ess.

Scarcely half a century had elapsed between the moment when the XVIII's
dynasty reached the height of its power under Amenothes III. and that of
its downfall. It is impossible to introduce with impunity changes of any
kind into the constitution or working of so complicated a machine as an
empire founded on conquest. When the parts of the mechanism have been
once put together and set in motion, and have become accustomed to
work harmoniously at a proper pace, interference with it must not be
attempted except to replace such parts as are broken or worn out, by
others exactly like them. To make alterations while the machine is in
motion, or to introduce new combinations, however ingenious, into any
part of the original plan, might produce an accident or a breakage of
the gearing when perhaps it would be least expected. When the devout
Khuniatonu exchanged one city and one god for another, he thought
that he was merely transposing equivalents, and that the safety of the
commonwealth was not concerned in the operation. Whether it was Amon or
Atonu who presided over the destinies of his people, or whether Thebes
or Tel el-Amarna were the centre of impulse, was, in his opinion, merely
a question of internal arrangement which could not affect the economy
of the whole. But events soon showed that he was mistaken in his
calculations. It is probable that if, on the expulsion of the Hyksos,
the earlier princes of the dynasty had attempted an alteration in the
national religion, or had moved the capital to any other city they might
select, the remainder of the kingdom would not have been affected by the
change. But after several centuries of faithful adherence to Amon in
his city of Thebes, the governing power would find it no easy matter
to accomplish such a resolution. During three centuries the dynasty had
become wedded to the city and to its patron deity, and the locality had
become so closely associated with the dynasty, that any blow aimed at
the god could not fail to destroy the dynasty with it; indeed, had the
experiment of Khuniatonu been prolonged beyond a few years, it might
have entailed the ruin of the whole country. All who came into contact
with Egypt, or were under her rule, whether Asiatics or Africans,
were quick to detect any change in her administration, and to remark a
falling away from the traditional systems of the times of Thutmosis III.
and Amenothes II. The successors of the heretic king had the sense