Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 3/Number 6/Ancient History - No. 2

ANCIENT HISTORY. No. 2.

EGYPT.

"A great portion of the knowledge and attainments of the ancient nations, and by consequence, of those of the moderns is to be traced to Egypt. The Egyptians instructed the Greeks; the Greeks performed the same office to the Romans; and the Romans have transmitted much of that knowledge to the world of which we are in possession at the present day."

The antiquity of this empire is supposed to be very great. The Mosaic writings represent it as a great and flourishing kingdom four hundred and thirty years after the flood. Indeed, from the nature of the country the presumption is, that it was settled and became a flourishing kingdom or empire soon after the deluge.

The periodical inundations of the Nile supply all the bottoms, bordering upon it, with that fertilizing alluvion that has rendered them the most productive of almost any other of equal extent in that country.

We are assured of that fact from the Mosaic writings, if from no other source, and that notwithstanding the dense population, Egypt furnished a surplus of corn to feed foreigners in time of famine.

The government of Egypt was a hereditary monarchy. The king and the priests, who were his deputies who filled the offices and exercised all the authority both civil and ecclesiastical.

The administration of justice was defrayed by the sovereign, and litigants were their own advocates. The penal laws of Egypt were uncommonly severe. Female chastity was most rigidly protected.

There was an extraordinary regulation in Egypt regarding the borrowing of money. The borrower gave in pledge the body of his father, and it was deprived of funeral rites if he failed to redeem it. Population was encouraged by law, and every man was bound to maintain and educate the children born to him of his slaves. The Egyptians were tenacious of their own manners, customs and ancient usages, and had a great abhorrence to strangers and to innovation.

They preceded most of the ancient nations in the knowledge of the useful arts, and in the cultivation of the sciences.

Their pyramids and obelisks, are monuments, evincive of their skill in building and architecture as well as of their industry and perseverance to accomplish such great undertakings. Indeed the whole country abounds with the remains of ancient grandeur, surpassing almost any other. Thebes in upper Egypt was one of the most splendid cities in the world. Modern travellers [travelers] describe the stones that were used in some of its walls or towers as being of curious workmanship, and of immense size. The Egyptians possessed considerable knowledge of geometry, mechanics and astronomy.

The morality taught by the priests was said to be pure and refined, altho' it had little influence on the manners of the people.

The theology and secret doctrines of the priests were rational and sublime, yet the worship of the people was debased by the most contemptible superstition.

The Egyptians sequestered themselves from all strangers as much as was possible. They were not known to other nations by conquest, or much commerce. They had a great antipathy to strangers, consequently never imitated them in their customs or manners.

There was another circumstance that rendered their manners degrading in the eyes of other nations. All professions were hereditary, and the rank of each was exactly settled; the objects of religious worship were different in different parts of the kingdom, which was a fruitful source of division and controversy. Their peculiar superstitions were absurd and debasing, and their manners loose and profligate.

We shall in our next give some account of the Phoenicians. Ed.