352 THE EVOLUTION of THEOLOGY viil 



the uorsi practices of their neighbours. As t.t 

 their conduct in other respects, nothing is known. 

 Hul it may fairly be suspected that their ethics 

 were, not of a higher order than those of Jacob, 

 their progenitor, in which case they might deri\e 

 great profit from contact with Egyptian society, 

 which held honesty and truthfulness in tin- highest 

 esieem. Thanks to the Egyptologers, we now 

 know, with all requisite certainty, the moral 

 standard of that society in the time, and Nui^- 

 before the time, of Moses. It can be determined 

 from the scrolls buried with the mummified dead 

 and from the inscriptions on the tombs and 

 memorial statues of that age. For, though the 

 lying of epitaphs is proverbial, so far as their 

 subject is concerned, they gave an unmistakable 

 insight into that which the writers and the reader- 

 of them think praiseworthy. 



In the famous tombs at Beni Hassan there is a 

 record of the life of Prince Nakht, who served 

 Osertasen IL, a Pharaoh of the twelfth d\nasi\ 

 as governor of a province. The inscription speaks 

 in his name: " I was a benevolent and kindly 

 rnor who loved his country. . . . Never \\as 

 a little child distressed nor a widow ill-treated by 

 inc. I have nc\cr repelled a \\orkinaii imr hindered 

 .1 shepherd. I gave alike to the widow and to 

 the married woman, and have not preferred the, 

 ,-^ieat to the small in my ,jfts.'' And we have the 

 high authority of the late Dr. Samuel Birch for 



