Egypt was ever considered, by all the ancients, as the most renowned school for wisdom and politics, and the source from whence most arts and sciences were derived. This kingdom bestowed its noblest labours and finest arts on the improvement of mankind; and Greece was so sensible of this, that its most illustrious men, as Homer, Pythagoras, Plato; even its great legislators, Lycurgus and Solon, with many more whom it is needless to mention, travelled into Egypt, to complete their studies, and draw from that fountain whatever was most rare and valuable in every kind of learning. God himself has given this kingdom a glorious testimony, when praising Moses, he says of him, that “He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”(322) To give some idea of the manners and customs of Egypt, I shall confine myself principally to these particulars: its kings and government; priests and religion; soldiers and war; sciences, arts, and trades. The reader must not be surprised if he sometimes finds, in the customs I take notice of, a kind of contradiction. This circumstance is owing either to the difference of countries and nations, which did not always follow the same usages; or to the different way of thinking of the historians whom I copy. Chapter I. Concerning The Kings And Government. The Egyptians were the first people who rightly understood the rules of government. A nation so grave and serious immediately perceived, that the true end of politics is, to make life easy, and a people happy. The kingdom was hereditary; but, according to Diodorus,(323) the Egyptian princes conducted themselves in a different manner from what is usually seen in other monarchies, where the prince acknowledges no other rule of his actions than his own arbitrary will and pleasure. But here, kings were under greater restraint from the laws than their subjects. They had some particular ones digested by a former monarch, that composed part of what the Egyptians called the sacred books. Thus every thing being settled by ancient custom, they never sought to live in a different way from their ancestors. No slave nor foreigner was admitted into the immediate service of the prince; such a post was too important to be intrusted to any persons, except those who were the most distinguished by their birth, and had received the most excellent education; to the end that, as they had the liberty of approaching the king’s person day and night, he might, from men so qualified, hear nothing which was unbecoming the royal majesty; nor have any sentiments instilled into him but such as were of a noble and generous kind. For, adds Diodorus, it is very rarely seen that kings fly out into any vicious excess, unless those who approach them approve their irregularities, or serve as instruments to their passions.