ness and fortune as much as on their skill in war, as an instance of which Alexander journeyed over a country without water in the heat of summer to the oracle of Jupiter Ammon; and quickly passed over the Bay of Pamphylia, when by divine providence the sea was cut off; thus providence constraining the sea on his account, as it had sent him rain when he travelled over the desert." Josephus has been severely censured for mentioning this story of the providential going back of the waters of the Pamphylian Sea, when Alexander was marching to overthrow the Persian monarchy, in the same manner as he does the stupendous miracle of the Red Sea, classing them both together, and uncertain "whether it happened by the will of God or of its own accord;" nor do we think that his translator has succeeded in offering any thing like a satisfactory defence. The connection between Sacred and Egyptian history ceases for a time after the exodus of the Israelites, and Rhamses the Great, or Sesostris, becomes conspicuous in the Mizraim annals. The date of his reign, as well as the identity of his person, has been the subject of much dispute. Archbishop Usher maintains that he was the son of that Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea, and Whiston thinks he was the same Pharaoh. Sir Isaac Newton alleges that he is the Sisak or Shishak who took and plundered Jerusalem in the reign of Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and that he is the Osiris of the Egyptians, and the Bacchus of the Greeks. Dr Hales places his accession at the commencement of the thirteenth century before the Christian era; Larcher, who proceeds on the authority of Herodotus, makes him commence his reign 1356 years before Christ, or, according to Bouhier's Chronological Account of the Kings of Egypt from Moris to Cambyses, Moris died in the year of the world 3360, and was succeeded in 3361 by Sesostris; but Sir William Drummond, who contests the authority of Larcher, fixes his accession about the beginning of the eleventh century before the Christian era. In oppo sition to all these authorities, Bryant maintains that no such person ever existed, and that in his history, like that of other ancient heroes, we have an abridgment of that of the Cushites or Babylonians, who spread themselves over a considerable part of the then known world, and every where reduced the people to obedience. These are ingenious, but they are not instructive conjectures. From the recent discovery of Champollion, it would appear that Sesostris was the first king of the nineteenth dynasty of Manetho, called Sethos, although he is mentioned as the third in the twelfth dynasty of Manetho by Africanus from the text of Dindorf. "He conquered," says the Latin translation of the Armenian, “ all Asia in nine years, and Europe as far as Thrace, every where erecting monuments of his conquest of those nations. Among the people who had acted bravely he set up cippi of a phaltic nature, but among the degenerate, female emblems of a similar description, engraved upon pillars.” This account is confirmed by Herodotus, who, while he informs us that many of the pillars which Sesostris erected had disappeared, had himself seen some of them in Syria, with inscriptions expressing the conqueror's opinion of the bravery or pusillanimity of his antagonists; and Diodorus Siculus relates the same facts. M. Champollion reads the name of Sesostris in hieroglyphics as Ramses or Rameses, thus agreeing with Tacitus, who calls him Rhampses, and Scaliger, who names him Rhamesses. If this be correct, the inscriptions on the obelisk of Heliopolis or On, as given by Ammianus Marcellinus, must refer to this celebrated Egyptian king. We are told that the interpretation begins on the southern side, the first verse of the inscription being to the following effect :-"The Sun to King Rhamestes. I have bestowed upon you to rule graciously over all the world. He whom the Sun loves is Horus the Brave, the Lover of truth, the Son of Heron, born of God, the Restorer of the world. He whom the Sun has chosen is the King Rhamestes, valiant in battle, to whom all the earth is subject by his might and bravery. Ramestes the King, the immortal offspring of the Sun." The second verse is thus translated :-"It is Horus the Brave, who is in truth appointed the Lord of the Diadem, who renders Egypt glorious, and possesses it; who sheds a splendour over Heliopolis, and regenerates the rest of the world, and honours the Gods that dwell in Heliopolis: Him the Sun loves." The third verse is thus: "Horus the Brave, the Offspring of the Sun, All-glorious; whom the Sun has chosen, and the valiant Ares has endowed. His goodness remains for ever, whom Ammon loves, that fills with good the temple of the Phoenix. To him the Gods have granted life; Horus the Brave, the son of Heron, Rhamestes, the King of the World: He has protected Egypt, and subdued his neighbours: Him the Sun loves. The Gods have granted him great length of life. He is Rhamestes, the Lord of the World, the Immortal." On the other side, towards the east, is the first verse of another inscription in hieroglyphics: "The great God from Heliopolis, celestial, Horus the Brave, the son of Heron, whom the Sun begot, and whom the Gods have honoured; he is the Ruler of all the earth; he whom the Sun hath chosen is the King valiant in battle. Him Ammon loves, and him the All-glittering has chosen his eternal King." The second and third verses are to the following effect: "I, the Sun, the great God, the Sovereign of Heaven, have bestowed upon you life with satiety. Horus the Brave, Lord of the Diadem, incomparable, the sovereign of Egypt, that has placed the statues (of the gods) in this palace, and has beautified Heliopolis, in like manner as he has honoured the Sun himself, the Sovereign of Heaven. The Offspring of the Sun, the King immortal, has performed a goodly work."-"I, the Sun, the God and Lord of Heaven, have bestowed strength and power over all things on King Rhamestes: He whom Horus, the Lover of Truth, the Lord of the Seasons, and Hephæstus, the Father of the Gods, have chosen, on account of his valour, is the all-gracious King, the Offspring and Beloved of the Sun." The Horus here celebrated was, according to Eusebius, the son of Osiris and Isis. Manetho places him the eighth in the dynasty of the demi-gods. Egypt, one of the first countries peopled after the Flood, is naturally the land of fable, and what is related of Sesostris deserves little credit. His father, we are told, being warned by an oracle, educated him to perform great actions, and all the infants born on the same day were collected, educated together, and passed their youth with the future hero. He had scarcely succeeded to his father's throne when he undertook the conquest of the world; his young companions, to the number of seventeen hundred, were appointed officers of his army, which consisted of 600,000 foot, 24,000 horse, and 27,000 chariots of war; a numerous fleet at the same time covered the sea, although it is well known that the Egyptians from superstition hated sailing. Libya, Ethiopia, Arabia, and the islands of the Red Sea, were conquered; he marched through Asia, and penetrated farther into the East than Alexander the Great. He invaded Europe; and that the fame of his conquests might long survive him, he erected columns in the several countries he subdued, with this pompous inscription: "Sesostris, the king of kings, has conquered this territory by his arms." When he returned, without reaping any advantage from his victories, he found a conspiracy formed against him which he suppressed, and he began to improve his people, to erect magnificent temples, dig numerous canals, and construct immense causeways on which cities were built, while it is pretended that he learnt his political wisdom and the art of governing from Mercury. His chariot was drawn by vanquished princes when he went to the temples, and he employed none but foreigners and captives in the execution of his works. In his old age he grew infirm, and destroyed himself after a reign of forty-four years. Such is a condensed erib, king of Assyria, invaded Egypt in account of the deeds of this Egyptian the reign of Sethon, a priest of Vulcan. Alexander in an age remote from every It is remarkable that Herodotus menauthentic record; and from it we may tions the Assyrian by his Scripture name, infer, without crediting some of the pre- and narrates the destruction of his army, ceding exploits, that the ancient Egyp- "which plainly shows," says Dr Pritians had a monarch named Sesostris or deaux, "that it is the same fact reRhameses, who did some remarkable corded in the Scriptures, although much things, and was a conqueror and legis disguised in the relation, which may be lator; and that under him the kingdom easily accounted for when we consider flourished, and the people prospered; but that it came to us through the hands of as to his conquests, and the other alleged such as had the greatest aversion both circumstances of his life, they are almost, to the nation and to the religion of the if not altogether, all fabulous. Whatever Jews, and therefore would relate nothing territories the Egyptians conquered under in such a manner as would give repuhim were not retained, for from his time tation to either." It is, according to this the kingdom appears continually decaying writer, a disguised account of the cele-the common consequence of acquiring brated deliverance of the Jews from the too extensive dominion. Assyrians, or a fabulous application of it to the city of Pelusium instead of Jerusalem, and to Sethon the Egyptian instead of Hezekiah. Sethon, we are told in the Egyptian history, became a religious devotee, and entirely neglected the military classes, whom he even deprived of their lands. They were deeply incensed against him, and entered into a combination not to bear arms in his service. In this state of affairs Sennacherib appeared with the Assyrian army before Pelusium, and Sethon appealed to the soldiers in vain. "In this perplexity," says Herodotus, "he retired to the shrine of his gods, before which he lamented his dangers and misfortunes. Here he sunk into a profound sleep, and his deity promised him in a dream that if he marched to meet the Assyrians he should experience no injury, for he would vanquish them without assistance. The vision inspired him with confidence; he put himself at the head of his adherents, and marched to Pelusium, the entrance of Egypt; but not a soldier accompanied the party, which was entirely composed of tradesmen and artizans. On their arrival at Pelusium, an immense number of mice infested by night the enemy's camp, and their quivers and bows, together with what secured their shields to their arms, were gnawed. in pieces. In the morning the Arabians, finding themselves Egypt appears to have been tranquil under the Pharaohs who reigned after the dynasty of Sesostris. It is seldom mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures till the reign of Solomon, who married a daughter of one of the Pharaohs, 1 Kings iii. 1, 2 Chron. viii. 11; and we may conclude that Egypt was then a powerful kingdom, for this marriage appears to have been altogether political on the part of the Jewish sovereign. This took place, according to the Hebrew chronology, B.C. 1014. The name of this Pharaoh is no where mentioned either by the sacred writers or by Josephus. He was either the Shishak mentioned, 1 Kings xi. 40, to whom Jeroboam fled for refuge from the rage of Solomon, or his successor was so called. Egypt appears also at this time to have been a common retreat for disaffected and discontented persons. Je roboam at the death of Solomon returned from his exile, headed the revolt of the Ten Tribes, and became the first king of the new kingdom of Israel or Samaria. In the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, king of Judah, this Shishak marched against Jerusalem, took the city, plundering the Temple and the king's house of the treasures they contained. So, or Sabacon, king of Egypt, is mentioned as contemporary with Hoshea and Ahaz, kings of Samaria and Judah. Sennach without arms, fled in confusion, and lost great numbers of men. There is now to be seen in the temple of Vulcan a marble statue of this king, having a mouse in his hand, with this inscription, Whoever thou art, learn from my fortune to reverence the gods." Dr Prideaux informs us that the Babylonish Talmud ascribes the destruction of the Assyrian army to lightning; but it is almost certain that it was done by a hot wind, and when Isaiah predicted that God would send a blast upon Sennacherib the same thing is denoted. After the death of Sethon the Egyptian history is uncertain, but it appears that the government underwent a considerable change. The country was divided into twelve provinces, over each of which a chief nobleman presided; but Psammeticus, one of them, dethroned the others about fifteen years after the division was made. In the reign of Manasseh, king of Judah, this prince occupied the throne of Egypt, B.C. 670, according to the Bible chronology, Archbishop Usher, Dr Prideaux, and Rollin; and B.C. 658, according to other authorities. The difference in dates is now trifling, and it is only in the reign of this prince that Egyptian history becomes divested of fable, and assumes an authentic aspect. The extensive conquests of Sesostris were now matters of mere tradition; and Psammeticus I. possessed only Egypt. The exploits of this king, memorials of whose reign are found in the obelisk now on Monte Litorio at Rome, and in the enormous columns of the first court of the palace of Karnac at Thebes, may be summed up in a few words. He endeavoured to extend his dominions by making war upon his neighbours; but by placing more confidence in foreign auxiliaries than in his native subjects of the military class, upwards of 100,000 of the latter, it is said, emigrated in a body to Ethiopia, beyond the Cataracts of the Nile, and there founded an independent state. As a counteraction to this loss, Psammeticus, contrary to the examples of his predecessors, betook himself to the ad vancement of commerce; he opened his ports to foreigners, whom he greatly favoured, and the Egyptians began to carry on mercantile transactions with the Greeks. He is said to have discovered the sources of the Nile, and to have built the vestibule of the temple of Vulcan at Memphis, and a sacred edifice for Apis; he rewarded the Ionians and Carians, who had assisted to establish him on the throne, and Herodotus says they were the first commercial foreigners whom the Egyptians received among them. He spent twenty-five years in the siege of Azotus in Palestine, the Ashdod of the Old Testament, which is no great proof that his reputation as a warrior was alarming to the Philistines. Herodotus says that he reigned in Egypt fifty-four years; others limit it to thirtynine. Psammeticus I. was succeeded by his son Nochus, the Pharaoh Necho of the Old Testament. He was adventurous and enterprising, and undertook to dig a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea. This great project, also ascribed to Sesostris, cost him the lives of 120,000 men before he abandoned it. He also turned his attention to military enterprises, and by his orders some Phoenicians sailed round the continent of Africa, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and returned to Egypt by the Mediterranean, passing through the Straits of Gibraltar. His most remarkable wars are recorded in the Old Testament. Marching against the king of Assyria, as it is expressed in Scripture, but properly against the Medes and Babylonians who had dissolved the Assyrian empire and destroyed Nineveh, in his progress towards the Euphrates Josiah king of Judah resolved to oppose him, and took the field. Necho informed the Jewish prince that he had no hostile intentions towards him, and entreated him to consult his own safety by preserving a strict neutrality; but Josiah obstinately encountered Necho at Megiddo, where he was slain, and the Jewish army entirely defeated, 2 Kings xxiii. 29, 30; 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-24. This battle is justly esteemed the same as the one mentioned by Herodotus, who says that Necho conquered the Syrians, meaning the Jews, "at Magdolum," not the place so called in Lower Egypt, but Megiddo, the resemblance of the names having confused the historian. "After his victory," he adds, "he obtained possession of Cadytis, a Syrian city." The same historian describes Cadytis as a mountain city of Palestine, of the size of Sardis; but there could be no city equal to Sardis besides Jerusalem, and it is certain that after the battle Necho took Jerusalem, deposed Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, whom he carried into Egypt, where he died, and elevated Eliakim, another son of the deceased king, to the throne, and imposed upon him an annual tribute of one talent of gold and one hundred talents of silver, 2 Kings xxiii. 31-35; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3, 4. He then proceeded on his expedition, and with what success may be learnt from the prophecy of Jeremiah against him, who predicted his overthrow at the Euphrates, and the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, while the Jews were comforted for the desolation they had sustained, Jer. xlvi. 1–28. Towards the end of his reign he was in turn invaded by Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered all Egypt as far as Pelusium, and overthrew Necho with great slaughter. Necho was succeeded by his son Psammis, B.C. 603, who reigned only six years. Apries, the Pharaoh Hophra of Scripture, in the Egyptian dialect Quaphré, was his successor. He took Sidon by storm, defeated the Cypriots and Phoenicians, and returned to Egypt enriched by spoils. His triumphs induced Zedekiah to form a treaty with him against Nebuchadnezzar, the result of which was foretold by Jeremiah (xliv. 11, 12). When the king of Babylon invested Jerusalem, Pharaoh marched from Egypt to relieve the city, but when he perceived the army of the besiegers he made a speedy retreat, and left his Jewish allies exposed to the mercy of their enemies. For this cowardly con duct Hophra was severely denounced by the Prophet, Jer. xliv. 30. About this time Ezekiel was carried to Jerusalem, and shown the different kinds of idolatry there practised by the Jews, which form the subject of the eighth and three following chapters of his Prophecy. Hophra is repeatedly the subject of that Prophet's denunciations, who represents him as the great dragon or crocodile that "lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself," Ezek. xxix. 3. Amasis, one of his confidential friends, headed a revolt, and engaged Hophra in battle near Memphis, defeated and took him prisoner, and caused him to be strangled to satisfy those who, as the Prophet said, sought his life. It is interesting to know that an obelisk of Pharaoh-Hophra exists; and we are informed that the greater part of the fragments of sculpture scattered among the ruins of Sais bear the royal legends of his successor Amasis. A monolith chapel, dedicated by him to the Egyptian Minerva, is preserved in the Museum of the Louvre. Egypt in the reign of Amasis was in a most flourishing condition; he favoured commerce, and induced the Greeks to settle in his kingdom. He made considerable presents to many Greek cities as well as to private persons; he allowed the Greeks who traded on the sea-coasts to erect temples to their own deities; his queen was of Grecian descent; he was visited by Solon ; and in his reign Pythagoras was initiated into the Egyptian mysteries. He also achieved the conquest of the Island of Cyprus. But the grandeur of the ancient Mizraim was drawing to a close, and a dynasty of foreign princes soon occupied the proud throne of the Pharaohs. Amasis had offended Cambyses, king of Persia (the son of the great Cyrus), who vowed his destruction, and resolved to subdue and lay waste the kingdom. Phanes of Halicarnassus, who commanded the Greek auxiliaries in the pay of Amasis, left his service, and set out for Persia. Conscious of the importance of his loss, Amasis |