POLITE LITERATURE. 
1.—On the Age of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Manetho. By the Rev. Epwarp 
Hincxs, D.D. 
Read December 12, 1842. 
IT cannot have escaped the observation of any one who has attended to Egyp- 
tian literature, that a strong disposition has manifested itself, among all Conti- 
nental and many British writers, to ascribe to the monuments and inscriptions 
which come under their notice as great an antiquity as possible. It is to be 
feared, that the disgust, which has been excited by these extravagant pretensions, 
has caused many influential persons to discourage a study which appeared to 
lead to such conclusions; the opposition between which and the Mosaic history 
was in many cases quite obvious. It would seem, however, to be a wiser course 
to encourage persons, who were qualified by their previous studies, and who 
could be depended on as believers in divine revelation, to pursue this branch of 
literature ; in order that they might serve as a check to the vain fancies of un- 
believers. It is not by a general denial of the existence of any knowledge of the 
language, in which the monumental inscriptions are composed, that intelligent 
persons will now be led to discredit the conclusions said to be derived from these 
inscriptions. The main facts respecting the language can no longer be denied 
with any plausibility. In order to refute in a satisfactory manner any erroneous 
statement that may be hazarded, these facts must be assumed as established; and 
the inferences said to be deduced from the monuments must be shown not to be 
legitimate deductions from them. ‘They must be dealt with precisely in the 
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