Agyptiaca: or, Obfervations on certain Antiquities of Egypt. In Two Parts. Part I. the Hiftory of Pompey's Pillar elucidated. Part II. Abdollatif's Account of the Antiquities of Egypt, written in Arabic, A. D. 1203. Tranflated into English, and illufirated with Notes. By J. White, D. D. Profeffor of Arabic in the University of Oxford. Part I. Oxford, 1801.

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few; and happy is it for fcience when fuch accomplished fcholars as a Pococke and a Niebuhr, glowing with an equal defire to inform others as to be inftructed themselves, undertake and accomplish the arduous talk. Fortunate alfo is it for her interefts when other scholars, alike ardent in her caufe, and thoroughly adequate to the office, but not favoured with the like opportunities of perfonally examining thofe proprimitive

frequently employed, or better deferves, the critical inveftigation of the exploring antiquary than Egypt. The great fountain whence admiring Greece drew the rich stream of the sciences, the exhauftlefs treasure. houfe of the nobleft antiquities, her fhores have attracted, in every age and from every clinie, thofe more zealous fons of literature who wifhed to penetrate to the fources of human knowledge, and vifit the facred receffes of the ancient fages of the world. As the foot wanders through the gloomy caverns of the Thebais, the schools of thofe fages, and as the eye ranges over its fpacious temples, the mind is tranfported back to the remoteft ages, and holds high converfe" with the fades of the ancestors of the human race. The prefent. barbarifm of her fons, and the hazard of the vifit, indeed, allow the fublime pleafure but to

cence, combine their efforts with them to throw light on what is obfcure, and rectify what may be erroneous in the rapid effufions of a moment of hurry, alarm, and peril. In literary adventures of this kind the modern Egyptian beholds nothing but the daring enterprizes either of European robbers, to plunder the tombs of the dead, or of thofe whom their fkill in the black art enables to burst the charm that guards, in their facred repofitories, the treafures of the Pharaohs.

The learned author of the Egyptiaca does not, at least in the work immediately before us, in this first part, folicit us to accompany him to fabrics and to periods of this very remote antiquity; the fubje& of his inquiry, however, cannot fail of being highly interefting, and his fentiments truly gratifying, to the curious antiquary, when he refleas

that

that they are the refult of the laborious fcrutiny of the first Arabic fcholar in Britain, if not in the world.

No prouder or more perfect monument of antiquity remains to gratify and inftruct the artift of modern times than the pillar falfely aligned to Pompey. The great elevation and the elegant workmanship of this vaft Corinthian column, added to the circumftance of its having stood fo immoveably firm for more than twenty centuries, on a bafe little more than five feet (quare, for fuch is the fact, what appears to be the pedeftal being of too weak a mafonry to fupport the prodigious mafs of granite above it, and its whole weight has been difcovered to reft on a fragment of an ancient Egyptian obelifk, proved to be fo by the hieroglyphicks engraved upon it, and thole hieroglyphicks too in an inverted pofition, which proves that it must have been reared after the period when the native Egyptians, by whom they were confidered as facred, were no longer mafters of the country; the above-mentioned circumftances, we fay, render this coloffal remain of ancient art not lefs interefting than it is fublime.

The preface is written with great modefty, yet with much fpirit, intermixed with very indignant reprobation, renewed allo at the conclufion of the work, of the Gallic invaders of Egypt, who, with all their boasted love of the arts, have by no means added to the flock of knowledge of Alexandrian antiquities, the report of the national inflitute being fimply confined to a defcription of the pillar, and the detail of its dimenfions, while to the fuck of the miferies of the

wretched inhabitants they have added a dreadful accumulation.

The firft fection of the differtation has reference to the period of its erection, a very important point in the difcuffion.

"For, whether (obferves our atthor) it were the production of regal power and munificence; or were reared by a loyal community in gratitude to an imperial benefactor; whether it flood finge, and formeda whole by itle; or were a part only and appendage of fame great edifice; thefe are either fubordinate queftions, or would receive a latisfactory antwer, if its age were once completely afcertained. The eluci dation of this point, therefore, has generally been the firft aim of every author who has written upon the fubject; and the attempt has given rife to conjectures the maft wild and extravagant. Paradoxical inquirers have difagreed to widely refpecting the age of the column, that, on the one hand, its origin has been affign ed to the fecond century of the Chriftian æra, and, on the other, to the remote and unknown period which witneffed the building of the Pyramids.

"Of opinions claiming admishonby no better title than conjecture, I think it unneceffary to peak: my animadverfions will be confined to hypothefes which profels to be founded on facis. If any one of thefe can ftand the teft of fair ex-: amination, my inquiry concerning the age of the column is at an end. But, if, on mature examination, they fhall appear to be unfounded, I fhall my felf, in the course of these obfervations, offer a new hypothefis: and I hope fo to interweave this particular investigation with other

fects of literary difcuffion as to afford the reader fome little enter tainment, even though I fhould fail to convince him with refpect to the principal object of refearch.

"Among the numerous authors who have attempted to determine the period in which this column was erected, there are three whofe opinions have particularly attracted the attention of the learned world; our countryman Wortley Montagu, Brotier, and Michaelis."

Of these three writers the hypothefes are refpectively examined, and the arguments for their fupport effectually confuted. That of Wortley Montagu, giving the honour of it to Vefpafian, on account of a medal which he pretended to have found inferted near the bafe, is overthrown by the general fufpicion of infincerity attached to his character, and the report, at that time current in Cairo, that the whole story was a grofs forgery, intended to impole on the credulity of the learned.

The opinion of Brotier, the learned editor of Tacitus, which afcribes it to Ptolemy Euergetes, in confequence of a pallage in father Sicard, is fallacious, becaufe that pallage is mifquoted, and by, no means fupports the arguments deduced from it

The conjecture of Michaelis, to whofe general accuracy and profound erudition Dr. White pays the highest compliment, is also founded on a miftranflation of a pallage in Abulleda's Geography of Egypt, where the Arabic words Amud Iffawari, tranflated the "Pillar of Severus," should have been tranflated the "Column of the pillars." On this expreffion the doctor makes the following observations: VOL. XLIII.

"To an English ear this phrafe will perhaps appear tautologous. Our language affords no correfpondent term, no world equally extenfive with Amûd; which includes both the round and the fquare pillar, and may be applied to a Gre cian column or an Egyptian obelisk. At the time when the Arabic language firft prevailed in Egypt, there were only two extraordinary objects of this kind remaining in Alexandria, Cleopatra's needle and Pompey's pillar; and the inhabitants appear to have diftinguished them by their local fituation, calling the one Amûd if Bahri, "The column of the fea," and the other Amûd Iflawâri, "The column of the pillars."

"It is, however, neceffary to fhew that fome reafon exifted for the ufe of this appellation, as defcriptive of the column. Now bifiop Pococke informs us, explicitly, that there ftill remain fome fragments of granite pillars, four. feet in diameter, near the column of Pompey; and we have the most pofitive teftimony of the Arabic writers of the middle ages, a teftimony as much to be depended on, in this inftance, as that of any Greek or Roman writer, that in the time of Richard Cœur de Lion, there were more than four hundred of these pillars standing in the immediate vicinity of the columr. So that this magnificent n.onument at that time might evidently be called, with fingular propriety," The column of the pillars."

"It appears, therefore, that ne ther the fufpected medal of Velpe❤. fian, the illegible infeription on the bafe, nor the mistaken verfion of the pallige in Abulleda, can afford any fatisfactory information with reM m

ipect