nners, or at any rate simpler than those which it conquers, and,
comparatively speaking, poor. It is urged on by the desire of bettering
its condition. If it meets with a considerable resistance, if the
conquest occupies a long space, and the conquered are with difficulty
held under, rebelling from time to time, and making frantic efforts to
throw off the yoke which galls and frets them, then the warlike habits
of the conquerors are kept up, and their dominion may continue for
several centuries. Or, if the nation is very energetic and unresting,
not content with its earlier conquests, or willing to rest upon its
oars, but continually seeking out fresh enemies upon its borders, and
regarding war as the normal state of its existence, then the centuries
may be prolonged into millennia, and it may be long indeed before any
tendency to decline shows itself; but, ordinarily, there is no very
prolonged resistance on the one side, and no very constant and unresting
energy on the other. A poor and hardy people, having swooped down upon
one that is softer and more civilized, easily carries all before it,
acquires the wealth and luxury which it desires, and being content with
them, seeks for nothing further, but assimilates itself by degrees to
the character and condition of the people whom it has conquered. A
standing army, disposed in camps and garrisons, may be kept up; but if
there is a cessation of actual war even for a generation, the severity
of military discipline will become relaxed, the use of arms will grow
unfamiliar, the physical type will decline, the belligerent spirit will
die away, and the conquerors of a century ago will have lost all the
qualities which secured them success when they made their attack, and
have sunk to the level of their subjects. When this point is reached,
thoughts of rebellion are apt to arise in the hearts of these latter;
the old terror which made the conqueror appear irresistible is gone, and
is perhaps succeeded by contempt--the subjects feel that they have at
least the advantage of numbers on their side; they have also probably
been leading harder and more bracing lives; they see that, man for man,
they are physically stronger than their conquerors; and at last they
rebel, and are successful.

In Egypt there was, further, this peculiarity--the conquered people
occupied two entirely distinct positions. In the Delta, the Fayoum, and
the northern Nile valley, they were completely reduced, an