=Despotism.=--The Egyptian people has always been, and still is, gay,
careless, gentle, docile as an infant, always ready to submit to
tyranny. In this country the cudgel was the instrument of education
and of government. "The young man," said the scribes, "has a back to
be beaten; he hears when he is struck." "One day," says a French
traveller, "finding myself before the ruins of Thebes, I exclaimed,
'But how did they do all this?' My guide burst out laughing, touched
me on the arm and, showing me a palm, said to me, 'Here is what they
used to accomplish all this. You know, sir, with 100,000 branches of
palms split on the backs of those who always have their shoulders
bare, you can build many a palace and some temples to boot.'"

=Isolation of the Egyptians.=--The Egyptians moved but little beyond
their borders. As the sea inspired them with terror, they had no
commerce and did not trade with other peoples. They were not at all a
military nation. Their kings, it is true, often went on expeditions at
the head of mercenaries either against the negroes of Ethiopia or
against the tribes of Syria. They gained victories which they had
painted on the walls of their palaces, they brought back troops of
captives whom they used in building monuments; but they never made
great conquests. Foreigners came more to Egypt than Egyptians went
abroad.

=Religion of the Egyptians.=--"The Egyptians," said Herodotus, "are
the most religious of all men." We do not know any people so devout;
almost all their paintings represent men in prayer before a god;
almost all their manuscripts are religious books.

=Egyptian Gods.=--The principal deity is a Sun-god, creator,
beneficent, "who knows all things, who exists from the beginning."