NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS’.

19a

remarkable that Herodotus , who inquired with the mostpersevering diligence into the ancient history of Egypt, andwho received all the information concerning st which thepriests of Memphis , Heliopolis , and Thebes , could com-municate , Herodot. edit. Wesselingij , lib. ii. c. 3. al-though he relates the history of Sesostris at some length, doesnot mention his conquest of India. Lib. ii. c. 102, &c.That tale, it is probable, was invented in the period be-tween the age of Herodotus and that of Diodorus Siculus,from whom we receive a particular detail of the Indianexpedition of Sesostris. His account rests entirely upon theauthority of the Egyptian priests; and Diodorus himself notonly gives it as his general opinion , “ that many thingscc which they related, flowed rather from a desire to pro-cc mote the honor of their country, than from attention to(c truth, ” lib. i. p. 34. edit. 'Wesselingij, Am st. 1746;but takes particular notice that the Egypdan priests, aswell as the Greek writers, differ widely from one anotherin the accounts which they give of the actions of Sesostris,lib. i. p. 62. — 3. Though Diodorus asserts, that in rela-ting the history of Sesostris he had studied to select whatappeared to him most probable, and most agreeable to themonuments of that monarch still remaining in Egypt, hehas admitted into his narrative many marvellous’ circum-stances which render the whole extremely suspicious. Thefather of Sesostris , as he relates, collected all the malechildren who were born in Egypt on the fame day withhis son, in order that they might be educated , togetherwith him, conformable to a mode which he prescribed ,with a view of preparing them as proper instruments tocarry into execution the great undertakings for which hedestined Sesostris. Accordingly, when Sesostris set out uponhis Indian expedition, which, from circumstances mentionedby Diodorus, must have been about the fortieth year ofhis age, one thousand seven hundred of his youthful asso-ciates are said to have been still alive, and were intrustedwith high command in his army. But if we apply to theexamination of this story the certain principles of political

arithmetic,