E6WIN
329
EGYPT
ferent manner from the person who is reproached for
it, and differing in as great a degree as living in obedi-
ence to reason differs from living in obedience to pas-
sion, and as desiring the honourable differs from
desiring what seems to be advantageous." (Nich.
Ethics., Bk. IX, ch. viii, §§ 6, 7.) When Kant declared
that duty must be fulfilled exclusively for duty's sake,
with disregard of all considerations of happiness or
welfare, he ignored the fact that by annexing happi-
ness as a concomitant of the good the Creator evi-
dently intends that we may legitimately aim at our
own happiness, provided we do not invert the order
which makes happiness subordinate to the good.
Duty is not the be-all and the end-all. It is a means
to reach our supreme end and good.
St. Thom.\s, Summa Theologies, I, QQ. i-xix; Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics, IX, \"iii; Faroes, La Liberie et le Devoir (Paris, 1902), Part II; Meric, Du Droit et du Devoir CParis, 1877), Part II, ch. i, ii; Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (New York, 1S90), I, \-i-™; II, i-iii; Leckt, History of European Morals (New York, 1870), i; Muirhead, The Elements of Ethics (New York, 1892), II, i. — The authoritative presentation of Egoism is to be found in the works of Hobbes, Paley, Ben- THAM, andj. S. Mill. James J. FoX.
Egwin, S.UNT, third Bishop of Worcester; date of birth unknown; d. (according to Mabillon) 20 Decem- ber, 720. though his death may have occurred three years earlier. His fame as founder of the great Abbey of Evesham no doubt tended to the growth of legends which, though mainly founded on facts, render it diffi- cult to reconcile all the details with those of the ascer- tained history of the period. It appears that either in 692, or a little later, upon the death of Oftfor, second Bishop of Worcester, Egwin, a prince of the Mercian blood royal, who had retired from the world and sought only the seclusion of religious life, was forced by popular acclaim to assume the vacant see. His biographers say that king, clergy, and commonalty all united in demanding his elevation; but the popularity which forced on him this reluctant assumption of the episcopal functions was soon wrecked by his apostolic zeal in their discharge.
The Anglo-Saxon population of the then young dio- cese had had less than a century in which to become habituated to the restraints of Christian morality; they as yet hardly appreciated the sanctity of Chris- tian marriage, and the struggle of the English Bene- dictines for the chastity of the priesthood had already fairly begun. At the same time large sections of Eng- land were more or less permanently occupied by pa- gans closely allied in blood to the Anglo-vSaxon Chris- tians. Egwin displayed undaunted zeal in his efforts to evangelize the heathen and no less in the enforce- ment of ecclesiastical discipline. His rigorous policy towards his own flock created a bitter resentment which, as King Ethelred was his friend, could only find vent in accusations addressed to his ecclesiastical supe- riors. Egwin undertook a pilgrimage to seek vindica- tion from the Roman Pontiff himself. According to a legend, he prepared for his journey Ijy locking shackles on his feet, and throwing the key into the River Avon. While he prayed before the tomb of the Apostles, at Rome, one of his servants brought him this very key — found in the maw of a fish that had just been caught in the Tiber. Egwin then released himself from his self-imposed bonds and straightway obtained from the pope an authoritative release from the load of oblo- quy which his enemies had striven to fasten upon him.
It was after Egwin's triumphant return from this pilgrimage that the shepherd Eoves came to him with the tale of a miraculous vision by which the Blessed Virgin had signified her will that a new sanctuary should be dedicated to her. Egwin himself went to the spot pointed out by the shepherd (Eoves ham, or "dweUing") and to him also we are told the same vision was vouchsafed. King Ethelred granted him the land thereabouts upon which the famous abbey was founded. As to the precise date of the founda-
tion, although the monastic tradition of later genera-
tions set it in 714, recent research points to some year
previous to 709. At any rate it was most probably in
709 that Egwin made his second pilgrimage to Rome,
this time in the company of Coenred, the successor of
Ethelred, and Offa, Iving of the East Saxons, and it
was on this occasion that Pope Constantine granted
him the extraordinary privileges by which the Abbey
of Evesham was distinguished. One of the last im-
portant acts of his episcopate was his participation in
the first great Council of Clovesho.
Ada SS.. I, 707 sqq.; Mabillon, Acta SS. O. S. B., sec. Ill, Pars I, 316 sqq.; Macrvt ed., Chronicles of Evesham in R. S. (1863), XIX, 1-394; Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum. II, 1—49; Stubbs in Did. Christ. Biogr., s. v.; St. Egwin and his Abbey (London, 1904); Butler, Lives of the Saints, I. 490.
E. Macpherson.
Egypt. — This subject will be treated under the following main divisions: I. Gener.^l Description; II. Ancient Egypti.^^n History; III. Ancient Egypti.^n Religion; IV. Literary Monuments of Ancient Egypt; V. The Coptic Church; VI. Cop- tic Liter.\ture; VII. Copto-.\rabic Liter.^ture.
I. General Description. — The name Egnpl prop- erly applies only to the rather narrow valley of the Nile from the Mediterranean, .31° 3.5' \. latitude, to the First Cataract, at Assuan (Syene), 24° 5' 30" N. latitude, a stretch of about 680 miles by rail. How- ever, from remote antiquity, as now, Egj-pt held sway over Xul.iia, reaching by degrees as far as Napata (Gebel Barkal), 18° 30' N. lat'itude, which, under the eighteenth djTiasty, was the southernmost city of the empire — another stretch of about 590 miles by rail. Distances by water are somewhat greater owing to the winding course of the river. From Napata the Nile continues forawhile in the south-west direction which it follows from Abu-Hamed, but soon assumes its ordinary sinuous counse to the north, describing two great principal curves — one to the west down to Wadi Haifa, just below the second cataract, Soleb being the westernmost point, and then another to the east as far as Assiiit (Lycopolis), Assuan forming its apex, or easternmost point. As far as Edfu (.\ppollinopolis Magna) the valley is rather narrow, rarely as much as two to three miles wide. Indeed "in Lower Nubia the cultivable land area is seldom more than a few himdred yards in width and at not a few points, especially on the west bank, the desert advances clear up to the river brink" (Baedeker. Egj-pt, 1908, p. 376). The general aspect of the Nu- bian desert is that of a comparatively low table-land, stony in the north, studded with sandy hills in the south. At Assuan the course of the river is broken by the first cataract, where its waters rush between num- berless more or less diminutive islands, the most fa- mous of which is the island of Philre above and Ele- phantine in front of Assuan. The cataract, however, has lost much of its grandeur since the building of the great dam which now regvilates the supply for the irri- gation of the countrj' in time of low water. From Assuan to Edfu (about 48 miles) the banks are so high that even in the annual inundation they are above the level of high water, and consequently remain barren. Near Edfu the valley widens out and becomes wider still in the neighbourhood of Esneh (LatopoUs). At Luxor (part of Thebs) it again narrows for a few miles, but after that it maintains a respectable breadth, averaging between twelve and fifteen miles. At .\ssuan begin the two high ranges of the Libyan and Arabian deserts, bet ween which the valley extends. The range to the left is somewhat farther from the river, so that most of the towns are built on the western bank.
Near Girgeh (.Abydos) begins the Bahr-Yiisef, Joseph's Canal. It was formerly a branch of the Nile; it runs parallel to the main stream at a distance of from 5 to 6 miles along the left bank, and empties
