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Much of
that history is sealed; some of it is shadowed from in the aerials hieroglyphics
that cover those magnificent ruins and monuments that are the wonder of
the world. If
the Nile could tell us all it has witnessed – if it could sing of
the deeds of all the triumph of arts and arms here – how thrilling
would be the story, how sublime the epic!
Before the Pentateuch was written, before the Law was given on Mount
Sinai, there stood on the banks of the Nile cities, temples, and tombs,
which in vastness and
magnificence, have never yet been surpassed. How different is the Egypt
of today from the Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemys!
In ascending the river, one is struck with the richness and vast capabilities
of the soil. The valley is but a few miles in width, bounded by the Lybian
desert on the west, and the Arabian on the east, the barren sands, or
rocky, desolate bluffs, often approaching quite near to the river Mary
in; while again, the fertile plain, covered with luxuriant crops, extends
back for a considerable distance. No soil can be more productive. It needs
no artificial enriching. The annual overflow of the river, somewhere from
August to October, spreads over it a deposit more valuable than gold.
How wonderful is this arrangement of Providence, in a country where rain
is never or rarely known.
If a year passes without the overflowing, great scarcity or a famine
is the result.
The scenery along the Nile is peculiar; the low ranges of hills, and bordering
deserts, without a solitary tree or spire of grass, contrasts strongly
with the profuse luxuriance and grateful verdose of the valley, with its
occasional clusters of stately and grateful palm trees which sometimes,
also for a long distance stand in beautiful lines along the river’s
bank. Flowers of various kinds may be gathered, and the cotton and castor
oil plants are often preserved. I have often observed under the clean
skies and still atmosphere, a profound silence brooding over all the landscape.
My “busy bum of men,”
no rustling of leaves, no solemn music of forest, no cascade’s song,
not a sloping field of heat moving in the breeze, not a cottage or a fence
of unrest the long infinity fusion, or break the deep spell of universal
stillness.
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