tasen synchronise, and to produce a correspondence between the Egyptian and Hebrew history of the ensuing years. The name of Osirtasen, moreover, stands in the tomb of Beni Hassen as one of the kings of the sixteenth dynasty, according to the lists of Manetho. It is better, therefore, to introduce this monarch to the reader's notice simply under the Scripture name of Pharaoh.

Passing over the circumstance of his having imprisoned his chief butler and baker, as recorded Gen. xl., the first notice we have of this monarch in the sacred narrative, is the circumstance of his having dreamed two remarkable dreams. He thought that he was standing on the margin of the Nile, when he beheld seven beautiful fat heifers come up from the streams and feed in a meadow. After a while, at the same spot, seven of the leanest and most ill favoured kine that he had ever beheld, came up, and stood on the banks with the seven fat and beautiful heifers, which they finally devoured. The king then awoke; but falling asleep again, he dreamed that he saw seven good and plump ears of corn spring up on one stalk; and after that, there sprang up seven other ears of corn, thin, and blighted by the east wind, by which the good ears were devoured, Gen. xli. 1-7. These dreams appeared to have a signification and analogy not common in dreams, and therefore the king was anxious in the morning to have them interpreted. But none of his "wise men," who usually interpreted his dreams, could solve their meaning, ver. 8, and their failure reminded the chief butler of the dreams which the chief baker and himself had dreamed in the prison-house, and which Joseph, who, as the reader will recollect, was imprisoned with them, interpreted in a manner that the events had justified, ver. 9—13. This he related to Pharaoh, and the monarch sent an order to the chief of the royal police to release Joseph, and send him to the palace. The mandate was obeyed, and Joseph came; when the king, addressing him, said, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is none tha can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it." To this Joseph modestly replied, not willing to encourage delusion in the breast of the monarch: "It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace," ver. 14-16. The king then related his dreams, and Joseph told him that they bare the same signification, which was, that seven years of exuberant plenty were approaching, which would be followed by seven years of famine, so severe, that the seven years of plenty would be ut

terly forgotten. Then perceiving how the exuberant supplies of the first seven years might be husbanded so as to meet the deficiency of the seven succeeding years, he proceeded to lay his views before the king, advising him, at the same time, that some wise man should be invested with full powers to give effect to the measures suggested, ver. 17-36.

The king, pleased with the interpretation, and struck with the wisdom of the plans, by which Joseph proposed to avert the evils which that interpretation foretold, asked, "Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?" And then he addressed him thus, " Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou." After this, he proceeded to inHe took his own signet ring

vest him with his high office. from his finger, and placed it upon the finger of Joseph, conveying to him, by that act, the highest powers he could delegate, and saying as he did it, "See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt." He then ordered him to be arrayed in vestures of fine linen, such as were worn only by majesty, after which he placed with his own hands a chain of gold about his neck. Then, it being the custom in the east in those days to promulgate with great pomp and ceremony such acts of royal favour, and to make known the authority conferred, he commanded that Joseph should be conducted in procession through the city, in the second of the royal chariots, and that heralds should proclaim before him, "Bow the knee," ver. 37-43.

When Joseph returned, and again stood before the king, Pharaoh expressed in stronger language his own views of the powers he had conferred. Reserving his own authority, he said, "I am the king;" but he added, "without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt,"

ver. 44.

The act of raising a foreigner and a slave to such a high office appears to have been very unusual in ancient Egypt. All the avenues to power and in the state were zealously guarded by the priesthood, who disliked the intrusion of any one not of their own order. Hence, that the foreign origin of Joseph might not be constantly presented to their view, the king changed his name to Zaphnath-paaneah, "the revealer of secrets;" and that he might establish him in his position, by securing him the countenance and support of the priestly

order, he brought about his marriage with Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, the chief priest of On or Heliopolis, the city of the sun, who was, without doubt, one of the most eminent and influential of his illustrious order, that city being, as we have seen, the prime seat of the sacred mysteries and science of that country, ver. 45.

In this

Shortly after his elevation, Joseph made a tour through the land of Egypt, in order to acquaint himself with the state of the country, and with the materials with which he had to work, and to determine the arrangements which might be necessary to give effect to his contemplated measures. tour of survey, he directed the construction of immense granaries in the principal cities, and established proper officers, who were charged with the duty of buying up one-fifth part of all the corn during the seven years of plenty within the surrounding district. For this purpose, the whole land was divided into districts, of probably nearly equal extent. All this was effected; and the corn thus purchased was stored away in the granaries for use during the years of famine, ver. 46-49.

Those years of famine arrived as was foretold. The countries from whence the Nile flowed not being visited with rains in their season, that circumstance kept back, for seven long years, the fertilizing inundations of that river, and a general dearth was the consequence. The surrounding countries, also, seem to have been visited with the same drought, as they experienced the like visitation of famine, ver. 54, 55.

When the pressure of the famine began to be felt by the Egyptians, they cried to Pharaoh for bread. The king referred them to Joseph, and that wise statesman now opened all the store-houses, and sold corn, not only to the Egyptians, but, with some restrictions, to other countries, ver. 56, 57. In the second year of the famine, when their money was all spent, they again came to Joseph for bread; and he offered to supply them with corn in exchange for their cattle, which was cheerfully accepted. By this means subsistence was secured for another year; but in the year following, they had no cattle left wherewith to buy food. In this exigency, they came to Joseph, therefore, and freely offered to transfer their lands to the king, and to place their persons at his disposal, on the condition that they should be supplied with food while the famine lasted, and with seed to sow the land when it again became cultivable. This was agreed to, and Joseph

brought the people who were scattered throughout the open country into the adjacent cities, wherein the provisions were stored, for the greater ease of distribution. The lands thus voluntarily sold, Joseph farmed to the occupiers again, at the moderate and fixed crown rent of a fifth part of the produce. Thus, says Dr. Hales, did he provide for the liberty and independence of the people, while he strengthened the authority of the king, by rendering him sole proprietor of the lands. And to secure the people from further exaction, Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt, that Pharoah should have the fifth part; which law subsisted to the time of Moses, Gen. xlvii. 22-26. By this wise regulation, the people had four-fifths of the produce of the lands for their own use; and were exempted from any further taxes, the king being bound to support his civil and military establishment out of the crown-rents. Whereas, by the original constitution, settled by Menes and his prime minister, Thoth, or Hermes, (as we learn from Diodorus,) the lands had been all divided between the king, the priesthood, and the soldiery, who possessed each a separate third part to support their respective establishments. The revenues of the crown, therefore, were rather abridged than increased by this regulation, while Joseph respected the primitive usage, and bought not "the land of the priests;" but during the continuance of the famine, he fed them at the king's expense: so that, by the royal bounty, "they sold not their lands." Thus was this consummate statesman so truly "discreet and wise," because he was guided by the Spirit of God; "a father to Pharoah" and his people, and a blessing to the world, whom God, in kindness, raised up to preserve life to many nations by a great deliverance.

Among the many foreigners who came down to Egypt to buy corn, on account of the dearth in their own lands, were the brethren of Joseph, Gen. xlii. 1—6. This was in the first year of the famine, and the eighth of his regency. It would appear, that, although the Egyptians themselves could purchase the corn of the officers appointed by Joseph for that purpose, no strangers could obtain it till they had received his own special permission. To him, therefore, they came, and fulfilling at once the dreams which, in their anger, they had endeavoured to frustrate, (see Gen. xxxvii.,) they bowed themselves before him, as "the governor over the land," Gen. xlii. 6. Although twenty-two years had elapsed since they had sold him for a slave, they were recognized by

Joseph, and seeing that his brother Benjamin was not there, he appears to have apprehended that they had destroyed him also out of jealousy; and remembering his dreams and their cruelty, he spake roughly unto them," and charged them with being spies, come to see the nakedness of the land, ver. 7-9.

To understand the full force, and to appreciate the alarm this charge must have occasioned, the reader must recollect the circumstances we have before related concerning the reign of the shepherd race in Egypt, their expulsion and their settlement in Palestine, under the name of the Philistines. The tyranny of these invaders was still fresh in the minds of the Egyptians, so that every shepherd was an abomination to them, and they could not endure to eat bread with the Hebrews, because they were shepherds, and came from the neighbourhood of Palestine. They were apprehensive, also, that the Philistines, who were a warlike people, and who probably had been gathering strength ever since their expulsion from Egypt, might again attempt to conquer that country. Hence that they were spies, come to seek an opening for future conquests, was an obvious suspicion for an Egyptian to entertain, and the charge, to strangers especially, must have been alarming. Traces of such attacks may be discovered in the First Book of Chronicles, from whence we learn that the Philistines were a nation that caused much alarm to the dif ferent nations around.

But the brethren of Joseph protested their innocence, and, in their anxiety to repel the charge, they entered into a particular detail of the circumstances of their family, in which they afforded him all the information he required; namely, that his father, Jacob, was alive and well, and his brother Beniamin safe under the paternal roof, ver. 10-13.

The varied and touching incidents connected with this event are so beautifully narrated by the sacred historian, that it is best to refer the reader to that portion of holy writ for the details, (see Gen. xlii., xliii., xliv., and xlv.,) and pass on to that part of Egyptian history wherein it is intimated that Pharoah heard the rumour that Joseph's brethren were come to Egypt.

The kind monarch seems to have heard the circumstance with pleasure, which is a pleasing evidence of the esteem in which Joseph was held at court. He immediately sent for Joseph, and authorized him to express his kindest intentions towards his father and his brethren; and, seeing that it would