DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26300#0107
74
iEGYPTIACA.
PART I.
knowledge of Alexandrian antiquities would refult from
the invalion of Egypt. But this hope was not more
fondly conceived than cruelly difappointed. For, except
a defcription of the Pillar, with a detail of its dimen-
ftons, nothing has been performed, or even attempted.
It had been doubted whether the Eminence, on which it
Hands, be natural or artificial ground : and the judicious
Pococke, who noticed certain Ruins near it, hinted that
they were the remains of fome grand Edifice. But thefe
hints have been left unimproved, and thefe doubts ftill
remain unfatisfied. ProfefTors of art, and teachers of
fcience, have left mufeums crowded with the fpoils of
Florence and Rome—have received the fiat of the Great
Nation to inftrucf as well as to fubdue the world—they
have vifited this fpot, with power to examine it without
molefiation, and certainly with no model! reludlance to
claim the merit of difcovery. Yet what new information,
ufeful or curious, have they contributed on this fubjedl ?
Certainly none. But whilft the antiquarian may regret
the opportunity that has thus firangely been loft; what-
ever the wifdom of Divine Providence may have de-
termined fha.ll be its final iflue, every friend of humanity
cannot but lament the accumulated mifery, which has hi-
therto refulted from fo treacherous an enterprize againft
this devoted country—an enterprize, which though it
has eventually called forth the moft brilliant and un-
paralleled exertions of Britifh fkill, and valour, and mag-
iEGYPTIACA.
PART I.
knowledge of Alexandrian antiquities would refult from
the invalion of Egypt. But this hope was not more
fondly conceived than cruelly difappointed. For, except
a defcription of the Pillar, with a detail of its dimen-
ftons, nothing has been performed, or even attempted.
It had been doubted whether the Eminence, on which it
Hands, be natural or artificial ground : and the judicious
Pococke, who noticed certain Ruins near it, hinted that
they were the remains of fome grand Edifice. But thefe
hints have been left unimproved, and thefe doubts ftill
remain unfatisfied. ProfefTors of art, and teachers of
fcience, have left mufeums crowded with the fpoils of
Florence and Rome—have received the fiat of the Great
Nation to inftrucf as well as to fubdue the world—they
have vifited this fpot, with power to examine it without
molefiation, and certainly with no model! reludlance to
claim the merit of difcovery. Yet what new information,
ufeful or curious, have they contributed on this fubjedl ?
Certainly none. But whilft the antiquarian may regret
the opportunity that has thus firangely been loft; what-
ever the wifdom of Divine Providence may have de-
termined fha.ll be its final iflue, every friend of humanity
cannot but lament the accumulated mifery, which has hi-
therto refulted from fo treacherous an enterprize againft
this devoted country—an enterprize, which though it
has eventually called forth the moft brilliant and un-
paralleled exertions of Britifh fkill, and valour, and mag-