cathedrals and temples of the world
to place them, not amid varied and rugged scenery, where they might be
brought into comparison with nature's work, but uniformly on level
expanses of land. There they form the crowning symbol of man's loving
care and painstaking endeavour, and give to the artificial landscape,
which man has entirely subdued for his own uses, the finishing touch
of power.

Obelisks are the most enduring monuments of antiquity, and yet no
class of objects has undergone such extraordinary vicissitudes. The
history of the changes to which they have been subjected reads like a
romance. At a remote age, not long after they were erected, most of
them were cast down during some political catastrophe, which shook the
whole country to its foundations. Under a subsequent dynasty the
obelisks seem to have been lifted up to their former places, and
regarded with the old veneration. After the lapse of nearly a thousand
years, the land was again convulsed by a terrible revolution, the
nature of which is still wrapped up in almost impenetrable mystery. A
warlike migratory race came from the north-east, and subdued the
whole country. This is known as the Hyksos invasion, or the invasion
of the Shepherd Kings, and produced the same effects in Egypt as the
Norman invasion produced in England. Previous to this period the horse
seemed to have been altogether unknown; but after this date it
uniformly appears in Egyptian paintings and sculptures. The Hyksos
must therefore have been a pastoral race, in all likelihood belonging
to the plains of Tartary; and, mounted on horses, they would find
little difficulty in overcoming the foot soldiery of Egypt. When they
had obtained possession of the country, they burnt down the cities,
demolished the temples, and overthrew the obelisks. This disaster, the
most dreadful which Egypt had ever known, followed suddenly upon a
period of extraordinary prosperity, when new cities were built, and
old cities enlarged; works of great public utility were constructed, a
mercantile intercourse established with the surrounding nations, and
the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, favoured by the
long peace and the abundant resources of the country, reached their
highest excellence. The reversal of all these signs of prosperity was
so overwhelming, that the Egyptians of subsequent ages looked back
upon this period of subjection under a foreign yoke which lay upon
them for five hundred yea