the account: but to venture into this remote part of the inquiry would
be to plunge us into the depths of metaphysics. Even supposing we were
to make the matter as clear as the sun at noonday, there would still be
sceptics. On shewing the above arithmetical calculation, for example, to
an English lady, who has for a number of years studied Scotch character
and manners, she, with a degree of bluntness that was exceedingly
startling, gave it as her unqualified opinion, that the whole thing was
a piece of nonsense; and that the only reason, as far as she could
observe, why the Scotch do not shut the door, is that they have never
been taught that it is consistent with good-manners to do so. The
audacity of some people is really wonderful!




EDFOU AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.


There is something extremely pleasant in the general regularity with
which the picture of Egypt unfolds itself on either hand like a double
panorama as you descend the Nile. When moving in the opposite direction,
against the perpetual current, you are sometimes compelled to creep
slowly on, tugged by a tight-strained rope at the rate of seven or eight
miles a day; whilst anon a wind rises unexpectedly, and carries you with
bewildering speed through forty or fifty miles of scenery. But the masts
being taken down, and the sails folded for the rest of the voyage, and
the oars put out, you begin to calculate with tolerable certainty on the
rate of progress; for though violent contrary winds do frequently blow
during part of a day, it is almost always possible to make up for lost
time in the hours that neighbour on sunset before and after.