[57] MASPERO, _Histoire ancienne_, p. 58. This affiliation of the king to the god was more than a figure of speech. In an inscription which is reproduced both at Ipsamboul and at Medinet-Abou, Ptah is made to speak in the following terms of Rameses II. and Rameses III. respectively: "I am thy father, as a god I have begotten thee; all thy members are divine; when I approached thy royal mother I took upon me the form of the sacred ram of Mendes" (line 3rd). This curious text has lately been interpreted by E. Naville (_Society of Biblical Archæology_, vol. vii. pp. 119-138). The monarchy of the Incas was founded upon an almost identical belief. [58] See the account of the visit to Heliopolis of the conquering Ethiopian, Piankhi-Mer-Amen; we shall quote the text of this famous inscription in our chapter upon the Egyptian temple. [59] FR. LENORMANT, _Manuel d'Histoire ancienne_, t. 1, pp. 485-486. The most celebrated of these is the famous _Chamber of Ancestors_ from Karnak, which is now preserved in the _Bibliothèque Nationale_ at Paris. [Illustration: FIG. 13.--Seti I. in his War-Chariot, bas-relief at Thebes. (Champollion, pl. 297.)] [Illustration: FIG. 14.--Rameses II. in adoration before Seti. From Abydos (Mariette).] The prestige which such a theory of royalty was calculated to give to the Egyptian kings may easily be imagined. They obtained more than respect; they were the objects of adoration, of idolatry. Brought up from infancy in this religious veneration, to which their hereditary qualities also inclined them, generation succeeded generation among the Egyptians, without any attempt to rebel against the royal authority or even to dispute it. Ancient Egypt, like its modern descendant, was now and then the scene of military revolts. These were generally provoked by the presence of foreign mercenaries, sometimes by their want of discipline and licence, sometimes by the jealousy which they inspired in the native soldiery; but never, from the time of Menes to that of Tewfik-Pacha, has the civil population, whether of the town or of the fields, shown any desire to obtain the slightest guarantee for what we should call their rights and liberties. During all those thousands of years not the faintest trace is to be discovered of that spirit from which sprung the republican constitutions of Greece and ancient Italy, a spirit which, in yet later times, has led to the parliamentary governments of Christian Europe. The Egyptian labourer or artisan never dreamt of calling in question the orders of any one who might be master for the time. Absolute obedience to the will of a single man--such was the constant and instinctive national habit, and by it every movement of the social machine, under foreign and native kings alike, was regulated.