To enlighten all Egypt.
Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile! shine forth!
Giving life to men by his omen:
Giving life to his oxen by the pastures!
Shine forth in glory, O Nile!"[2]

Though thus useful, beneficent, and indeed essential to the existence of
Egypt, the Nile can scarcely be said to add much to the variety of the
landscape or to the beauty of the scenery. It is something, no doubt, to
have the sight of water in a land where the sun beats down all day long
with unremitting force till the earth is like a furnace of iron beneath
a sky of molten brass. But the Nile is never clear. During the
inundation it is deeply stained with the red argillaceous soil brought
down from the Abyssinian highlands. At other seasons it is always more
or less tinged with the vegetable matter which it absorbs on its passage
from Lake Victoria to Khartoum; and this vegetable matter, combined
with Its depth and volume, gives it a dull deep hue, which prevents it
from having the attractiveness of purer and more translucent streams.
The Greek name, Neilos, and the Hebrew, Sichor, are thought to embody
this attribute of the mighty river, and to mean "dark blue" or
"blue-black," terms sufficiently expressive of the stream's ordinary
colour. Moreover, the Nile is too wide to be picturesque. It is seldom
less than a mile broad from the point where it enters Egypt, and running
generally between flat shores it scarcely reflects anything, unless it
be the grey-blue sky overhead, or the sails of a passing pleasure boat.

The size of Egypt, within the limits which have been here assigned to
it, is about eleven thousand four hundred square miles, or less than
that of any European State, except Belgium, Saxony, and Servia.
Magnitude is, however, but an insignificant element in the greatness of