local usages, and forms, and objects of worship, which would be likely to give rise to contention, so that Heeren's conjec ture, namely, that each nome was originally an independent settlement and government, having some interests in common with others, but also interests that were conflicting, and which would produce quarrels among them, amount almost to a certainty. When these were united into one kingdom by powerful princes, the difference of the habits, customs, and religion of the inhabitants of each province must necessarily have prevented harmony; so that when the general government became weak, these separate members would be disposed to quarrel, and seek to promote their own interests by placing them in a commanding position. Such an event took place, according as the prophet foretold, when after the death of Sethon, the contemporary of Hezekiah and Sennacherib, and an interregnum of two years which followed, the monarchy of Egypt was divided into twelve separate kingdoms. It was to the reign of this oligarchy, and to the anarchy and civil wars which attended its extinction, by Psammetichus, one of the twelve, who became thereby absolute monarch, that the prophet is supposed by most commen. tators to refer.

Over each of these provinces there appears to have been a monarch or governor, who ranked in station next to the judges or magistrates of the capital. The office of monarch was, indeed, at all times of the highest importance. To his charge were committed the management of the lands, and all matters relating to the internal administration of the district. He regulated the assessment and levying of the taxes, the surveying of the lands, the opening of the canals, and all other agricultural interests of the country, which were under the immediate superintendence of certain members of the priestly order; and as he resided in the chief town of the nome, all causes respecting landed property, and other accidental disputes, were adjusted before his tribunal. The distinctive appellation of each nome was derived from the chief town where the monarch resided, and his rank appears to have depended on the extent of his jurisdiction.

Such were the laws and institutions of Egypt, so far as can be gleaned from ancient authors. Of the state of Egypt

divided into districts or toparchies. Diodorous says, that in the time of Sesostris, the number of nomes amounted to thirty-six, and such was the number in Strabo's time; but they were afterwards increased in number, if D'Anville states correctly, to fifty-three.

VOL. I.

8

during the early period of its history there is little or no information, owing to the uncivilized condition of neighbouring states, to the indifference of the Greeks who visited it, or the loss of their writings, and above all, to the jealousy of the Egyptians towards foreigners; for like the Chinese, they prevented all strangers from penetrating into the interior, and abstained from imparting information to them respecting the institutions and state of the country. The knowledge we have handed down to us, was collected, when, after the time of Amasis and the Persian conquest, foreigners became better acquainted with the country, and when its ancient institutions had begun to lose their interest, from the influence of a foreign rule. From this knowledge, it would appear to have been the reverse of a free and happy country; but it has been well observed that "freedom is a word indifferently understood in different ages and countries." The Egyptians, therefore, trained up as they were from their infancy to reverence laws which they deemed immutable, might have enjoyed as great a degree of happiness (speaking of happiness with reference to this life only) as most of the nations in the Old or New world. The degradation of the lowest caste, however, the waste of human life in the working of their mines, and the building of their ostentatious pyramids, with the frequency and severity of their summary punishments as recorded by Diodorus, and confirmed by existing monuments, would convey an idea that those who ruled over them were hard task-masters. But it is probable that these labours were not performed solely by the natives, but in a great degree by slaves, as they certainly were at one time; for the lives of the Hebrews were made "bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve was with rigour," Exod. i. 14.

CHAPTER IV.

THE KINGDOM OF EGYPT.

PART I-EGYPTIAN ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT.

No part of ancient history is more obscure than that of the first kings of Egypt. Some light has, indeed, been thrown on the general subject by the progress made in deciphering the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the existing monuments in that renowned country; but still there are thick clouds hanging over the history and chronology of this period which cannot be wholly dispersed. All that a writer on this subject, therefore, can do at the present day, is to place before the reader the few genuine fragments preserved by historians, sacred and profane; and the few facts which have been snatched from oblivion by the learned.

According to Egyptian historians and chronologers, first gods, and then demi-gods, or heroes, governed that country sucessively, through a period of more than twenty thousand years. This fable requires no remark: we know from the inspired records of truth, that Egypt was first inhabited by the family of Mizraim, the second son of Ham, Gen. x. 6, about 2613 years B. C. Hence it is, that in the Hebrew Scriptures the country is usually styled, "The land of Mizraim," Gen. xiii. 10, etc.; and that the Egyptians are always called Mizraim, or Mizraites. In the east, to this day, the country is generally known as the "Land of Mizr," which was probably the proper name of the son of Ham; Mizraim being rather the name of the family or people which descended from him; as, "Abel-mizraim," the mourning of the Mizrites, or Egyptians, Gen. 1. 11.

The family of Mizraim, or Mizr, settled first in Upper Egypt, where they built the famous city of Thebes, but in

process of time, they gradually spread into the Lower Egypt,

or Delta.

This patriarchal regimen, according to Dr. Hales, subsisted from 2613 to 2412 years B. c.; at which time, either by compulsion or persuasion, Menes first introduced regal government into Egypt. The records of the Egyptian priests, indeed, as handed down to us by Herodotus, Manetho, Eratosthenes, and others, place the era of Menes several years farther back, reckoning a great number of kings and dynasties after him, with remarks on the gigantic stature of some of their monarchs, and of their wonderful exploits, and other characteristics of confused and mystical tradition: but all inquiries concerning the history of nations before this epoch are founded on mere speculation.

Menes appears to have been a wise prince. He checked the overflowings of the Nile,* by turning its course into a more direct channel, and some historians state, that he founded the city of Memphis upon the former bed of the river. Menes was also a religious prince: he founded the magnificent temple of Hephaistos, or Vulcan in the same city, dedicated to the SUPREME BEING. He was, moreover, the father of his people. Following the advice of his prime minister Thoth, or Hermes, he divided the whole country of Egypt into three lots, which lots were appropriated to the crown, the priesthood, and the soldiery, who each farmed out to the people their respective shares.

Of the immediate successors of Menes, nothing is known: the order of things, however, which he established, subsisted probably till about 2159 years B. c., at which period the legitimate race of kings was succeeded in Lower Egypt by the shepherd dynasty, who invaded and subdued that part of Egypt.

One of the best established facts in the early history of that country, is, that its lowest territories were subjected to a race of pastoral nomades, while the upper country continued subject to the native sovereigns. When, however, this pastoral dominion commenced, and when it terminated, is a matter of controversy among the learned, and which cannot be definitely determined. Mr. Wilkinson, from the state of the earliest monuments in Egypt, and from the information which they afford, conceives that the irruption of the pastors, or shepherds, was anterior to the erection of any building * That is, this work is ascribed to Menes by the ancient historian; it appears to exhibit too much scientific knowledge for so early a period.

but

now existing in Egypt, and before the reign of Osirtasen I.; which king he conceives, was coeval with Joseph. It cer tainly is remarkable, that, in concluding from the evidence of monuments, that the pastor kings were expelled before the accession of Osirtasen, this author obtains the same conclusion as that to which Hales and Faber arrived, when, on historical data alone, they conceived that this change took place a short time before Joseph was appointed governor or regent of Egypt; the latter fixing it about the year 1899 B. C. The sacred narrative, indeed, seems to evince indirect testimony to this fact. When Joseph governed Egypt, every nomade shepherd was detested at the Egyptian court, in consequence of the oppressive and humiliating dominion which a race of shepherds had exercised in that country; and it was for his sake alone, that his family were allowed to inhabit Goshen during the time of the famine. But it was not so in the days of Abraham, who visited Egypt about 2077 years B. C., and consequently when one of the shepherd kings reigned over Lower Egypt. That patriarch was treated with consideration by the court because he was a pastoral chief. See Gen. xii. It is true that the fact of the then ruling monarch bearing the title of Pharaoh, would seem to subvert this hypothesis; but Manetho intimates that the conquering nomades, while in the occupation of Egypt, gradually adapted themselves to the customs and practices of the native Egyptians, which would account for this circumstance. The term Pharaoh, moreover, which according to Josephus, signified "king" in the Egyptian language, would naturally be taken by any monarch on the throne of Egypt; hence, it is applied to all indiscriminately in Scripture, till after the days of Solomon, as that of Ptolemy was after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander.

These intruders into Egypt appear to have been a tribe of Cushite shepherds from Arabia, and to have cruelly enslaved the whole country under a dynasty of six kings, who were called Hycsos, or King-shepherds. The first of these was named,

SALATIS, SILITES OR NIRMARYADA.

Manetho says, he resided in Memphis, and imposed a tribute on the Upper and Lower Egypt, and put garrisons in the most important places. But chiefly he secured the eastern parts of the country, foreseeing that the Assyrians, who