Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

INTRODUCTION. XI

mitive age, she rose in the midst the patron of
arts and acquirements: and with a natural thirst
after power, her superior knowledge led to the in-
troduction and improvement of military tactics. Her
" wisdom" indeed was the admiration and a proverb
of the surrounding nations; and if any wonder
was related, or any difficulty to be solved, the
name of Egypt was invariably connected with it.
Nor did the productions of the country, now so
limited, fail to attract the attention of the botanist;
and the medicinal properties of her plants have
received an unqualified share of encomium, in the
works of the most learned naturalists of antiquity.

And why should we be surprised at the supe-
riority of the Egyptians, at a time when nations
were but emerging from a state of ignorance and
barbarism? So far from seeming incredible that
Egypt should have extended her arms beyond the
limits of her valley,* it appears singular that any
one, who calmly considers the advantages she

* The recent conquests of Mohammed Ali, with the feeble
resources of modern Egypt, have happened very opportunely to
support the opinion I here suggest: nor can we suppose that the
power of Egypt was as great in the time of the Ptolemies as under
her native princes; yet Ptolemy Euergetes extended his arms
considerably to the north-east, having penetrated as far as Bactria,
and by a successful invasion of Persia restored to Egypt a great
portion of those statues that Cambyses had carried away from the
Egyptian temples.