T H E P R E F A C E. ix 



well demand, in the prefent Surprize they were in, fome fur- 

 ther Proof, than this bare Declaration, that he was the Perfon. 

 tdly. His appealing, after he had addrelTed himlelf to them 

 all, to the fingle Teftimony of ^^;^/^wi;/ ; how fuperior aToken 

 foever this may be interpreted of JofepJSs peculiar Regard and 

 AfFeftion for Benjamin ; yet it could not, in this Light and 

 upon this Occafion, be of the lead Moment or Confequence - 

 nay it feems rather to have been altogether incongruous and 

 abfurd. For Benjamin was only a Child, when Jofepb was 

 fold into Egypt \ confequently it would have been improper 

 to have called upon Him as an Evidence, who could not be 

 capable, at fuch an Age, of retaining the leaft Notion or Re- 

 membrance oi Jofepb" s Perfon. idly^ JofepJSs caufing every 

 Man to go outy (v. i.) and -praying his Brethren to come near 

 him\ (v. 4.) fhould inlinuate, that he had fomething to im- 

 part to them of Secrecy and Importance ; which was not to 

 be expofed to the Ridicule or wanton Curioiity of the uncir- 

 cumcifed Egyptians. Other wife there appears to be nothing, 

 in this whole Narration, told with fo much Elegance and 

 Simplicity, that could in any Manner offend, or which indeed 

 would not rather have excited the greateft Pleafure and Sa- 

 tisfaction in the Egyptians. For we learn, (v. 16. ) that as 

 foon as it was known, that Jofeph's Brethren were come, it 

 plea fed Tharaoh well and all his Servants. 



Thytogr. N°. 114. r. Car Una acaulos, flore fpeciofo, purpu- 

 reo, non radtato, radice gummifera, fucco alho ^ rubra, ve- 

 nenata. An Chamaleon albt^s, five i^(aL?, Diofcor. 1. 3. c. 10. 

 cf^' 1.6. CXI. Arabibus, radix Adad dicitur. V~id. Leo. De- 

 fcript. Afric. 1. 9. cap. penult. 



Ihid. after ^'^. 5-^8. add. Scolymn^ Chryfanthemus perennis 

 jEgyptiacus ferocior D. Lippi. Comment. Acad. R. Scien. ylnn. 

 \'-l'L\. p. Tip. n. I g. CnicMsNiliacuSy elatior, ajperrimti^ e glauco 

 niveus, alato caule, flore luteo Lippi. MSS. apud Thytogr. 

 Sherard. Oxon. 



Whilft 1 was printing thefe Sheets, the following Annota- 

 tions^ relating to the Nile, were communicated to me, by the 

 Reverend and Learned Dr. Thomas Hunt, Trofeffor of the 

 Arabick Tongue, viz. To Tage 



4.31.1.9. Suppl.-^.s^. Add. Abdollatiph, in his Hiftory of 



c Egypt, 



