poses, is contrary to probability, and the evidence of the Bible as well as of the sculptures, both which show the rights and limits of landed property to have been long since well defined; and the necessity of ascertaining the quantity of land irrigated by the Nile, or changed by the effect of the inundation, must have led a people already highly civilised before the accession of this prince, to the practice of geometry at least some centuries previous to his era. The Bible informs us, that a Pharaoh, the contemporary of Joseph, bought all the land (except that of the priests) from the Egyptian landholders: the partition of land, mentioned by the historian, could not therefore have been the first instance of such a system in the country; and he may either allude to a new regulation made subsequently to the time of Joseph, or to the very change that took place by his advice. In this case, the tax imposed refers to the fifth part annually paid to the government by the Egyptian peasant, which continued to be the law of the country long after the time of Josepht; and hence some may derive an argument in favour of the idea before suggested, that the original Sesostris (so often confounded with Remeses II.) was Osirtasen I.‡, the Pharaoh in whose reign Joseph arrived in Egypt.S * Gen. xlvii. 24. + Gen. xlvii. 26., "a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priests, which became not Pharaoh's." Osirtasen's living posterior to the erection of the pyramids is an objection. I must, however, confess, that Herodotus's statement does not agree exactly with that mentioned in Genesis; the people then selling their lands for corn, and afterwards farming it from the king. His thirteenth son, Pthahmen, succeeded him; and, from the kingly oval accompanying his name at the Memnonium, it is highly probable that the first prenomen he took on ascending the throne was afterwards changed to that by which he is known in the lists of the Egyptian monarchs. But his reign was not marked by any military event of consequence, nor by any particular encouragement given to the arts of peace. He may be the Sesoosis II. of Diodorus, and the Pheron of Herodotus,—a title mistaken by the latter historian for the name of the monarch, and evidently corrupted from Phra or Pharaoh.* Two obelisks are reported to have been erected by him, at Heliopolis, in honour of the sun; but they no longer remain; and though his name appears on some of the monuments of his father and of his predecessors, those founded by him were comparatively few, at least in Upper Egypt; and the additions he made to those buildings are neither numerous nor remarkable for their magnificence. In Pthahmen terminated the eighteenth dynasty, and a second family of Diospolitan or Theban monarchs succeeded to the dominion of Upper and Lower Egypt, and reigned eighty-nine years. * The Arabs now call Phrah, or Pharaoh, Pharaóon. + Pliny calls him Nuncoreus, and says that he dedicated two obelisks to the sun on the recovery of his sight. Herodotus states the same of Pheron. Plin. xvi. 16. Herodot. ii. 111. Sethos, or Pthah-men-Se-pthah, appears to have been an exception, and was, perhaps, a Memphite, or from Lower Egypt, as his name is omitted in the lists of Thebes and Abydus. It also seems to indicate a Memphite origin. 19th Dynasty, of 1 Memphite? and 6 Diospolite Kings. Thus far I have stated my own opinions respecting the accordance of the monuments with some of the historical data furnished by Manetho; particularly about the period of his eighteenth dynasty. I have placed the arrival of Joseph in the reign of Osirtasen I.; the birth of Moses in that of Amosis, the leader of this Theban succession, whom I suppose to be the "new king who knew not Joseph;" and the Exodus of the Israelites in that of the third Thothmes. I have assigned the date of 1355 for the accession of the great Remeses, and have had the satisfaction of finding the period thus fixed for his reign fully accords with, and is confirmed by, the astronomical ceiling of the Memnonium. But as another opinion, which ascribes to these events a higher antiquity, may also be maintained by many forcible arguments, and my object is to examine the question impartially, and to be guided by what appears most probable, I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of introducing Lord Prudhoe's view of the subject, which he has done me the favour to embody in the following remarks:-"It is extremely difficult to determine the date of the Exodus in Egyptian history, from the want of sufficient data in the Bible, and from the incorrectness of names given by ancient historians; but the event is so important, that even an attempt to ascertain that date must be interesting. "The first text bearing on the subject is", Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee, the land of Egypt is before thee, in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell in the land of Goshen let them dwell.-And Joseph + gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.' In this quotation it does not appear that the land was called Rameses when Pharaoh gave it to Jacob: his words are, give them the best of the land: the remainder of the text is in the form of a narration by Moses. But the land was called Rameses when Moses wrote, and consequently it was so called before the Exodus. It probably received its name from one of the Pharaohs; we may therefore conclude the Exodus did not take place until after the reign of a Remeses; and + Gen. xlvii. 11. * Gen. xlvii. 5, 6. the earliest king of that name* is distinguished among students in hieroglyphics by the title of Remeses I. "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.'t This text would agree with Remeses I., who appears to have been the first king of a new dynasty, and might well be ignorant of the benefits conferred on Egypt by Joseph. Therefore they did set over them (the children of Israel) taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses. The last was the name of the Pharaoh; and it is remarkable, that the prefix used to designate Remeses II. was compounded of Pi the,' and Thme Justice.' And though the figure of the goddess Thme is introduced into the names of his father and of other Pharaohs, he is the first Remeses in whose prefix it occurs, and we may therefore conclude it was for this monarch that the Hebrews built the treasure-cities. "Another instance of the name so used, is confirmed by the testimony of Strabo and Aristotle, who attribute the making of the Suez canal to Sesostris; and Herodotus says, that it entered the sea near the town of Patumos. Sesostris is now generally considered to be Remeses II., and the circumstance of his name being found on buildings near the canal, gives another Pithom built by this king. * Private individuals bore the name long before: but it is uncertain whether there was any older king Remeses. Exod. i. 11. + Exod. i. 8. |