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structure of the present age will probably be standing; in three thousand years the palaces of the Cheops of the North shall be "baseless fabrics," and the Chimeras of Nash shall leave no wreck behind to puzzle the conjectures of posterity; in three thousand years, perhaps the site of London may be a problem to the traveller, like that of Troy and Babylon; and the topography of Windsor as questionable as that of Memphis.

If there be any so nationally vain as to consider such events impossible, as to conceive that their country is exempt from the ruin which, in the common course of nature, has embraced all the nations of the earth, I may fail to convince him that England must one day fall; but I would refer him to the histories of every ancient nation, for the last three thousand years, to learn the fate of empires and, if that did not subdue his vain glory, I would walk him through the desolate ruins I have visited; and, pointing out the vestiges of Rome and Byzantium, of Memphis and Heliopolis, of Babylon and of Thebes, and the utter nothing of the past, on the plains of Troy -I would ask him if these mouldering records of

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antiquity did not denote the site of cities, vast as even that of London? I would fix him to the ring of national ruin, till his heart sickened with the mortality of empire; and I would demand of him if, three thousand years ago, the sepulchre of each city he beheld was not the scene of animation, of gaiety, and of glory?

If he considered legislative wisdom, or kingly virtue sufficient for the lasting preservation of kingdoms, I would lead him through the tombs of the Theban kings, and convince him that neither wisdom nor virtue had been able to prevent the barbarian, nor the antiquary from ravaging the coffins and the caves of Sesostris and Psammetichus.

Perhaps he might find the mummies of the greatest monarchs of antiquity, set up in galleries of the Louvre, to horrify the curious; or, perhaps, their royal humours had not resisted putrefaction, and they had festered in their gilded coffins, by a less revolting process than that by which the bodies of the million are decomposed.

I shall trespass no longer on your time, than in alluding to the age of Sesostris, whose tomb is the most splendid here, and which Larcher's

Chronology places one thousand three hundred and fifty-six years before our era; and to notice the similarity in the Egyptian and Chinese chronologies; Manetho's account, containing a catalogue of thirty Egyptian dynasties, during a series of one hundred and thirteen generations, and comprising the immense space of thirty-six thousand five hundred and twenty-five years; while the Chinese historians date the origin of their empire twenty-eight thousand years back.

Whether the revolution of the zodiac, or the difference between solar and lunar years accounts satisfactorily for the supposed errors of chronology it is hard to say; probably national vanity has much to do with the chronology of Eastern countries. But, certainly, the ruins of Thebes carry the mind very far back; and many hundreds of centuries are required to account for the elevation of such a city, and for its gradual decline in the eloquent language of Denon, I may say:

"Dans le sanctuaire des arts et des sciences, combien d'époques se présentèrent à mon imagination! combien de siècles il a fallu pour amener une nation créatrice à de pareils résultats! à ce degré de perfection et de sublimité dans les arts!

combien d'autres siècles pour produire l'oubli de tant de choses! et ramener l'homme sur la même sol à l'état de nature où nous l'avons trouvé ! jamais tant d'espace dans un seul point; jamais les pas du temps plus prononcés et mieux servis!"

I am, dear Sir,

Yours very truly,

R. R. M.

LETTER XXIX.

TO THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON.

MY LADY,

Thebes, Sept. 10, 1826.

any,

SINCE the time of Lady Montagu few female travellers, if have followed in her steps; and of the few who were qualified to supply her glowing language and elegant description, Egypt, unfortunately, had never the advantage of their observations. It is for this reason that I once presumed to express my regret that your Ladyship had not visited this interesting country. I have been endeavouring, in the vicinity of Thebes, to gather information on the subject of ancient inhumation; and the result of my inquiries I address to your Ladyship, believing any subject connected with science cannot be devoid of interest, however appalling it may appear, under the lens of