H o m e rV Life and Writings.
51
early Heroes of Greece, or from his own Father, Sect. of whom Ammianus Marcellinus says,— JX. ' Pelusium in Egypt, a famous Town, ^T^n)
- which Peleus, Achilles's Father, is said to 144. (r)
- have first founded : ' But it is much more pro
bable that the Nature of the Soil has been the Reason of the Name, from n«Ao? Clay especially ifit be the Tanis or Clay-Town of the Egyptians. Th e Produce of that fertile Region is accu rately described by Homer, E g tp't, where Mother-Earth all bounteous yields Innumerable Drugs of various Use:
- 38- Cg?
M4.(0
Some highly precious for their healthful Juice, And many pestilential, fraught with Death. ^
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As the Egyptian was among the
first
Governments in the World, so it was likewise the most severely modelled :
- For not only were the Hours of Business
' appointed in Egypt, or of hearing Causes, and ' giving Judgment ; but the Hour for walking, ' for going into the Bath, for caressing one's ' Wife ; and in a word for every thing that is
- ddne in Life.'
Di odor us the Sicilian. The cloudy stubborn Temper of the People required perhaps such strict Regulations : ' The
- Egyptians, fays another Historian, for the
' greatest Part are dusky and moorif) in their
- D 2
' Com-
M£ 146 ^
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