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[Book I.
human population becarne dense, then animal labor was in some degi'eesuperseded by that of man. The extensive employment of the latter,appears to have been a prominent feature in the political economy of an-cient Egypt , just as it is in modern China . As the country teemed withinhabitants, the extensive use of animal labor would not only have inter-fered with the means of the great mass of the former in obtaining a living,but would have required too large a portion of the land to raise foodmerely for the latter. _
The antiquity of the noria may be inferred from its name of “ Egyptianwheel,” the only one by which it was known in some countries. It is tobe found if we mistake not, among the Symbols of aneient mythology.In elucidating one of the religious precepts of Numa, which requiredpersons when worshipping in the temples, to turn romul; Plutarch ob-serves, that this change of posture may have an enigmatieal meaning, “ likethe Egyptian wheels, admonishing us of the instability of every thinghuman, and preparing us to acquiesce and rest satisfied with whateverturns and changes the divine being may allot.” Life of Numa. Thisfigurative application of the noria, is obviously used by Plutarch as a com-mon and consequently a long established Symbol of the mutability of humanaffairs ; and, as the sentiment which he illustrates by it, is precisely thesame as that which the wheel of the goddcss of fortune was designed topoint out, the “ instability of forlune,” and of which it was the emblem,we conclude that the “wheel of fortune,” was a water wheel, and no oth-er than the noria ; and that to it, the Grecian philosopher in the abovepassage referred. The selection of an Egyptian wheel to denote the mu-tability of human affairs, indicates the origin not only of Plutarch ’s simili-tude, but also that of the fable of the goddess. Egypt was the sourcewhence the Greeks obtained not only their arts and Science , but also theirmythology, with its deities, heroes and its mysterious System of symbolicalimagery; and if the Egyptians were not the inventors of the System ofrepresenting and concealing things by Symbols, they certainly carried it toa greater extent than any other people, and at a period long before theGreeks had emerged from barbarism, or an Egyptian colony had settledin their country.
Although we are not aware that the wheel of fortune had any othersignification, yet, as the same goddess presided over riches and abund-ance —a more expressive emblem of these in Egypt could not have beendevised. Agriculture was the grand source of wealth in that country,and it depended almost entirely upon artificial irrigation, for except dur-ing the annual inundation of the Nile, water was raised for that purposeby machines, and among these, the noria was one of the most prominent,and probably one of the most aneient. Egypt without irrigation wouldhave been a dreary waste, and like its neighboring deserts uninhabited byman; but by means of it, the soil became so exceedingly fertile thatEgypt became “the garden of the east,”—the “ hot bed of nature,” andthe “granary of the World.” It was artificial irrigation which, under thePharaohs , produced food for seventeen millions of inhabitants, and in thereign offRameses or Sesostris, a surplus sufficient for thirty-three millionsmore ; and even under the Grecian yoke, when its aneient glory had longdeparted, the prodigious quantities of grain, which it produced, enabledPtolemy Philadelphus to amass treasure equal to nine hundred and fiftymillions of dollars. There was therefore a peculiar propriety, whetherdesigned or not, in the goddess of “ prospe.rity,” “ riches,” and “abund-ance,” being accompanied with the noria or Egyptian wheel, the imple-