by faying that there is great reafon to fuppofe that Apries lived a prisoner many years after Amafis dethroned him and fucceeded to his power; and that there is no impoffibility in the opinion that Nitetis might, therefore, be no more than twenty or twenty-two years of age when he was fent to Cambyfes.-T.

against Egypt.-Such is the Perfian account of the story.

II. The Ægyptians claim Cambyfes as their own, by afferting that this incident did not happen to him, but to Cyrus', from whom, and from this daughter of Apries, they fay he was born. This, however, is certainly not true. The Ægyptians are of all mankind the best converfant with the Persian manners, and they must have known that a natural child could never fucceed to the throne of Perfia, whilst a legitimate one was alive. And it was equally certain that Cambyfes was not born of an Egyptian woman, but was the fon of Caffandane, the daughter of Pharnafpe, of the race of the Achæmenides. This ftory, therefore, was invented by the Ægyptians, that they might from this pretence claim a connection with the house of Cyrus.

III. Another story also is afferted, which to me

But to Cyrus]-They speak with more probability, who say it was Cyrus, and not Cambyfes, to whom this daughter of Apries was fent.-Prideaux.

4 They fay be was born.]-Polyænus, in his Stratagemata, relates the affair in this manner :-Nitetis, who was in reality the daughter of Apries, cohabited a long time with Cyrus as the daughter of Amafis. After having many children by Cyrus, the difclofed to him who the really was; for though Amasis was dead, the wished to revenge herfelf on his fon Pfammenitus. Cyrus acceded to her wifles, but died in the midft of his preparations for an Ægyptian war. This, Cambyfes was perfuaded by his mother to undertake, and revenged on the Ægyptian's ke caufe of the family of Apries.-T.

feems

feems improbable. They say that a Perfian lady once vifiting the wives of Cyrus, faw ftanding near their mother the children of Caffandane, whom she complimented in high terms on their fuperior excellence of form and perfon. "Me," replied Caf fandane, "who am the mother of these children, "Cyrus neglects and despises, all his kindness is " bestowed on this Ægyptian female." This fhe faid from refentment against Nitetis. They add that Cambyfes, her eldest son, instantly exclaimed, "Mo"ther, as foon as I am a man, I will effect the utter "destruction of Ægypt" ". These words, from a prince who was then only ten years of age, furprized and delighted the women; and as foon as he be

I will effect the utter deftruction of Egypt.]-Literally, I will turn Ægypt upfide down.

M. Larcher enumerates, from Athenæus, the various and de ftructive wars which had originated on account of women; he adds, what a number of illuftrious families had, from a fimilar cause, been utterly extinguifhed. The impreffion of this idea, added to the vexations which he had himself experienced in domestic life, probably extorted from our great poet, Milton, the following energetic lines:

Oh why did God,

Creator wife, that peopled highest heaven
With fpirits mafculine, create at last

This novelty on earth, this fair defect

Of nature, and not fill the world at once

With men as angels, without feminine,

Or find some other way to generate

Mankind? This mischief had not then befall'n,
And more that shall befall, innumerable

Disturbances on earth through female fnares.-T.

مجھے

came a man, and fucceeded to the throne, he remembered the incident, and commenced hoftilities against Ægypt.

· IV. He had another inducement to this undertaking. Among the auxiliaries of Amafis was a man named Phanes, a native of Halicarnaffus, and greatly distinguished by his mental as well as military accomplishments. This person being, for I know not what reafon, incenfed against Amafis, fled in a veffel from Egypt, to have a conference with Cambyfes. As he poffeffed great influence among the auxiliaries, and was perfectly acquainted with the affairs of Egypt, Amafis ordered him to be rigorously purfued, and for this purpose equipped, under the care of the most faithful of his eunuchs, a three-banked galley. The purfuit was fuccefsful, and Phanes was taken in Lydia, but he was not caaried back to Egypt, for he circumvented his guards, and by making them drunk effected his escape. He fled inftantly to Perfia; Cambyfes was then meditating the expedition against Ægypt, but was deterred by the difficulty of marching an army over the deferts, where fo little water was to be procured. Phanes explained to the king all the concerns of Amafis; and to obviate the above difficulty, advised him to fend and ask of the king of the Arabs a fafe paffage through his terri

tories.

V. This is indeed the only avenue by which Egypt can poffibly be entered. The whole coun

try,