

- all tint groat historical civilisations in the world ; and 



.11 inlliifiii'. .<..,, |uont, Egypt 



made tboir impressions npon tho whole of the known 

 '!'.. the : i ;.-r of the Biblo narrative must have come many 

 11 prompting to learn more than is there given about thatsingn- 

 hoso history, when it touches that of tho Jews, if 

 it vivid exactness, bat in barely, if at ull, told 

 when it h;is in. reference to the chosen people. "Now thero 



up a now king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph," in tho 

 only information given in tho Bible concerning a whole period 

 iv .luring which tho country was conquered from with- 

 out, and an entirely new race of people took the mastery. 

 Thero was no need, if we may presume to say so, to give more 

 information for the purposes of the Mosaic history, the object 

 there being to contrast the treatment of Israel at one period 

 with tho treatment at another, in order to show tho necessity 

 as for bringing them out of tho land of Egypt, oven with 

 a mighty hand and a stretched-ont arm. But the student may 

 reasonably inquire what were the circumstances under which 

 the whole policy of the Egyptians towards the Israelites became 

 se changed ; that whereas at one time a large province was 

 allotted to the strangers, and every encouragement was given 

 for them to live happily in the land, at another time tho hand 

 of every man was against them, and they were made to endure 



v in tho country where their fathers had been princes. 

 .Materials for an account of ancient Egypt are extremely few, 

 for an historic sketch almost as scanty. The Bible furnishes by 

 far the greatest number of serviceable links in the chain, but 

 these are not enough to enable us to dispense with further 

 information. Such further information has been obtained by 

 moans of traditions, by the records of other nations upon which 

 the Egyptians set their mark, and by the histories engraven 

 in hieroglyphics upon the walls and statues of the Egyptian 

 palaces and tombs. These hieroglyphics have, by dint of long 

 and industrious perseverance, been so far deciphered, that if no 

 grammar has been educiblo from them, it has yet been possible 

 to frame a system of interpretation applicable to hieroglyphics 

 generally, and so to read those sermons in stones which the 

 ancient Egyptians carved for the instruction of those that 

 should come after. By this assistance it has been possible to 

 decide npon the locus in quo of many an historical event : battles, 

 changes of dynasty, manners and customs, mode of government ; 

 and the advent of national blessings and calamities are thus 

 chronicled. Prominent facts stand out in relief against the 

 blank wall of time, and serve as marks by which to trace the 

 march of the people from their origin to their historical grave. 

 Originally it appears that Egypt was divided into a number 

 of small states, whereof Memphis was the most powerful. The 

 Pharaohs, of whom Abraham heard and whom he visited, 

 reigned there and were powerful princes, obeyed by a numerous 

 aristocracy, and by a large and thriving population, skilled in 

 all tho arts by which nations grow rich. Whether they ever 

 reigned over the whole country is questionable, but it is certain 

 they commanded it either in sovereignty or by alliances, and that 

 their word was law throughout Egypt. The people were ex- 

 cellent agriculturists, and seem early to have taken advantage 

 of the river's overflow to get extra corn crops out of the ground 

 annually inundated ; they were also good mechanicians, elegant 

 architects, and truly wonderful builders. In the sciences of 

 mathematics and astronomy they were more learned than any of 

 their contemporaries, except perhaps tho Chinese ; and their 

 pursuits generally wore those of a people more wedded *o tho 

 arta of peace and civilisation than to thoso of war. Indeed, 

 they appear to have been almost too indifferent to the science 

 and practice of war, for on their borders to the south were the 

 4vo Ethiopians, ever ready to take advantage of tho 

 weakness or unreadiness of an enemy ; and on the west were 

 those children of the desert, tho wandering shepherd tribes, 

 who availed themselves of every opportunity to assail their 

 wealthy and tempting neighbours. It must not be supposed, 

 however, that the Egyptians were altogether neglectful of the 

 art of ensuring peace by preparing for war. They had a very 

 complete and very efficient military system, and their arms, both 

 offensive and defensive, were superior to those of all the sur- 

 rounding nations; their war-horses used for chariots rather 

 than for cavalry purposes wore of the finest breed, and great 

 care was taken to maintain the breed unsullied. In tho use of 

 chariots drawn by two horses, and manned bf a charioteer, 



who drove and al.-o protected his companion with a shield, and 

 by a warrior, the Egyptian* were specially famous. Their skill 

 in archery was proverbial, and tho exaotnco* of their drill, and 

 tho oompoctnoH* of their battalions, were subject* of universal 

 admiration. Tho idea of military glory wan embodied in the 

 rule of caste which placed a warrior second oily to the priest in 

 tho social and political scale ; and in the earlier and middle 

 periods of Egyptian history, this idea found practical expression 

 in expeditions against native rival states, and against foreign 

 foes. Excellence in peaceful arts and sciences was, up to a cer- 

 tain time, found to be compatible with proficiency in war ; and 

 it was not till tho Egyptians, yielding to the enervating influence* 

 of luxury and of climate, reposed for their security upon too 

 dread of their renown, rather than upon present strength, that 

 their enemies ventured to find out in what parts they were 

 vulnerable. The decline of the military power of the original 

 Egyptians, if such a term may be applied to people who are 

 supposed to have had their origin in a branch of the Hindoo 

 family, began to bo marked some little time before the advent 

 of Joseph into tho country. The Hyksos, or wandering shep- 

 herd tribes, had made several successful raids from their deserts 

 into the land of plenty ; and though driven out with the strong 

 hand, it was only by efforts which taxed the strength of the 

 government, while the marauders carried back with them into 

 their deserts the memory of a country rich in all the wealth of 

 nature and art, and peopled by a race in whom prosperity was 

 beginning to develop ita weakening influence. The people also 

 who in times of distress came to Egypt to supply their wants 

 saw at onco the wealth and the " nakedness of the land," and 

 noted what they saw as a fact to be treasured up against the 

 time when they could use it to their own advantage. 



It was perfectly natural, therefore, that the Egyptians, con- 

 scious of the bait they wore to men who had nothing to lose and 

 everything to gain by a war, should, with tho further conscious- 

 ness of their own growing inability to defend themselves, have 

 been particularly jealous of the prying eyes of strangers. It was 

 this jealousy which gave Joseph a pretext for feigning anger 

 against his brethren. " Ye are spies ! " " To spy out the naked- 

 ness of the land are ye come down," was the very language an 

 Egyptian ruler might reasonably have used to strangers who 

 had come from the dreaded country of the wanderers, and who 

 might, impelled by hunger for " the corn in Egypt," or moved 

 by the inhospitable character of their own home, return in num- 

 bers, and accomplish the subjection which the Egyptians were 

 beginning to fear. The same jealousy, had no rule of caste 

 supplemented it, would have made the Hebrews, equally with 

 other shepherds, " an abomination unto the Egyptians," even 

 to preventing the Egyptians from eating at the same table with 

 them. 



This dread of evil to come out of the desert was not mis- 

 placed. The natural tendency of a nomad population, which 

 has increased so that the wandering space at ita disposal is 

 insufficient for its wants, is to pour over the frontiers of the 

 nearest civilisation, to wage war upon it, and finally to over- 

 come it, or to be absorbed within it. The wise king who ruled 

 Egypt in Joseph's time seems to have apprehended this rule, 

 and knowing that ere long he might expect to see ita application 

 to the desert men and Egypt, took the statesmanlike precaution 

 of offering upon the frontier a home to the best of tho wanderers 

 men who, besides being warlike, and able therefore to bear the 

 brunt of first attacks, were intellectually and morally far in 

 advance of all their compeers, and might, as Joseph had done, 

 " inform his princes " and " teach hia senators wisdom." 

 Hence the settlement in tho land of Goshen. Tho Israelites 

 emigrated en masse to the land that flowed with milk and honey, 

 and the Egyptians enjoyed the benefit of their presence, both as 

 warders against invasion from tho west, and as the possessors of 

 a civilisation hardly inferior to their own. Tho wisdom of the 

 government made every provision for tho encouragement of 

 the Israelites in their new homo, even causing a jealousy to 

 spring up in tho breasts of the Egyptians against them ; the 

 new-comers taught tho people many now and desirable things, 

 and tho first blows of invasion fell upon them instead of upon 

 the native population. For many years all went well with the 

 two peoples, who lived together in unity, though, of course, in that 

 distinctiveness which was characteristic of both of them, but 

 especially of tho Hebrews, who then, aa now, were " a peculiar 

 people," separated by indelible natural marks from all the rest 



