and durable human pleasures come from the exercise of faculty, and the born rulers of mankind are left pleasureless so long as, by a misconception of their destiny, they seek to force or cajole the multitude into acts of unwilling, and therefore imperfect and short-lived obedience. In like manner, the tilling and weaving multitudes-who are content with mere life, love, and work, and the cheap pleasures which beautify the satisfaction of these heaven-sent instincts-cannot enjoy the exercise of those faculties which form the groundwork of an empire's grandeur, unless the science of government is so understood, as to remove all obstacles from their chosen path of conformity to nature.

The sovereign's commands are obeyed by a contented and prosperous people, when all commands are rightly directed to secure the content and welfare of the obedient masses. This is neither government nor anarchy; it is the interpretation of natural fact. We have read, in the somewhat cumbrous English which disguises the sagacity of Thang the Successful, that "great heaven has conferred a moral sense upon the people which shows, to those who comply with it, that their nature is invariably right; so that the sovereign's task is only to enable them to pursue tranquilly the course that is natural to them."

The course natural to the multitudes is to make things, to contract marriages of affection, and to revere the wisdom of the wise, who succeed in interpreting those laws of heaven and earth which regulate the satisfaction. of human instincts. And the pursuance of this course holds out, unless human nature has altered in 5,000 years, the best prospect of social and economic welfare to the multitudes of the West, as well as to the ancient nations, versed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and the learning of the Chaldæans.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.

Vol. i. P. 42.

EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY AND DYNASTIES.

As the general reader cannot be expected to retain-if he has ever possessed—a working acquaintance with the order of Egyptian kings and dynasties, while there is no space in the text for a summary of Egyptian history, it may be convenient to append a skeleton sketch of Egyptian chronology, which will at least serve to give a rough idea of the date and order of the monuments, reigns, and inscriptions referred to. Those purely historical questions which are still matter of controversy may be passed over, as they have little bearing on the special subject of Egyptian economy.

As to the most doubtful point of all, the date of the first foundation of the monarchy, or the accession of King Menes, we must any way be content with a very vague and conjectural estimate. Dr. Brugsch sums up the disagreement of the doctors of his own country by a short table of the various dates proposed for the first Pharaohs: viz.—

And we may add to these authorities that of Dr. Birch, who named 3000 B.C. as the latest date which can possibly be assigned to Menes, and Meyer, who gives 3180 B.C. as the minimum date for the beginning of the Egyptian State.

Erman gives the following as rough approximate estimates of the latest dates probable for beginnings of the chief dynasties:

The chief authorities for the names and order of the kings are still the copyists of Manetho's lists of the kings of Egypt, what is known as the Turin papyrus, which gives similar lists, unfortunately in a fragmentary