his companions. Hiftory adds, that they remained inviolably attached to him, and that he chofe from this body the principal officers of the army which he raised for his grand expeditions. They were faid then to have confifted of 1700 : let us pause a little upon this fact. Diodorus does not ascertain the number of male infants born in Egypt the fame day with Sefoftris; but he gives room to guess it, by faying, that when that monarch began his conquefts, they were then 1700. For one cannot prefume, that there were only 1700 male children born in Egypt the fame day with Sefoftris; and we ought ftill lefs to fuppofe, that in cafe there were only 1700, they fhould all come to manhood. Sefoftris could not be much less than forty years of age when he undertook his expedition, fince he was determined to it by the counsel of his daughter Amyrta". For we know from experience, that out of a thousand children, born at the fame time, there will remain but little above one third at the end of forty years. Therefore, as there ftill remained 1700 of the companions of Sefoftris, at the time of his expedition, it must have been, that the number of males born in Egypt the fame day with this prince, amounted to more than 5000; and this appears to me highly improbable. It has been obferved, that there are very few more boys born than girls; the whole number of children, then, born the fame day with Sefoftris, thould amount to more than 10,000. Howfoever peopled that country was anciently, how can one perfuade one's felf that it was fo populous, that there could be born on each day more than 10,000 have gone feven leagues and an half. But we know, that the value and mea. fure of the ftadia was as different and equivocal among the ancients as the measure of miles and leagues among the moderns. We know that they had fhort ftadia, eleven hundred and eleven to a degree; therefore one hundred and cighty ftadia, reckoning two thousand two hundred cighty-two fathoms to a league, of twenty-five to a degree, make four leagues and fome fathoms. This valuation makes the fact spoken of by Diodorus a little lefs incredible. f Diod. p. 64. Ibid. Journal des favans, Aout 1666, art. 1.; Tables de M. Dupre de S. Maur, rapportees, &c. 2d tome de l'hift. nat. du cabinet du Roi, par M. Buffon, p. 590. et fuiv. & Ibid. children? One may, by a comparison of what happens in our times in France, make this very plain. In examining the number of children born in Paris in a year, we fee, for example, that in 1750 they amounted to 23,104, which gives 63 or 64 for each day; and we may obferve that there were a few more boys than girls: thus we may fix the number of males born in Paris each day at 32 or 33. Paris contains about 700,000 fouls. But we ought to take from this number the monks, the nuns, the ecclefiaftics, old men, infants, and that immenfe number of people of all forts who live unmarried. I think I fhall not go too far if I reduce to 400,000 fouls all the perfons capable of having children. We have feen that there were only born in Paris 32 or 33 males each day; we therefore can, after this calculation, determine the number that could be born in Egypt, more especially as the Egyptians could only marry one wife m. For Following the most exact researches, Egypt contained under its first kings 27,000,000 of inhabitants". Every body married in thofe countries; the women were prodigiously fruitful •, and were obliged to bring up all their children, even those that fprung from illicit commerces ». this reason, in order to render the account which I would establish more plain, and make a fort of compensation, I will calculate the number of children which could be born in Egypt each year from these 27,000,000 of inhabitants, whom I may well suppose to be the number of perfons capable of having children; and however advantageous that fuppofition may be to Egypt, yet we fhall want many to approach the number which the 1700 companions of Sefoftris neceffarily demand. In effect, even fuppofing in Egypt 27,000,000 of inhabitants capable of having children, it refults from the obfervations which I have juft made, that there could not be *Mercure de France, Janvier 1751. 1 Voy. le diction. de la Martiniere, au mot Paris. Herod. 1. 2. n. 92. born born in a day more than 4320 children; a number fufficiently distant from 10,000, to which the relation of Diodorus neceffarily brings us. Above half is then wanting to bring us to an equality. To obtain that, we must suppose more than 60,000,000 of inhabitants in Egypt, a number too exceffive ever to be admitted. I hope to be pardoned for this fmall digreffion: I return to Sefoftris. This monarch had fcarce afcended the throne, when he did all in his power to render Egypt more powerful and more formidable than it had ever yet been: his ambition propofed nothing lefs than the conqueft of the universe. But before he put in execution his vaft projects, he began by correcting and perfecting the interior government of his kingdom. I shall speak in its proper place of his grand expeditions, and military regulations. We ought at present only to confider Sefoftris in the light of a legiflator: his political establishments ought to be our only object. I faid elsewhere, that from all antiquity Egypt was divided into feveral provinces 1. Ancient authors agree in this; but we cannot exactly discover what were their precise number before Sefoftris. That prince fixed them at thirtyfix. He divided all Egypt, fay the ancient hiftorians, into thirty-fix nomes, or districts, and gave the government of them to as many perfons, on whom he could depend. They levied the King's taxes, and regulated all the affairs which happened in their jurisdiction. Sefoftris further divided, according to Herodotus, all the lands of Egypt into fo many portions as there were inhabitants; each had an equal portion of land for paying a certain rent annually. If the poffeffions of any one were leffened or damaged by the Nile, he went to the King, and declared the loss he had fuffered. The King caused it to be measured, to know how much it was diminished, and proportioned 1 Part I. book I. Diod. 1. 1. p. 64. The term nome, used to denominate the different cantons of Egypt, is a term invented by the Greeks when they were mafters of it under Alexander. The Romans afterwards called the fame districts, prefectures, when they brought Egypt under their command in the time of Augustus. Diod. 1. 1. p.64. the the tribute to the quantity of land that remained to the proprietor. Of all the political inftitutions attributed to Sefoftris, the moft remarkable, in my opinion, is the diftribution he made of all his fubjects into different claffes or ftates. They reckoned in Egypt feven different orders, who took their names from the profeffion which each order exercifed. By this establishment the different profeffions of each member of the state were separated and distinguished from each other. The Egyptians could not take upon them indifferently the profession for which they had the greatest liking; the choice was not left to their difpofal: the children were obliged to be of the profeffion of their fathers. They feverely punished whoever quitted it to embrace another. We fhall again have occafion to fpeak of this political inftitution. I referve likewife for the article of war the military laws published by Sefoftris. The Egyptians attribute to this prince the greatest part of the rules concerning the troops and the difcipline of armies.. . Sefoftris has been placed in the number of the most famous legiflators; the Egyptians, to fhew how perfectly that prince knew the science of government, said, that he was taught by Mercury politics and the art of governing. They always held his memory in the highest veneration, as one may judge from what I am going to relate. When Egypt, many ages after Sefoftris, was fallen under the dominion of the Perfians, Darius, father of Xerxes, would have his ftatue placed above that of this prince. The high priest, on the part of the whole college assembled on the subject, opposed the design of Darius, representing to him, that he had not yet furpaffed the actions of Se foftris. Darius was not offended at the liberty of the high L. 2. n. 109. Arift. polit. 1. 7. c. 1o. init.; Dicaearchus apud fchol. Apollon. Rhod. 1. 4. 7.273. * Herod. 1. 2. n. 163. y Plato in Tim. p. 1044.; Ifocrat. in Bufirid. p. 328. 329.; Diod. 1. 1. p. 86. Diod. 1. 1. p. 106. prieft. He only anfwered, that he would endeavour to attain to the glory of that hero, if he lived to his age. Sefoftris died after a reign of 33 years; his fon fucceeded him. Hiftorians agree in faying, that he did nothing remarkable. He was, in that, like the rest of the monarchs who poffeffed the throne of Egypt, from Sefoftris to Bochoris, whofe reign falls in the year 762 before Christ We do not know pofitively the names, and ftill le's the actions of most of thefe princes. Egypt therefore will fupply us with nothing for our refearches for a long fucceffion of ages. СНА Р. IV. Need not repeat what I have faid, in the first part of this work, of the ftate of the ancient inhabitants of Greece. We there have feen to what a pitch they were originally rude and barbarous. The reader will not have forgot, that this part of Europe owed the firft knowledge of science it poffeffed to strangers, who going out of Egypt, formed there a very extensive empire, though of a very fhort duration. Other colonies paffed fucceffively into Greece. I have not indeed been very particular about their firft eftablishments. Marking the æra, and telling the names of the authors of them, was all that I had to do. These first colonies had done little or nothing to civilize the Greeks. These people did not begin to be polished till near the times we are at present engaged in. This happy change was the work of new colonies which came then from Egypt and Phenicia into Greece. The conductors of those laft emigrations taught the ancient inhabitants of the coun try to use more form and more order in their focieties. They founded different kingdoms, which fubfifted a long time with great reputation. We will run over the history Herod. 1. 2. n. 113.; Diod. 1. 1. p. 68. • Diod. ibid. f Diod. 1. 1. p. 69. Idem, ibid.; Herod. 1. 2. n. III. Idem, ibid. of |