A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

42 THE NILE.
a crowd of glorious associations rushed bewilder-
ingly across my mind as I gazed upon the dark
waves of that noble river rolling calmly onwards
to the sea, unchanged and unchanging amidst
the strange vicissitudes that had befallen the
valley it fertilizes ! Thus
had it flowed in the
days when the Pharaohs ruled gloriously amidst
the palaces of Thebes and Memphis, and when
the realm of Egypt was the greatest among the
nations of the earth ; and even thus, when she
became successively the prey of the Ethiopian,
the Persian, the Macedonian, the Roman, the
Saracen, and the Turkish conqueror ! And upon
those discoloured w^aters had the eyes of Thoth-
mes, and Sesostris, and Cambyses, and Alexan-
der, and Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar, and Omar,
and Saladin, and Selira rested complacently as
upon the richest jewel of their diadems ! And
still it flowed on, calm and undisturbed, while
degeneration slowly crept along its shores, and,
one by one, its great lights had become extin-
guished, and at last " darkness had overshadowed
the land;" and the prophecy of Ezekiel had been
fulfilled to the very letter, and from the first
it had become the last among nations, because
of the wickedness of its rulers. " It shall be
the basest of kingdoms, neither shall it exalt