shall show hereafter that the Egyptians at first only worshipped their figures or images. However picture-worship must needs make the animals themselves sacred, and unfit for sacrifice. Now here again, in confirmation of this account, we are told by scripture, that when Pharaoh would have had MOSES to sacrifice to God, in the land of Egypt, according to his own family rites, the prophet objected,-It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? * And if Herodotus came any thing near the truth in his account of the early superstition of Egypt, the Israelites, we see, could not avoid sacrificing the abomination, i. e. the gods of the Egyptians. And with what deadly hatred and revenge they pursued such imaginary impieties, the same Herodotus informs us, in another place.†

III. To come next to the CIVIL ARTS of Egypt.-Concerning their practice of physic, Herodotus says, that it was divided amongst the faculty in this manner: "Every distinct distemper hath its own physician, who confines himself to the study and cure of that alone, and meddles with no other so that all places are crowded with physicians: for one class hath the care of the eyes, another of the head, another of the teeth, another of the region of the belly, and another of occult distempers." After this, we shall not think it strange that Joseph's physicians are represented as a number-And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.§ A body of these domestics would now appear an extravagant piece of state, even in a first minister. But then, we see, it could not be otherwise, where each distemper had its proper physician: so that every great family, as well as city, must needs, as Herodotus expresses it, swarm with the faculty: and a more convincing instance of the grandeur, luxury, and politeness of a people, cannot, I think, be well given. But indeed it was this circumstance for which the Egyptian nation was peculiarly distinguished, not only by the earliest Greek writers (as we shall see hereafter), but likewise by the holy prophets. There is a remarkable passage in Jeremiah, where, foretelling the overthrow of Pharaoh's army at the Euphrates, he describes Egypt by this characteristic, her skill in medicine. Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou USE MANY MEDICINES; for thou shalt not be cured. The prophet delights in this kind of imagery, which marks out a people by its singularities, or pre-eminence. So again, in this very chapter: EGYPT, says he, is like a fair heifer, but destruction cometh : it cometh from the north. Also her hired men are in the midst of her like FATTED BULLOCKS, for they also are turned back and are fled away toLib. ii. cap. 65.

* Exod. viii. 26.

† Ἡ δὲ ἰητρικὴ κατὰ τάδε σφι δέδασται μιας νούσου ἕκαστος ἰητρός ἐστι, καὶ οὐ πλεόνων. Πάντα δ' ἱητρῶν ἐστι πλία. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ, ὀφθαλμῶν ἰητροὶ κατεστίασι· οἱ δὲ, κιφαλῆς· οἱ δὲ, ὀδόντων· οἱ δὲ, κατὰ νηδύν· οἱ δὲ, τῶν ἀφανίων νούσων. Lib. ii. cap. 4.

& Gen. 1. 2.

Jerem. xlvi. 11.

gether.* For the worship of Isis and Osiris, under the figure of a cow and a bull, and afterwards by the animals themselves, was the most cele brated in all the Egyptian ritual.

But a learned writer, frightened by the common panic of the high antiquity of Egypt, will needs show, the art of medicine to be of much later originalt. And to make room for his hypothesis, he contrives to explain away this direct testimony of Herodotus, by a very uncommon piece of criticism. This is the substance of his reasoning, and in his own words :-"We read of the Egyptian physicians in the days of Joseph; and Diodorus represents them as an order of men not only very ancient in Egypt, but as having a full employment in continually giving physic to the people, not to cure, but to prevent their falling into distempers. Herodotus says much the same thing, and represents the ancient Egyptians as living under a continual course of physic, undergoing so rough a regimen for three days together, every month, that I cannot but suspect some mistake, both in him, and Diodorus's account of them in this particular. Herodotus allows them to have lived in a favourable climate, and to have been a healthy people, which seems hardly consistent with so much medicinal discipline as he imagined them to go through, almost without interruption. The first mention we have of physicians in the sacred pages shows indeed that there was such a profession in Egypt in Joseph's time, and Jacob was their patient; but their employment was to embalm him after he was dead; we do not read that any care was taken to give him physic whilst alive; which inclines me to suspect that the Egyptians had no practice for the cure of the diseases of a sick bed in these days: we read of no sick persons in the early ages. The diseases of Egypt, which the Israelites had been afraid of, were such as they had no cure for; and any other sicknesses were then so little known, that they had no names for them.-An early death was so unusual, that it was generally remarked to be a punishment for some extraordinary wickedness. Moses informs us, that the physicians embalmed Jacob; many of them were employed in the office, and many days' time was necessary for the performance, and different persons performed different parts of it, some being concerned in the care of one part of the body, and some of the other: and I imagine this manner of practice occasioned Herodotus to hint, that the Egyptians had a different physician for every distemper, or rather, as his subsequent words express, for each different part of the body: for so indeed they had, not to cure the diseases of it, but to embalm it when dead. These, I imagine, were the offices of the Egyptian physicians in the early days. They were an order of the ministers of religion. The art of curing distempers or diseases was not yet attempted. We may be sure the physicians practised only surgery until after Homer's time;-for we read in him, that their whole art consisted in extracting arrows, healing wounds, and preparing anodynes.-In the days of Pythagoras, the learned began to Jerem. xlvi. 20, 21. † See note L, at the end of this book.

form rules of diet for the preservation of health, and to prescribe in this point to sick persons, in order to assist towards their recovery. And in this Strabo tells us, consisted the practice of the ancient Indian physicians. They endeavoured to cure distempers by a diet regimen, but they gave no physic. Hippocrates-began the practice of visiting sickbed patients, and prescribed medicines with success for their distempers. This, I think, was the progress of physic.-And it must evidently appear from it, that the Egyptians could have no such physicians in the days of Moses as Diodorus and Herodotus SEEM to suppose? So far this writer. But if it be made appear, that the very contrary of every thing here advanced be the truth; I shall hope, that what Herodotus and Diodorus, conformable to scripture, do not seem to suppose, but directly and circumstantially to affirm, may be admitted for certain.

He tells us, first, "that Diodorus represents the Egyptian physicians as administering physic to the people in the early times, not to cure, but to prevent their falling into distempers." One would conclude, from his manner of expression, that the historian had said they did not administer to the infirm, but to the healthy only; which gives us the idea of a superstitious kind of practice, by charms and amulets: and so indeed the writer is willing we should think of it. I should imagine, says he, that their ancient prescriptions, which Diodorus and Herodotus suppose them so punctual in observing, were not medicinal, but religious purifications. p. 361. Let Diodorus then speak for himself: "They prevent distempers," say he, " and keep the body in health by refrigerating and laxative medicines; by abstinence and emetics; sometimes in a daily regimen, sometimes with an intermission every three or four days: for they hold a superfluity in all food, as usually taken; and that it is the original of distempers: so that the above-mentioned regimen removes the cause, and greatly contributes to preserve the body in a state of health."† Here we have a very rational theory, and expert and able practice; this prescribing to prevent distempers, being, as amongst us, the result of the physician's long experience in his art: for the regimen, we see, was intermitted or continued according to the habit and constitution of the patient. But the Egyptians being a healthy people, and living under a favourable climate, could not have occasion, says the learned writer, for so much physic; therefore he will suspect their accounts. I have observed, that these accounts are a proof of that grandeur, luxury, and politeness, which sacred and profane history ascribe to this people, and which so many other circumstances concur to make credible. Now a too great repletion, the effect of a luxurious diet, would certainly find employment

The sacred and profane History of the World connected, vol. ii. ed. 2. pp. 359, 360, 361, 364-367.

* Τὰς δὲ—νόσους προκαταλαμβανόμενοι θεραπεύουσι τὰ σώματα κλυσμοῖς, καὶ ποτίμοις τισὶ καθαρτηρίοις, καὶ νηστείαις καὶ ἐμέτοις, ἐνίοτε μὲν καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν, ἐνίοτε δὲ τρεῖς ἢ τέτταρας ἡμέρας διαλείποντες. φασὶ γὰρ, πάσης τροφῆς ἀναδοθείσης, τὸ πλέον εἶναι περιττόν· ἀφ ̓ οὗ γεν νασθαι τὰς νόσους. ὥστε την προειρημένην θεραπείαν ἀναιροῦσαν τὰς ἀρχὰς τῆς νόσου, μάλιστ ̓ ἂν παρασκευάσαι τὴν ὑγίειαν.—Bibl. lib. i. p. 52.

for the whole tribe of evacuants, as we may see by the various experience of our own times, notwithstanding all the advantages of climate and constitution. And let me observe, and it seems to be decisive, that the very establishment of this principle of the Egyptian physic, that all distempers arose from a too great repletion, fully evinces them to be a very luxurious people: for a nation accustomed to a simple and frugal diet, could never have afforded sufficient observations for the invention of such a theory.

It is true, he owns, we hear of physicians in Joseph's family, who embalmed his father Jacob; but we do not read they gave him any physic while alive. Nor do we read that Jacob had any other distemper than old age; and, I suppose, Hippocrates himself would scarce have prescribed to that—But we read of no sick persons in the early ages. A plain man would have thought this a good reason why we read of no medicines administered. Though no man, who considers the nature of scripture history, will think this any proof that there were no sick persons in those early ages. But further, the diseases of Egypt which the Israelites had been afraid of, were such as they had no cure for, Deut. xxviii. 27, and from hence is inferred the low estate of medicine in these early times. One would reasonably suppose the authority here quoted, to support this observation, had informed us that these were natural diseases, which submitted not to the rude practice of that time. But we are surprised to find that they are supernatural punishments which the prophet is here denouncing in case of disobedience: and providence would have defeated its own purpose, in suffering these to be treatable by the common rules of art:-" But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, &c. whereof thou canst not be healed."* That very botch or boil, which God had, in their behalf, miraculously inflicted on the Egyptians, by the ministry of this prophet; as appears by the following words of God himself: "If thou wilt," says he, "diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, &c. I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee."†-And all other sicknesses, this learned writer says, were then so little known, that they had no name for them. For which we are referred to the following words of the same denunciation, "Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee till thou be destroyed." This seems as if the writer considered the law of Moses in the light of Salmon's Dispensatory, in which we reasonably suppose every disease and remedy without name or mention, to be unknown. And still further, An early death, says he, was so unusual, that it was generally remarked to be a punishment for some wickedness : and for this we are sent to the xxxviiith chapter of Genesis. It seems then it was the rarity of the fact, which made men believe the evil to be * Deut. xxviii, 15, 27. + Exod. xv. 26. Deut. xxviii, 61.

a punishment. Till now I imagined, it was the sense of their being under an extraordinary providence: it is certain at least, that the book. of Genesis as plainly represents the patriarchs, as the book of Deuteronomy represents their posterity to be under that dispensation: and I hope, ere long, to prove these representations true. If then we hear in scripture of little sickness but what is delivered as the effect of divine vengeance, no believer, I persuade myself, will ascribe this opinion to ignorance, superstition, or an unusual appearance, though pagan writers be ever so much accustomed to talk in that strain,* but will own it to be the necessary consequence of an extraordinary providence. The truth is, diseases were then, as now, common in the world at large; but the infliction of them, or an exemption from them, amongst the people of God, made part of the sanction of that economy under which they lived:-" Ye shall serve the Lord your God," says MOSES, "and he shall bless thy bread and thy water, and I will take SICKNESS away from the midst of thee." And again," Thou shalt be blessed above all people, and the Lord will take away from thee all SICKNESS." But there are of these divines who read their Bible, and readily talk of the extraordinary providence there represented, yet argue in all questions arising from sacred history as if there were indeed no such thing.

The learned writer goes on: the physicians embalmed Jacob, many of them were employed in the office, and many days' time was necessary for the performance, and different persons performed different parts of it, some being concerned in the care of one part of the body, and some of the other.This account is pretended to be taken from Diodorus: how the latter part came in, or how it can be true, unless the body were cut in pieces to be embalmed, is not easy to conceive: but we know it was embalmed entire; and Diodorus says nothing of some being concerned in the care of one part of the body, and some of the other. His plain, intelligible account is this: that different persons performed different parts of the operation; one marked the place for incision; another cut; a third drew out the entrails; a fourth salted the body; a fifth washed; and a sixth embalmed it.—But the learned writer's addition to the account seems for the sake of introducing the extraordinary criticism which follows.

And I imagine, says he, this manner of practice occasioned Herodotus to HINT that the Egyptians had a different physician for every distemper, or rather, as the subsequent words express, for each different part of the body: for so indeed they had, not to cure the diseases of it, but to embalm it when dead. What he means by Herodotus's hinting, I can hardly tell: for had the historian been to give his evidence in a court of justice, it is impossible he should have delivered himself with more precision. Let us hear him over again: "Every distinct DISTEM

* Eodem auctore [Homero] disci potest, morbos tum ad iram deorum immortalium relatos esse; et ab iisdem opem posci solitam.-Celsus de Medicina, lib. i. præf, Deut. vii. 14, 15.

† Exod. xxiii. 25.