“In these chambers of which I speak, are found many niches, some large, others small, the chambers also often communicate, from a second to a third, and sometimes even to a fourth; but it is not to be understood, that all the bodies deposited in these sombre apartments, were all enclosed in cases and placed in these niches; the most of them were simply embalmed and swathed, as every one knows; after which they contented themselves in arranging them thus carelessly near each other; some of them were even placed in these tombs without being embalmed, or were so lightly so, that at the present time there remain only the bones among the linen which enveloped them, and which are half rotten. It is thus also are seen in some of these chambers heaps of bones mixed with these sort of linens, which have been left after they carried off the bodies which were preserved entire, to be exported beyond the seas. It is probable, that every family of any consideration, had for themselves one of these sepulchres; that the niches were destined to receive the heads of families, and that those of domestics and slaves were simply placed on the ground, after having been embalmed, or even without that ceremony; it is the same, without doubt, as regards the chiefs even of a family of less distinguished houses. They have even discovered, lately, in this plain of mummies, a mode, unknown until now, of burying the dead. At the extremity of this extensive plain and towards the mountains which bound it on the west, beds of carbon have been discovered, upon which bodies lie simply swathed with linen, and covered by a mat, seven or eight feet beneath the sands. Nevertheless, it ought to be observed, that these bodies, although they were not embalmed, or only slightly so, similar to those which they had neglected to enclose in cases, they were none the less protected from corruption.” When I consider with what facility the Egyptians were able to preserve their dead, I can scarcely comprehend this passage of an author otherwise so ingenious: “An industry so complicated, could not have presented itself all at once to the genius of the people. Like all other nations of the earth, these could only have devoted themselves to the arts, properly so called, after securing their subsistence by agriculture. Review all these arts, arrange them in the order in which it might be supposed that they originated, and endeavour to determine the precise period of each, you will not be able to find this. History is mute on this point; and however rash it may be to interpret her silence, it is, nevertheless, evident, that the art of embalming, very ancient for us, was very new to the Egyptians, and, perhaps, ulterior to all others.” I do not deny that this mode of rebutting history with _a priori_ views and conjectures, is any less positive than the method of historians, who do it often by acknowledged falsehood; but neither one of them are assuredly worth much.