ABSTRACT
ALEXANDRIA TO CAIRO IN the dim grey dawn of a February morning, I was on the deck of the Austrian steamer Urano, peering eagerly through the mist to the southward. The
clear crystalline blue of the Mediterranean had changed to a greenish grey, showing that we were in shallow water. As the sun rose, the haze vanished, and we could make out the coast-line, a long stretch of sand, here and there broken by a hillock, a clump of palm-trees, an Arab village, or the white walls and dome of a santon's tomb. Then a forest of masts came into view, and, rising above them, a venerable column and a lighthouse. The column we recognise as Pompey's Pillar; the lighthouse is the modern representative of the famous Pharos of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the ancient world. We were approaching that mysterious land which had attained a high civilisation, and a settled monarchy, when Abram " went forth from U r of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan." 1 It was in its glory when the Hebrews
were there held in bondage. It had passed its prime when David and Solomon sat upon the throne of Israel. It had sunk into decay when Rome rose to power, and at the dawn of modern history it had ceased to exist as a nation. Hebrew patriarchs, Greek philosophers, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman conquerors, have all been drawn hither, and its annals are inextricably interwoven with theirs. It played an important part in the greatest event in our world's history, when Joseph" arose and took the young Child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son "1 In later ages the land of the Pharaohs is ever coming into prominence. Amongst the early Christians, Cyril, and Athanasius, and Origen; amongst the early Mohammedans, Amrou and Omar; amongst the Crusaders, St. Louis of France, and Saladin, the chivalrous enemy of Richard Creur de Lion, all lead our thoughts to Egypt. What wonder, then, that it was with a feeling of almost reverential awe, that I first gazed upon the soil which, for four thousand years, had been the scene of so many memorable deeds ?
