THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. 85 



founded long before the time of Abraham. 

 But how long, is a question on which there 

 is the widest discrepancy of opinion. The 

 most moderate computation, however, carries 

 the foundation of that Monarchy as far back 

 as 700 years before the visit of the Hebrew 

 Patriarch. Some of the best German 

 scholars hold that there is evidence of a 

 much longer chronology. But seven centuries 

 before Abraham is the estimate of Mr. R. 

 Stuart Poole, of the British Museum, who is 

 one of the very highest authorities, and 

 certainly the most cautious, upon questions 

 of Egyptian chronology. This places the 

 beginning of the Pharaohs in the twenty- 

 eighth century B.C. But according to Ussher's 

 interpretation of the Hebrew Pentateuch, the 



