the
Egyptians. He passed along the sea-coast of a country, which is, without
doubt, Syria, since the name of Rameses the Second is still found on
that shore, near the ancient Berytus and modern Beirut. He continued
his march into the interior, where we at length find him opposed by a
powerful force on the banks of a great river, probably the Euphrates.
On the opposite bank of the river is a vast and strongly-fortified city.
The battle is fought and won. The Orientals are defeated, and sue
for peace. The city is not represented as taken, yet sieges are often
sculptured on these walls, and the Egyptian army is always supplied with
scaling-ladders and the testudo. And what was this city? Was it Babylon?
Was it Nineveh? How wonderful is it at this remote period, to read for
the first time, the Gazettes of the Pharaohs! It does not appear to have
been the object of the Egyptians to make a permanent settlement in these
conquered countries. They laid waste the land, they accumulated plunder,
they secured peace by the dread of their arms, and, returning home with
the same rapidity that they advanced, they enjoyed and commemorated
their victories in the embellishment of their majestic cities. The
remainder of the long reign of Rameses the Great was passed in the
cultivation of the arts. A greater number of monuments, statues, and
temples bear the name of this king than of any other who ruled in Egypt,
and there are few remains of any city in that country where it is not
met with. To him we are indebted alike for the rock temples of Nubia,
and the inimitable obelisks of Luxor. He raised that splendid structure
on the western side of Thebes, supported by colossal statues, which is
foolishly styled the Memnonion; he made great additions to Karnak; he
built the temple of Osiris at Abydus; he adorned the great temple of
Memphis with colossal statues, for which he evidently had a passion;
and, finally, amid a vast number of other temples, especially in Nubia,
which it would be tedious to recount, and other remains, he cut the
famous Monticoelian obelisk now at Rome. Whatever may have been the
actions recorded of Sesostris, one thing is certain, that no Egyptian
king ever surpassed or equalled the second Rameses. Let us then allow
that history has painted in too glowing colours the actions of the
former-too great for the limited power of Europe--and remain persuaded,
that, so far from aiming at the conquest of the world, the utmost exte