MR DENTON'S LECTURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2484, 23 March 1882, Page 3

MR DENTON'S LECTURE.

Mr Denton (rave the fecond lecture of his new course en Wednesday night to a capital audience. The subject was "Egypt," and the lecturer dealt in a most interesting manner with the history of this strange land. Glancing at the various dynasties wfcich ruled over Egypt, Mr Denton proceeded to speak of the ,' pyramids, which he stated were erected during the fourth dynasty. These pyramids were the work of some 100,000 slaves, and it was aeked whether the fact that no such monuments were now constructed did not prove that the race was retrograding. He said no, because in these days no man could enslave 10.),(H 0 men to do this work. In these days men were more than pyramids. Mr Denton then went on to speak of the fifth dynaßty, during which a book was written by an o'd man, and this was the oldest book thay knew of. This book was called a handbook of manners for young people, and they might almost think that Moses, who grew up amongst the Egyptians, had read this book when he was a little boy, and there was also a number of proverbs which might have been written by the much married King of Israel. The ltcturer then went on to Fpeak of the retrograde steps taken by the nation between the end of the seventh and the eleventh dynasty, though during thiß period the magnificent city of Tkebes was founded. A season of peace and prosperity set in during the twelfth dynasty, but during the thirteenth and fourteenth dynasty civil war arose, then came in the shepherds and drove the Egyptians further south, though the invaders spoke the language and adopted the religion of the country. Jn the eighteenth dynasty the shepherds were driven out of the county, and in the nineteenth Egypt was at the summit of its glory. At the close of the twentyfourth _ dynasty Egypt was subjugated by Ethiopia, and thence it passed through tka hands of the Greeks, the Romans, and lastly the Turks. Mr Denton then proceeded to speak of the pyramids, and the theories of their •onstrnction dealt with, the lecturer's deduction being that they were monuments for the bodies of kings, Mr Denton next dealt with the religion of Egypt, pointing out that they had prayers which would not be out cf place in the Sunday schools of the present day, contending that the code of morals of the Egyptians was much more pure than that of the nineteenth century. This seemed to him to prove that religion belonged to humanity as a whole, and not to any special band of people singled out by Omnipotence. The Egyptians thought that there was but one God, and their relics showed that they had as much religion as many there that night. From the history of Egypt they found that man must be far more uucient than they had dared to think. Again, they learned that religion was not the production of any man or body of men, but an offspring of the human heart, and this was proved by the history ef the Egyptian people. Mr Denton concluded with a most eloquent peroration, in which he dilated upon the fact that the history of the Egyptians taught them thiB — that when the present body of man had done its allotted work, the spirit soared to a higher and nobler stage of being. The display of views was more than ordinarily interesting, giving some beautiful pictures of the ruins of ancient Egypt, the temples of Karnak, the Pyramids, &•