This ancient tradition, though grounded on an evident falsehood, hath yet introduced into almost all languages, the custom of giving the name of phœnix to whatever is singular and uncommon in its kind: _Rara avis in terris_, says Juvenal,(304) speaking of the difficulty of finding an accomplished woman in all respects. And Seneca observes the same of a good man.(305) What is reported of swans, _viz._ that they never sing but in their expiring moments, and that then they warble very melodiously, is likewise grounded merely on a vulgar error; and yet it is used, not only by the poets, but also by the orators, and even the philosophers. _O mutis quoque piscibus donatura cycni, si libeat, sonum_,(306) says Horace to Melpomene. Cicero compares the excellent discourse which Crassus made in the Senate, a few days before his death, to the melodious singing of a dying swan: _Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini hominis vox et oratio._ _De Orat._ l. iii. n. 6. And Socrates used to say, that good men ought to imitate swans, who, perceiving by a secret instinct, and a sort of divination, what advantage there is in death, die singing and with joy: _Providentes quid in morte boni sit, cum cantu et voluptate moriuntur._ _Tusc. Qu._ l. i. n. 73. I thought this short digression might be of service to youth; and return now to my subject. It was in Heliopolis, that an ox, under the name of Mnevis, was worshipped as a god.(307) Cambyses, king of Persia, exercised his sacrilegious rage on this city; burning the temples, demolishing the palaces, and destroying the most precious monuments of antiquity in it. There are still to be seen some obelisks which escaped his fury; and others were brought from thence to Rome, to which city they are an ornament even at this day. Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great, from whom it had its name, vied almost in magnificence with the ancient cities in Egypt. It stands four days’ journey from Cairo, and was formerly the chief mart of all the trade of the East. The merchandises were unloaded at Portus Murius,(308) a town on the western coast of the Red-Sea;(309) from whence they were brought upon camels to a town of Thebais, called Copht, and afterwards conveyed down the Nile to Alexandria, whither merchants resorted from all parts.