and taught the people to honor them as divine--for the crowd needs a hand
to lead it, and under which it shall tremble as under the mighty hand of
Fate. We are the willing ministers of the divine representative of Ra on
the throne, so long as he rules in accordance with our institutions--as
the One God reigns, subject to eternal laws. He used to choose his
counsellors from among us; we told him what would benefit the country, he
heard us willingly, and executed our plans. The old kings were the
hands, but we, the priests, were the head. And now, my father, what
has become of us? We are made use of to keep the people in the faith,
for if they cease to honor the Gods how will they submit to kings? Seti
ventured much, his son risks still more, and therefore both have required
much succor from the Immortals. Rameses is pious, he sacrifices
frequently, and loves prayer: we are necessary to him, to waft incense,
to slaughter hecatombs, to offer prayers, and to interpret dreams--but we
are no longer his advisers. My father, now in Osiris, a worthier high-
priest than I, was charged by the Prophets to entreat his father to give
up the guilty project of connecting the north sea by a navigable channel
with the unclean waters of the Red Sea.

[The harbors of the Red Sea were in the hands of the Phoenicians,
who sailed from thence southwards to enrich themselves with the
produce of Arabia and Ophir. Pharaoh Necho also projected a Suez
canal, but does not appear to have carried it out, as the oracle
declared that the utility of the undertaking would be greatest to
foreigners.]

"Such things can only benefit the Asiatics. But Seti would not listen to
our counsel. We desired to preserve the old division of the land, but
Rameses introduced the new to the disadvantage of the priests; we warned
him against fresh wars, and the king again and again has taken the field;