Above two thousand years more have since elapsed, the whole of which have been years of neglect, and wilful dilapidation; and sad, indeed, is now the state of the grand building, once the grandest in all the world, upon which men had bestowed so much labour and thought, and of which those, to whom it belonged, had been so proud. An Arab canal has been carried through the centre of it. What remains is buried in the rubbish-heaps formed by its own overthrow and destruction. Still, there must be much within and beneath those heaps that might be disinterred. The whole ought to be carefully and critically examined. It is evident that these remains, from their extent and their connexion with the old monarchy, of which the original structure was the chief and most historical monument, are the most promising of all fields for Egyptological investigation. CHAPTER XV. HELIOPOLIS. A sense of our connexion with the past vastly enlarges our sympathies, and supplies additional worlds for their exercise.—_Edinburgh Review._ In going to Heliopolis I turned out of the way a few steps to look at the old sycamore many a pilgrim visits in the belief that Joseph and Mary, and the young Child, during their flight into Egypt, rested in its shade. There is no intimation that the Holy Family went beyond Pelusium, or Bubastis. To have gone so far would satisfy the requirements of the sacred narrative. As they were poor, probably they did not go far into the land, except that it might have been in the exercise of Joseph’s trade: though indeed I cannot imagine any one in Egypt, except a Jew, employing a Jewish carpenter. Of course, of the Jews who went down into Egypt there would be some who would be desirous of visiting Heliopolis, the On of Genesis, which was very interestingly connected with Jewish history; and, therefore, it is just possible the Holy Family may have gone so far. But as to this tree. If one of its kind could possibly have lived so many centuries in Egypt, which is highly improbable, even under all the circumstances most favourable for the supply of water and protection from the wind, it would have required an oft-repeated miracle to have saved it from the axe during the many long periods of disorder Egypt has passed through since Joseph’s sojourn. The wood of a large tree is, in Egypt, too tempting at such times to be long spared.