Thebes, what a glory on thy temples sate,
When monarchs hardly less than gods were thine,
Though mystery and darkness shroud thy late,
The glimpse imagination gives us is divine.
Through the long vista, as we gaze, half hid,
Distinct though distant, graceful, though austere,
Palace and pillar, fane and pyramid,
In awful grandeur and repose appear.
Nations, since born, have wept o'er thy decay;
Science and Art have flourish'd and have died;
And glory, like a dream, has pass'd away—
Yet thine imperishable fame shall aye abide.
The native spirit yet may wake and live,
(Freedom and Culture, what hast thou not done,)
And Ethiopia kindle and revive.
Like her own table when it felt the sun.
The city of Sin,) Ezek. xxx. 15, 16,) is the Pelusium of the Greeks, and is called the strength of Egypt, because of its position as a bulwark. The ruins of it are supposed to have been discovered by the French army in the invasion of Egypt under Bonaparte.
Zoan, (Num. xiii. 22,) by the Greeks called Tanis, and by the Arabs, San, was one of the oldest cities of the world, founded only seven years later than Hebron, and situated on the Tanitic arm of the Nile. It was evidently the residence of a line of princes, (Isa. xix. 1 1—13; xxx. 4,) and probably the place where Moses wrought the Egyptian miracles.—(Ps. lxxviii. 12, 43.) Ezekiel prophesied against it, (Ezek. xxx. 14,) and its ruins are yet visible, and present numerous pillars and obelisks, as evidence of its former magnificence.
The city of Zoar. Delta was the city of Tanis, the Zoar of the scriptures, alluded to by the Psalmist, situated in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were held in bondage. The antiquities of this part of Egypt throw much light on scripture history. The labors of the Israelites, it is thought, were confined to the land of Goshen, and it is not probable they were employed in the construction of the pyramids, as some persons have supposed. In Zoar, which is no longer inhabited, may still be seen the remains of brick work, which, we are taught by Holy Writ, was the employment of the Israelites. The walls of this city were of immense size, being
