that he introduced luxury and a sumptuous style of living. From Menes to Moris in the eighteenth dynasty there is a wide chasm, feebly supplied by the scattered notices in the Pentateuch. The priests read to Herodotus a fabulous roll of 330 inglorious monarchs, eighteen of whom were Ethiopians, with one queen, named Nitocris.

RELIGION. The main doctrine of the Egyptian religion was the transmigration of souls to an inferior or superior state of being, according as a man pursued vice or virtue during his life. The principal divinities of Egypt were Kneph, the creator of the universe, represented under the figure of a serpent; Phtha, the vivifying power of nature, whom, owing to his symbol, fire, the Greeks confounded with Vulcan; Osiris, or the Sun; and Isis, or the Moon. The heavenly bodies were regarded as the great causes of nutrition and generation. Terrestrial and mortal divinities were also worshipped, many of whom had been kings, and were thus honoured as gods for the benefits they conferred on their subjects during life. Baby or Typhon was detested as the murderer of Osiris and the scourge of his family and nation. Horus, Thoth, Serapis, and Anubis were other of their deities. The religious extravagance of the Egyptians accorded divine honours to many animals and vegetables. Cats were held especially sacred, and their death was mourned by shaving the eyebrows. The preservation of this animal during a conflagration was of more importance than that of a house; and for having killed one undesignedly, a soldier in the army of Antony was torn in pieces by the enraged multitude. The bull Apis was worshipped in a magnificent temple, and by the noblest priests. His death was considered a national calamity, and the installation of his successor at Memphis was a universal holiday. By their long residence in Egypt the Israelites had gradually acquired many of the religious notions peculiar to the country; hence the molten calf set up in the desert, and the golden calves worshipped at Bethel and Dan, under Jeroboam, were representations of the Egyptian Apis.

GOVERNMENT.-The 30,000 years of the reign of the sun, the 3984 of the twelve gods, and 217 of the demigods, are either an allegory or an astronomical problem converted into history. The earliest form of government of which we can speak with any certainty was sacerdotal, which was followed by the regal. The population was divided into castes, as in Hindostan at the present day; the priesthood were in the first rank, the soldiers in the second, then followed the husbandmen, traders, and artificers; sailors and shepherds formed the lowest. The country was originally divided into nomes or districts, each so distinguished from the others by various local usages and objects of worship, as to lead to the conjecture that they once formed permanent and independent states. The four principal dynasties were those of Tanis, Memphis, Thebes, and This.

ARTS AND SCIENCES.-The Egyptians, at an early period, had made astonishing progress in certain sciences. The contention of the necromancers with Moses shows the great advances they had made in natural magic,namely, physics and chemistry. Geometry was rendered necessary by the destruction of the landmarks in the annual inundation of the Nile. Architecture was carried to great perfection; the construction of the arch was not unknown, and Mr (now Sir J. G.) Wilkinson places its introduction so far back as 1540 B. C., coeval with the eighteenth dynasty; and the stupendous pyramids, while they astonish the traveller by their magnitude, attest the astronomical skill of their builders. Each side of the base of the great pyramid, multiplied by 500, produces a geographical degree. Some writers are of opinion that these monuments were built before the Flood. It is not

improbable that they were erected to gratify the pride or satisfy the superstition of the Egyptian monarchs. The temples and palaces of Thebes are colossal, but ill proportioned; the ground is in many places strewed with massy obelisks formed of a single stone; and avenues of sphinxes still direct to the centre of religious worship. The walls and ceilings of public and private buildings are covered with paintings, as fresh as when first executed; but the four simple and unmixed colours which are used declare the infancy of the art.

HIEROGLYPHICS.-The sanguine anticipations of the learned appear to be disappointed by the meagre results obtained from deciphering the Egyptian writings, whether on stone or papyrus. The hieroglyphs (sacred engraved characters) are a kind of allegorical picture-writing, in which the signs borrowed from natural objects serve partly to represent sounds, and partly to express ideas. There are two other species of writing, the hieratic, confined to the priests; and the demotic, used in common life— both apparently running hands derived from the hieroglyphic system.

TWENTIETH CENTURY.

SACRED HISTORY.-1921, Call of Abraham-Destruction of Sodom.1968, Ninus supposed to reign in Assyria.

ABRAHAM, of the race of Shem, was born in Ur of the Chaldees. Although connected with the idolatrous fire-worship of his native country, he possessed some knowledge of the true God, for he obeyed the divine command without hesitation, and moved westward to Haran, that Charræ famous for the defeat and death of Crassus. Passing the Euphrates, he at last, after various wanderings, settled in the Promised Land. The kings of the Pentapolis having revolted against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam (Elymais), that monarch was obliged to take up arms against them, in order to preserve the fidelity of the adjoining states. He defeated the allied army and captured Lot, the nephew of Abraham, who was shortly after rescued by his uncle, 1913. Returning from his victory over the Elamites, Abraham was met by Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High, who blessed him and received in return a tithe of the spoil, as an offering to the God who had crowned the undertaking with success. The piety of the patriarch was unable to avert the destruction of the impious Cities of the Plain, 1897. Jehovah rained down fire and brimstone from heaven, and the Dead Sea now covers the ruins of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. On the birth of Isaac (1806), the mother urged Abraham to drive out Hagar with the child Ishmael, that she had borne him, lest he should share the paternal heritage. The two exiles retired to the desert, where the youth married an Egyptian woman, and his Arabian descendants are,

to this day, a living witness to the truth of the prophecy of the angel,—he will be a wild man, his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him,-Persians, Greeks and Romans, Mongols and Tartars, having vainly endeavoured to subdue them. The Hejazite kings of Arabia, to whose dynasty Mohammed belonged, reckon the son of Hagar among their

ancestors.

When Isaac was little more than twenty years of age, God demanded him as a burnt-sacrifice; but the faith of the patriarch prevented the consummation of the painful duty, and the covenant made before Abraham quitted Chaldea was renewed in stronger terms, 1872. This father of the faithful expired at the age of 175, B. c. 1821, leaving behind him a numerous family. Besides the Israelites and Ishmaelites, he was, by his second wife Keturah, the ancestor of the Midianites and several other Arab tribes.

Character of Abraham.

In whatever light we view the patriarch, we remark traits of grandeur that place him beside the great heroes of antiquity. He was a despotic king over his descendants and slaves, without the inconvenient title and ceremonies. Princes sought his alliance, as their equal; like a modern sheik, he made peace or war as he pleased. Possessing countless herds, the only riches of the age, he lived in abundance, rejecting all presents, lest any should boast that he had enriched himself by them. As a religions man, he had the most implicit confidence in the promises of God, and was always resigned to his commands, even to the sacrifice of his only son. As soon as the Almighty spoke, he believed against all appearances, hoped even against hope, and obeyed in spite of the strongest affections of our nature. He was a man of divine mould, the model as well as the father of all true believers.

NINETEENTH CENTURY.

EGYPT.-Invasion of the Shepherds.

GREECE.-1856, Kingdom of Argos founded by Inachus.

SHEPHERD KINGS.-The invasion of the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings is an event of great importance in Egyptian history, but much uncertainty exists as to the period when it took place. We learn that, in the reign of Timaos (Thammuz), Egypt was invaded by a pastoral tribe, who, after subduing the lower country, extended their ravages to the Thebais, which, however, they could not reduce, and where a native dynasty long continued to reign. They are said to have made Memphis their capital, and to have established a fortified camp

at Abaris (Pelusium), in the Saitic nome, where they stationed 240,000 men. These invaders are represented on the monuments with tattooed limbs and skin garments, and as preserving their wild habits and rudeness until their expulsion. This event took place under the first of the eighteenth dynasty of Thebes, 260 years after the inroad. Amosis, or Thoutmosis, raised the country from its prostrate state, and formed one compact kingdom with Thebes for its capital.

This period of Egyptian history is greatly confused, as much from the want of information as from contradictory accounts. Heeren places the Shepherd dominion between 1800 and 1600 B. C., contemporary with Moses and the Exodus; he also supposes a number of successive invasions. Dr Hales assigns 2159 B. C. for the epoch of the Pastoral Kings, and supposes them to have been expelled about 27 years before the commencement of Joseph's administration. The authors of the Universal History, following Josephus, give a duration of more than 500 years to this dynasty. Rollin places them between 2084 and 1825 B. C., and makes Abraham visit Egypt under one of these foreign kings. The Jewish annalist maintains that these exterminating invaders are merely the 70 peaceful members who formed the family of his ancestor Jacob. The red hair and blue eyes of the Hyksos seem to indicate a northern and probably a Scythian origin; they certainly have nothing of the Arabian character. The Jebusites, who held the fortress of Jerusalem until expelled by David, are supposed to have been a tribe of Hyksos.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

SACRED HISTORY.-1837, b. Esau and Jacob-1728, Joseph in Egypt1706, Israelites settled in Goshen. EGYPT.-Foreign Intercourse.

Sacred History.

THE life of Isaac was not eventful. He dwelt within the borders of the Promised Land, where he practised agriculture, and became so wealthy as to excite the jealousy of the neighbouring princes. By his prudence he averted the calamities of war, and renewed the treaty that had been concluded between his father and Abimelech. His two sons, Esau and Jacob, were men of different characters: the elder applied himself to the cultivation of the soil, and by the active pleasures of the chase acquired a hardy frame of body; Jacob, on account of his mild and peaceful manners, was the object of his mother's peculiar affection. The latter defrauded Esau of his father's benediction, and was obliged to flee from his just resentment. In his journey toward Mesopotamia, 1760, he was visited by God in his sleep, who promised him a numerous posterity, as well as the possession of the land of Canaan. On

the death of Isaac, at the age of 180 years, the two brothers divided the inheritance; the younger remained in the land of Canaan, while the other returned to the country which had derived from him the name of Edom (red). His numerous posterity occupied that part of Idumea called Amalekitis, from a descendant of Ham, or, according to some, from Amalek, the grandson of Esau.

JOSEPH.-The twelve sons of Jacob did not all imitate the piety of their father. One of the number, Joseph, became the victim of the jealousy of the others, and at the age of seventeen was sold by them to a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way to Egypt, 1728. Here he speedily rose to honour, became the minister of Thoutmosis, the reigning pharaoh, and by his foresight he preserved the country from famine during seven years of sterility. He strengthened the royal power, and secured the comforts of the people, by establishing a fixed land-tax or rent of one-fifth of the produce instead of the previous arbitrary exactions. His own influence was confirmed by a marriage with the daughter of the priest of On; and the government, which had been theocratic and military, now became entirely sacerdotal. Jacob and all his family were soon after settled in the land of Goshen, 1706, which not only afforded excellent pasture, but was separated by its remoteness from the Egyptians, who had recently suffered too much from the Shepherd Kings to associate readily with those who followed the same occupation. By this means also the exposed frontier was confided to the protection of a hardy and warlike race.

EGYPT.

The state of Memphis, in which Joseph resided, comprised at this period Middle and Lower Egypt; and the Mosaic records prove that it contained a brilliant court, with its castes of priests and warriors. Thoutmosis reigned twenty-five years after the expulsion of the Shepherd dynasty. Among his successors is reckoned Moris, who is said to have excavated the great lake which bears his name.

This century witnessed the first communication between the Hebrews, Greeks, and Egyptians. Joseph and the twelve patriarchs on the one side, a king of Thessaly and the Titans on the other, sought an asylum in Egypt. The Israelites were then a mere nomad tribe, like the Arabs of the present day; the Greeks were Scythians or Pelasgians; both were new people; while the Chaldeans, the Sidonians, and the Egyptians, were