The revolt broke out anew under Darius Nothus, in the tenth year of whose reign (B.c. 414) Amyrtaeus became the independent king of Egypt. His reign at Saïs lasted six years, and he forms, by himself, the Twenty-eighth (Saite) Dynasty of Manetho. The history of the Twenty-ninth (Mendesian) and the Thirtieth (Sebennyte) Dynasties is beset with difficulties, which we must leave to the Egyptologers. They ruled with great prosperity, and left monuments which may vie in beauty and finish with those of the earlier dynasties. Their alliances with the Greeks, the internal disorders of Persia, and the dissensions among the satraps, left them for the most part unmolested. Achoris (the Hakori of the monuments, about B.C. 402) repulsed a Persian attack by the aid of Greek mercenaries, under the Athenian Chabrias. Nectanebo I. (the Nekht-nebf or Nekt-har-hebi of the monuments, about B.C. 387-369), whose name is preserved on some fine works of art, defended the land successfully against a still more formidable attack, though the Athenian auxiliaries went over to the Persians (B.c. 373). His successor, Tachos or Teos (about B.C. 361), dared to concert with the Athenians and Lacedæmonians an invasion of Asia. But the scheme was ruined by the dissatisfaction of Agesilaus at the subordinate command assigned to him; the needful taxes roused the discontent of the Egyptians; and when Tachos had marched as far as Phoenicia, his son Nectanebo was placed on the throne, and Tachos fled to Artaxerxes Mnemon. A civil war followed, in which Nectanebo II. succeeded, with the aid of Agesilaus, in defeating the partisans of the late king. The power of Nectanebo was so firmly established, that he not only held out against the Persians, but aided the Phoenicians to revolt, sending them a force of 4000 Greeks under Mentor the Rhodian. But when Artaxerxes Ochus advanced at the head of an immense army, Mentor deserted to him, Phoenicia and Cyprus were subdued, and Nectanebo prepared to resist a new invasion. Pelusium, garrisoned by 5000 Greeks, repelled the first assault, but Nectanebo lost heart and fled to Memphis. Pelusium then surrendered, and while Mentor was subduing the other fortresses, Nectanebo escaped by the river into Ethiopia (about B.C. 353). Thus ended the Thirtieth and last native Dynasty of the kings who had governed Egypt for perhaps twenty-four centuries; and for twenty-two centuries more she has been ruled by foreigners. Egyptian art scarcely shows a symptom of decline under these latest independent dynasties, but rather an increase of grace and delicacy, due probably to Greek influence. Examples B.C. 353-30.] FROM THE PERSIAN TO THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 141 may be seen in the intercolumnar slab of green basalt, sculptured in intaglio, of Nectanebo II., and the obelisks erected by Nectanebo I., in front of the temple of Thoth, now in the British Museum. The Museum is rich in antiquities of this period, brought chiefly from Cairo and Alexandria, but many of them had been previously transferred to those cities from places now unknown. Among them is the splendid sarcophagus of Nectanebo I., formerly called the sarcophagus of Alexander. The restored Persian dominion, forming the Thirty-first Dynasty (Ochus, Arses, and Darius Codomannus), lasted less than twenty years. Ochus emulated the cruelties of Cambyses in his treatment of the conquered province; but he only survived his victory a few years. In B.C. 332 Egypt joyfully submitted to Alexander, who justly regarded it as the gem of his new diadem, and prepared to make Alexandria the commercial capital of the world. The story of his visit to Egypt we reserve for his own history. On his death Egypt fell to his general Ptolemy, the son of Lagus (B.C. 323), whose dynasty lasted for three centuries. The earlier Ptolemies ruled Egypt with equal sagacity and moderation, carrying out those schemes of Alexander which enriched their country with the commerce of the world, distributing impartial justice, and extending religious toleration to Greeks and Egyptians alike. While, under their munificent patronage, learning and science found a new seat at Alexandria, the temples of Egypt were restored and enlarged in the style and spirit of the Pharaohs. The wars, which were for the most part forced upon them by the ambition of the Seleucid kings of Syria, had little effect on Egypt itself, and the toleration of the Ptolemies, when they were masters of Judæa, forms a bright contrast to the fanatical violence of Antiochus Epiphanes and his successors. At length the nobler character of the race died out. Family dissensions tempted a recourse to the arbitration of Rome (B.c. 164). From that moment the end was certain, and it came after a long period of decline. But, before she yielded to her fate, Egypt had almost revenged herself on the masters of the world, the empire of which was well-nigh bartered by Julius, and was resigned by Antonius, for the charms of Cleopatra. The battle of Actium, and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, left Egypt as the final prize of Octavian; and it became a Roman province in B.C. 30. But its political absorption left its commercial and intellectual pre-eminence undiminished. Under the rule of Rome it enjoyed the commerce between the provinces of the West and the rich lands of the furthest East. Its schools of philosophy and theology have left their impress on the thought and belief of Christendom. When conquered by the Arabs (A.D. 639), Egypt soon became the chief seat of their learning, and to this day it is the country where the character and manners of the race can be best seen. Reduced for a time to comparative insignificance by the Turkish conquest and the change of the route to India, it seems to have begun a new history with the present century. As the supposed key to the empire of the East, it roused the ambition of Napoleon and called forth the might of England. A more peaceful rivalry began when science once more made it the highway to India, with results to the country yet to be seen, but certain to be vast. In the above outline of the history of Egypt, the interest of the subject, and the light thrown upon it by recent discoveries, have led us to treat it more exhaustively than would be generally consistent with the limits of our work. In the case of countries better known, and whose annals abound in a multitude of details, such a method would be impossible. But, where the facts are comparatively few, and the information only to be found in large, elaborate, and expensive works, we attempt to put before the reader, as nearly as possible, the compendious sum of existing knowledge. And even, as we have said before, where our knowledge is still imperfect or very doubtful, we prefer to state, with the necessary reserve, the opinions of the best authorities, if only as a convenient starting-point for further investigation, rather than to draw the erasing stile of ruthless scepticism over records which certainly contain much knowledge worth preserving, though clouded with much ignorance worth dispelling. Labour in this field may be often spent in vain, though only for a time; but we had rather lose a large part of our labour than be content to leave this chapter of our history "In cloud instead, and ever-during dark," and the reader, from such information as can be given, "Cut off; and, for the book of knowledge fair, Of [Egypt's] works, to him expunged and razed, NOTE.- Special acknowledgment is due of the use made, in the two preceding chapters, of Sir J. G. Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, of his Essays on Egyptian History and Antiquities, in the Appen dix to Book II. of Rawlinson's Herodotus, and of Mr. Poole's Hora Egyptice and article Egypt in the Encyclopa dia Britannica, 9th edition. DESTINY OF THE HEBREW NATION. 143 CHAPTER VIII. THE HEBREW THEOCRACY AND MONARCHY. "Behold the measure of the promise fill'd; DESTINY OF THE HEBREW NATION-REVIEW OF THEIR HISTORY IN EGYPT-JOSEPH-THE ISRAELITES IN GOSHEN-THE OPPRESSION-MOSES: AS AN EGYPTIAN PRINCE -- HIS FLIGHT HIS DIVINE LEGATION-THE PLAGUES, THE PASSOVER, AND THE EXODUS— HEATHEN TRADITIONS OF THE EXODUS MARCH TO SINAITHE MOSAIC LAWTHE WILDERNESS CONQUEST OF PEREA DEATH OF MOSES CAMPAIGNS OF JOSHUA DIVISION AND SETTLEMENT OF CANAAN-TIMES OF THE JUDGES-SERVITUDE TO THE PHILISTINES-SAMUEL, PROPHET AND JUDGE THE KINGDOM-SAUL— DAVID-FULL CONQUEST OF THE LAND- JERUSALEM, THE CAPITAL AND SANCTUARY— SOLOMON ISRAEL A GREAT MONARCHY-BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE-SOLOMON'S IDOLATRIES-FOREIGN ENEMIES AND INTERNAL FACTIONS-DIVISION OF THE TWO KINGDOMS -THEIR SEPARATE HISTORY-STEADY DECLENSION OF ISRAEL-FOREIGN ALLIANCES AND IDOLATRIES-THE PROPHETS-ELIJAH AND ELISHA-RELATIONS TO SYRIA, JUDAH, ASSYRIA, AND EGYPT-CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES-THEIR SUBSEQUENT FATEKINGDOM OF JUDAH-IDOLATRIES AND REFORMS-ASA-JEHOSHAPHAT-THE HIGH PRIEST JEHOIADA-UZZIAH-IDOLATRIES OF AHAZ-THE PROPHETS, ESPECIALLY ISAIAH -WARS WITH ISRAEL AND SYRIA-HEZEKIAH-DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIBJOSIAH-INVASION OF PHARAOH-NECHO-NEBUCHADNEZZAR-THE CAPTIVITY-CONDITION OF THE JEWS DURING THE CAPTIVITY. THE picture, which we have endeavoured to fill up in the preceding chapter, of the primeval monarchy of Egypt, forms as yet only the background of the World's History. The chief interest of the story of our race remains with the people of Israel. The other nations have lapsed into idolatry, and have sunk beneath the power of oppressive rulers. They have failed, in the second probation of the world, to reach the highest standard of social life,-liberty regulated by laws in harmony with the will of God. So one family has been chosen out of all the rest, to form a nation which should reach that standard, or else prove by its failure the need of some more powerful principle than the purest laws. The moral aspect of this great experiment, in bringing man to the consciousness of his own weakness, and so reducing him to submission to divine grace, belongs to the province of religion. But it has a political aspect too; and the story of the chosen people, as a nation, forms at this point the main stream of the history of the world. We see them assembled, apart from all the other nations, in the recesses of Mount Sinai, to receive a LAW through the hands of a divinely-appointed legislator. And yet their separation is not a perfect isolation from the other peoples. In the presence of that "mixed multitude" who went with them out of Egypt, and in the extension of the chief provisions of the law to "the stranger within their gates," we see the general adaptation of the Law to the whole race of man. Meanwhile, however, it is fenced about with signs and sanctions, to bind it with peculiar force, in the first instance, on the people chosen to receive it. The perversion of what was peculiar to them into a selfish claim of exclusive privileges was one of the proofs of their unworthiness to fill their true position. Israel, called forth in the character of the son of God, was only the eldest of many brethren. The present favour and pure law of God were given to him in trust for all the rest, and his true mission was to diffuse knowledge and life over all the world. For this the previous stages of the people's history were a preparation. Called out from the idolatry and tyranny of Chaldæa, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, so to speak, just shown the future inheritance of Canaan, which their sons had just time to prove their unfitness to enjoy as yet, when they were subjected to a new course of discipline in Egypt. A period of prosperity, during which they enjoyed the favour of the king and occupied the richest district of the land, encouraged their rapid increase; nor did their numbers decline under hard bondage and cruelty. "The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew."* While their sufferings trained them to endurance and steadfastness, they learnt from their oppressors the arts of civilization,—a possession more precious than the jewels of gold and silver they carried with them out of Egypt. Having gone down into that land a family, they came up out of it a nation. We have now to trace briefly the stages of this progress. While in Canaan, the patriarchs led a nomad life. They dwelt in tents, and their wealth consisted in flocks and herds. They were dependent for corn upon the desultory agriculture of the Canaanites; and when that failed, their resource was in the abundance of Egypt. Twice in three generations were they driven to that resource; and, on the second occasion, Divine Providence had * Exodus i. 12. |