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of his march was confined to the countries bordering on Assyria, Arabia,
and part of AEthiopia, from which country he is represented as receiving
tribute. The conquests of Rameses the Second secured a long peace to
Egypt. The reigns of his two successors, however, are celebrated for the
creation of the great avenue of sphinxes at Thebes, leading from Luxor
to Karnak, a mile and a quarter in extent, a sumptuous evidence of the
prosperity of Egypt and of the genius of the Pharaohs. War, however,
broke out again under Rameses the Third, but certainly against another
power, and it would appear a naval power. Returning victorious, the
third Rameses added a temple to Karnak, and raised the temple and the
palace of Medcenet Habu. Here closes the most interesting period of
Egyptian history. A long succession of princes, many of whom bore the
name of Rameses, followed, but, so far as we can observe, they were
distinguished neither in architecture nor war. There are reasons which
may induce us to believe that the Trojan war happened during the reign
of the third Rameses. The poetical Memnon is not found in Egyptian
records. The name is not Egyptian, although it may be a corruption. It
is useless to criticise this invention of the lying Greeks, to whose
blinded conceit and carelessness we are indebted for the almost total
darkness in which the records of antiquity are enveloped. The famous
musical statue of Memnon is still seated on its throne, dignified and
serene, on the plain of Thebes. It is a colossus, fifty feet in height,
and the base of the figure is covered with inscriptions of the Greek and
Roman travellers, vouching that they had listened to the wild sunrise
melody. The learned and ingenious Mr. Wilkinson, who has resided at
Thebes upwards of ten years, studying the monuments of Egypt, appears to
me to have solved the mystery of this music. He informed me that having
ascended the statue, he discovered that some metallic substance had been
inserted in its breast, which, when struck, emitted a very melodious
sound. From the attitude of the statue, a priest might easily have
ascended in the night, and remained completely concealed behind the
mighty arms while he struck the breast; or, which is not improbable,
there was probably some secret way to ascend, now blocked up; for this
statue, with its remaining companion, although now isolated in their
situation, were once part of an enormous temple, the ruins of which yet
rem