Lesley.] 544 [1^^6S. 



some of the Mosaic narratives will strike every mind. The 

 same dii-ectiiess of action is seen in both ; the same tendency to 

 set phrases opening the successive scenes of the drama; the 

 same monotone of narration, like recitative in music; and the 

 same sudden and unexpected flashing out of some more important 

 interest after a wearisome length of childish commonplace. 

 These are, in fact, characteristic qualities common to all vigorous 

 but undisciplined and uncultivated imaginations when charged 

 with the fire of genius, inspired by great events, and unbridled 

 by those rules of taste which successive ages of rising civilization 

 have established for modern writers. 



Indeed, it would be surprising if no such striking resemblance 

 appeared; for the papj^rus purports to be written Iw a scribe, 

 named Annana^ for the amusement or instruction of the young 

 prince Seti Menephta, during the reign of his father, the Greek 

 Sesostris, Eamses II. sui-named Meiamun, third kingof the XlXth 

 dynasty, 1450 B. C, more or less. And Egyptologists, who, 

 like Dr. Brugsch,are orthodox believers in the historical A'alue of 

 the Mosaic record, agree in calling this Menephta the Pharaoh 

 of the Exodus, although the monuments record his temporary- 

 exile in Ethiopia (of which every heir apparent to the Egyptian 

 empire seems to have been prince by right of birth — a sort of 

 Dauphin) — and his subsequent restoration to the throne, — but 

 not his death in the Red Sea. 



To students of the Pentateuch, it will not be needful to point 

 out coincidents between some of the details of this story, and of 

 that of the Hebrew Joseph ; they speak for themselves. 



" There were once two brothers of one mother and one father, 

 the elder Anepu, the 3-ounger Patau. And Anepu had a house 

 and wife ; and his younger brother was like his son, and made 

 him clothes, and followed his herds, and helped till the fields 

 ' after ploughing was done, and was a good worker ; there was 

 not his equal in all Egypt. 



After many days, the younger was, as usual, with the cattle, 

 driving them home each evening, laden with fodder from the 

 fields, to give them food. The elder sat with his wife, eating and 

 drinking, while the 3'ounger was in the stable with his cows. 



And when the earth shone with a new da3', and the lamp [no 

 longer burnt] he rose before his elder brother was awake, and 



