Adventure and adventurers > New Cyropaedia, or The travels of Cyrus

THE TRAVELS OF CYRUS. 14?
mankind himfelf. All the fiftions with which they
have fill’d their annals, about the reign of the Gods
& Demi-Gods, are but allegories to exprefs the
firft ftate of Souls before their defcent into mortal
bodies.
According to them, was then the favourite
abode of the Gods* and the place of the univerfe
with which they were molt delighted. After the
origin of evil, & the great revolution which hap¬
pen'd by the rebellion of the monfter Ty/>/xj», they
believ'd that their country was the leal! Chang’d &
disfigur’d of any. Being watered by the Nile, it con-
( tinu d fruitful, while all Nature befides was barren.
They look'd upon Egypt as the Mother of Men &
of all living creatures.
Their firfl King was nam’d Mtnes. Their Hiilory
from his time is confin’-d within rcafonable bounds,
& is reduc’d to three Ages. The firft, from Alenes
| to the Shepherd-Kings, takes in 800 years. The
fecond , from the Shepherd-Kings to Sefojlris, 50c.
fl The third, from Sefoftris to Amafis, contains more
1 than feven Centuries *.
During the firft Age, Egypt was divided into fe-
« veral Dynaftys , or governments, which had each
ffl; its King. Their principal refidences were at Memphis,
M Thaws, This, Blepharitis, & Thebes. This laft Dynafty
fwallow’d up all the reft, & became miftrefs. The
il! Egyptians in thofe earlieft times , had no foreign
•a commerce, but kept to agriculture , and a paftoral
rl life. Shepherds were then Heroes, & Kings Philo-
t fophers. In thofe days liv’d the firft Hermes, who
4 penetrated into all the fecrets of nature, and of
r Theology. It was the age of occult fciences. The
?> Oreeks, fay the Egyptians, imagine that the world
li in its infancy was ignorant ; but they think fo,
K only
* See Marsbam C»n,n. Omnia*t.