y seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
but the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys,
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven."(299) After this, God promises
to give his people, so long as they shall continue obedient to him, "the
former" and "the latter rain:" the first in autumn, to bring up the corn;
and the second in the spring and summer, to make it grow and ripen.

8. _The different Prospects exhibited by the Nile._--There cannot be a
finer sight than Egypt at two seasons of the year. For if a man ascends
some mountain, or one of the largest pyramids of Grand Cairo, in the
months of July and August, he beholds a vast sea, in which numberless
towns and villages appear, with several causeys leading from place to
place; the whole interspersed with groves and fruit trees, whose tops only
are visible; all which forms a delightful prospect.(300) This view is
bounded by mountains and woods, which terminate, at the utmost distance
the eye can discover, the most beautiful horizon that can be imagined. On
the contrary, in winter, that is to say, in the months of January and
February, the whole country is like one continued scene of beautiful
meadows, whose verdure, enamelled with flowers, charms the eye. The
spectator beholds, on every side, flocks and herds dispersed over all the
plains, with infinite numbers of husbandmen and gardeners. The air is then
perfumed by the great quantity of blossoms on the orange, lemon, and other
trees; and is so pure, that a wholesomer or more agreeable is not found in
the world; so that nature, being then dead, as it were, in all other
climates, seems to be alive only for so delightful an abode.

9. _The Canal formed by the Nile, by which a communication in made between
the two Seas._--The canal, by which a communication was made between the
Red-Sea and the Mediterranean, ought to have a place here, as it was not
one of the least advantages which the Nile procured to Egypt.(301)
Sesostris, or, according to others, Psammetichus, first projected the
design, and began this work. Necho, successor to the last prince, laid out
immense sums upon it, and employed a prodigious number of men. It is said,
that above six score thousand Egyptians perished in the undertaking. He
gave it over, terrified by an oracle, which told him that he would thereby
open a door for Barbarians (for by this name they called all foreigners)
to enter Egypt. The work was co