Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/117



When, indeed, the colossal character of all Egyptian monuments (more especially those of the Pyramids, now known to have been in some cases tombs, as that of Mycerinus,) and that, too, of their temples, statues, and canals, is borne in mind, the presumption is strong that this love of the colossal extended to other Egyptian works, and further, that in a country where so much mechanical genius was displayed, the construction of one or two great ships would not form an exception, even though a seafaring life may have been repugnant to the habits and tastes of a majority of the people. Plutarch, in speaking of the great war-ships built by Demetrius, observes, that while these could really be used, the still larger ship of Philopator "was a mere matter of curiosity, for she differed very little from an immovable building, and was calculated more for show, as she could not be put in motion without great difficulty and danger."

During the last three thousand years the steady tendency of commercial enterprise has been towards the West, and may, in its circuit from New York to California, even cross the Pacific and restore commercial life to Assyria, Phœnicia, and Egypt. Three thousand years hence London may have become a city of ruins, which an Egyptian antiquary may, in the interests of science, consider worthy of a visit. By the year 4873 all references to Ptolemy's ship, constructed five thousand years before, may have been destroyed, but some account of the Great Eastern, built on the banks of the Thames in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, may have endured. The supposed Egyptian traveller may seek diligently for some proof that such a vessel was really built and