85 
in wliose contemplation it seems to me that the thoughtful 
student finds a delight and clear satisfaction as great as did 
ever the little child over his mother's picture-Bible. 
You will let me refer to my former paper for preliminary 
matter of the kind just mentioned, and allow me to touch 
hastily two or three points which lie in our way before arriving 
in Egypt. 
The life of Joseph has been so fully and minutely treated 
by the Abbe Vigouroux, and an extended examination would 
so far overreach our allotted time, that I will keep myself to 
some points of the story least familiar to the student, and 
trust that, detached though they be, they will fall into their 
due places in the minds of those learned members of the 
Institute whom I have the pleasure to address. 
The Favourite Son and his Garment. 
Rachel was the true destined bride whom Jacob loved and 
won, and accordingly we find him emphatically calling her 
“my wife"* in speaking of her sons to their brethren : so also 
is Rachel alone named in the pedigree in the xlvith chapter 
of Genesis, “ Jacob's wife." It was not a fantastic and 
arbitrary choice which fixed on her first-born as (if so be) 
the heir. The father had that right of choice and chose 
righteously and well. Still in Syria the garb bears witness to 
the choice. f Such a garment of a favoured son which I have 
seen exhibited was ornamented with bright perpendicular 
stripes of different colours. 
But whether the Hebrew E'DQ (passim) refers to length, 
or form, or fringes, or to pieces (as of patchwork) and so to 
colour X (as pieces of the same would hardly be put together 
in any pattern) seems hitherto unsettled. The gay clothing 
of the Amu at Beni-hassan has been thought to exemplify 
the kind of garment. But many of them wear the same kind 
of garments. The chief, however, is certainly distinguished, 
not by colours, but by the shape of his robe, and by its being 
fringed all down the front, as well as at the bottom. 
Perhaps some day this great problem may be solved. 
Joseph’s Dreams. 
In the boy's dreams we notice the pastoral work now mixed 
with agriculture. Not so was it with Abraham and Lot. 
* Gen. xliv. 27. 
t Roberts, quoted by Thornley Smith, Life of Joseph. 5th ed., 12. 
+ Buxtorf. 
