V. 
THE PYRAMIDS. 95() 
is the record preserved by Josephus, which chap. 
attributes to the Israelites the origin of certain 
Pyramids in Egypt: and for other evidence, 
proving them to have existed in a period equally 
remote with that in which this people inhabited 
the country, we may refer to the testimony 
of Manetho, whose authority is respected by 
Josephus, and who, from his situation as an 
Egyptian priest ■*, had access to every record 
preserved in the sacred archives of the country. 
Manetho affirms, that these structures were 
begun by the fourth king of Egypt, during the 
first dynasty'; which carries their antiquity 
writers (Spondanus de Coemeleriis Sacris, Uh.\. par.l. cop. 6. Brodceus 
t!pigr. Greec. tU vxohs) who believed the Pi/ramids to have been erected 
hy t\\^ Israelites: "The Sacred Scriptures," says he, " clearely ex- 
pressing the slaverie of the Jewes to have consisted in making brick, 
vfhereas all these Pyramids consist of stone." (Pyramidographia, p. 1 .) 
Exactly after the same manner, he neglected to notice the petrified 
lentils described by Straho ; and then accounts for their disappearance, 
by supposing them to have been "consumed by time, or scattered ly 
the wifids" ! ! ! or, "buried in sand." Ibid. p. 119. 
(4) Josephus says, that the care and continuance of the public re- 
cords were the peculiar province of the priests. {P'id. lib. i, cont. 
Apion. Manetho belonged to the College at Helinpnlis, the very seat 
of Egyptian science. His testimony was preferred by Marsham to 
that of t/os^/>/(Ms himself. However, it should be acknowledged, that 
Perizonius, who considered the Dynasties of Manetho as fabulous, at- 
tacked Marsham upon this ground; describing him as " absurdissima 
quxBque Manethonis recipiendi studiosior, quam speciosa JosepM." Vid. 
Jac. Pcrizonii ^gypt. Orig. Invest, c. 21. p. 384. L.Bat. 1711. 
(5) " Etenim Manetho jam in dynastia i. quartum ejus regem 
S 2 Viiiepheri, 
