When therefore a favourable judgment was pronounced on a deceased person, the next thing was to proceed to the ceremonies of interment. In his panegyric, no mention was made of his birth, because every Egyptian was deemed noble. No praises were considered as just or true, but such as related to the personal merit of the deceased. He was applauded for having received an excellent education in his younger years; and in his more advanced age, for having cultivated piety towards the gods, justice towards men, gentleness, modesty, moderation, and all other virtues which constitute the good man. Then all the people besought the gods to receive the deceased into the assembly of the just, and to admit him as a partaker with them of their everlasting felicity. To conclude this article of the ceremonies of funerals, it may not be amiss to observe to young pupils the different manners in which the bodies of the dead were treated by the ancients. Some, as we observed of the Egyptians, exposed them to view after they had been embalmed, and thus preserved them to after-ages. Others, as the Romans, burnt them on a funeral pile; and others again, laid them in the earth. The care to preserve bodies without lodging them in tombs, appears injurious to human nature in general, and to those persons in particular to whom respect is designed to be shown by this custom; because it exposes too visibly their wretched state and deformity; since, whatever care may be taken, spectators see nothing but the melancholy and frightful remains of what they once were. The custom of burning dead bodies has something in it cruel and barbarous, in destroying so hastily the remains of persons once dear to us. That of interment is certainly the most ancient and religious. It restores to the earth what had been taken from it; and prepares our belief of a second restitution of our bodies, from that dust of which they were at first formed. Chapter III. Of The Egyptian Soldiers And War. The profession of arms was in great repute among the Egyptians. After the sacerdotal families, the most illustrious, as with us, were those devoted to a military life. They were not only distinguished by honours, but by ample liberalities. Every soldier was allowed twelve Arouræ, that is, a piece of arable land very near answering to half a French acre,(364) exempt from all tax or tribute. Besides this privilege, each soldier received a daily allowance of five pounds of bread, two of flesh, and a quart of wine.(365) This allowance was sufficient to support part of their family. Such an indulgence made them more affectionate to the person of their prince, and the interests of their country, and more resolute in their defence of both; and as Diodorus observes,(366) it was thought inconsistent with good policy, and even common sense, to commit the defence of a country to men who had no interest in its preservation.