"Traveller, you have wandered far from your peaceful home in sea-girt England, and you long to gaze upon the crumbling glories of the ages that are passed. You have come to see the marvels of Egypt--the land which in the march of civilization took the lead of all the nations of antiquity. Here as strangers and pilgrims sojourned the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob. This was the adopted land of the princely Joseph, the home of Moses, and the abode of Israel's oppressed race. I remember them well, for from the land of Goshen they all came to see me, and as they gazed at my countenance they were filled with amazement at my greatness and my beauty. You have heard of the colossal grandeur of Babylon and Nineveh, and the might of Babylonia and Assyria. You know by fame of the glories of Greece, and perhaps you have seen on the Athenian Acropolis those chaste temples of Pericles, beautiful even in their decay. You have visited the ruins of ancient Rome, and contemplated with wonder the ruined palace of the Cæsars, Trajan's column, Constantine's arches, Caracalla's baths, and the fallen grandeur of the Forum. "Traveller, long before the foundation of Rome and Athens; yea, long before the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia rose from the dim twilight, I stood here on this rocky platform, and was even old when Romulus and Cecrops, when Ninus and Asshur, were in their infancy. You have just visited the pyramids of Cheops and Cephren; you marvel at their greatness, and revere their antiquity. Over these mighty sepulchres I have kept guard for forty centuries, and here I stood amid the solitude of the desert ages before the stones were quarried for these vast tombs. Thus have I seen the rise, growth, and decay of all the great kingdoms of the earth. From me then learn this lesson: 'grander than any temple is the temple of the human body, and more sacred than any shrine is the hidden sanctuary of the human soul. Happiness abideth not in noisy fame and vast dominion, but, like a perennial stream, happiness gladdens the soul of him who fears the Most High, and loves his fellow-men. Be content, therefore, with thy lot, and strive earnestly to discharge the daily duties of thine office.' "This world, with all its glittering splendours, the kings of the earth, and the nobles of the people, are all mortal, even as thou art. The tombs which now surround me, where reposes the dust of departed greatness, proclaim that you are fast hastening to the destiny they have reached. Change and decay, which you now see on every side, is written on the brow of the monarch as much as on the fading flower of the field. Only the 'Most High' changeth not. He remaineth the same from generation to generation. Trust in Him with all thine heart, serve Him with all thy soul, and all will be well with thee, even for evermore." [Illustration] CHAPTER IV. THE LONDON OBELISK.