For the benefit of such of our readers as may not have access to the volume of Dr. Hawks, we will give, in a condensed form, a specimen of his mode of argument. Having alluded to the geographical contiguity of Egypt and Canaan, and to the fact that since both these countries were confessedly peopled by descendants of Ham, the former, by the posterity of Mizraim from whom in the Scriptures Egypt is often named, and the latter, by the posterity of Canaan, the remaining son of Ham, he adds :— Nothing therefore was more natural than that an intercourse should exist between these descendants of a common stock. We have in the Scriptures the history of this intercourse, and we now enter upon the direct inquiry how far the statements of our history derive incidental confirmation from facts concerning Egypt, gathered from other sources."

For a specimen of his argument, we will review the case of Joseph. Opening first the Bible, we gather from it the following incidents in his biography. He was sold for twenty pieces of silver by his brethren to Arabian merchants traveling with their spices into Egypt. Sold again for a household slave to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's guard, he is made overseer of Potiphar's house; Potiphar's wife attempts to seduce him; he is cast into prison; he interprets the dreams of the chief baker and butler; is sent for to interpret Pharaoh's dream; is elevated with certain. ceremonies to office and honor; during seven years of plenty he collects and stores the fruits of the earth; in the subsequent famine which was over all the lands, he entertains his brethren on their second visit to Egypt; he sends for his father with wagons, who arrives with his other sons, and is settled in Goshen. At length, Jacob dies and is embalmed by Joseph's physicians at his command. Afterward Joseph dies, is embalmed, and put in a coffin in Egypt.

Such are the incidents as related in the Bible. They throw not a little light upon Egyptian society and customs at that period. The allusions are particular, definite, and various; allusions such as no man would have dared to make, ignorant of what he affirmed. They are such as rendered it easy to expose the writer, had he been an imposter. They are such indeed as a man, drawing on his imagination for materials, could never have devised.

We turn next to the monumental records of Egypt. These we find partly engraven in monumental inscriptions, partly sculptured on pillars and obelisks, or on the interior walls of tombs, partly painted there in unfaded colors, and partly indicated by the multiplied relics of ancient workmanship and agricultural productions. They constitute a history, locked up during the centuries that have intervened between that and the present, and thus preserved from all interpolation. This history we know, there

fore, to be, in its general features, perfectly reliable. Turning accordingly to it, to ascertain whether the statements of the writer in the Bible relative to Joseph will bear the test of this reliable contemporaneous evidence, we at once perceive that the credibility of the Scriptures is here incidentally maintained, and from an unexpected source. For, in reference to the first of these statements, to wit, that he was sold to Arabian merchants going with their spices to Egypt, it is ascertained from the existence of certain wells, referred to by Wilkinson, and found in the desert over which the caravans were obliged to pass, that such caravans were accustomed at that time to go into Egypt with merchandise. He cites also some monumental evidence of the same fact. Next, as to the price paid for Joseph, "twenty pieces of silver," the fact that such expressions as "pieces of silver," "pieces of money," are common in the Bible, and that no mention is any where made of coin, having a fixed value, shows that, according to the Bible, the circulating medium of that remote period was, not coined money, but pieces of the precious metals having a specific weight. That the idea of price with the ancient Egyptians involved indeed, not a specific number of coins, but a specific weight of metal, is fully confirmed by the monuments where money is seen in the form of ingots, bars and rings of gold and silver. We next ask whether such a condition of servitude as that to which the Bible represents Joseph to have been reduced, did actually exist in Egypt? On this point the monuments leave no room for doubt. Slaves in great numbers are represented in the sculptures and paintings, employed in building temples, cutting canals, raising dykes and embankments and other public works, as also in the service of families. We next inquire whether such an office as that of Potiphar existed in Egypt? He is styled captain of the guard, or according to another translation, chief of the executioners. Taking the former as the correct translation, we discover in the battle scenes depicted on the monuments a body guard around the monarch, of which Potiphar must have been the commander; while taking the latter as the true translation, we have only to remember that the chief of the executioners is at the East a high court officer. As his office was considered one of great honor and responsibility, "the incidental allusion to it in the story," as Dr. Hawks has justly remarked, "shows on the part of its author minutely accurate information as to the customs and usages of the Pharaonic Court.”

The next circumstance in the scripture narrative is that Joseph was made overseer of Potiphar's house. Did this office exist among opulent and official Egyptians? Of this there can be not doubt; for the steward, or overseer, is often delineated—a man carrying implements for writing, the writing table, the tablet, and the like,—even to the pen over the ear. This man follows or pre

cedes the servants, and is known, not only by the implements about him, but also by an inscription over him, which states that he is the overseer of the slaves, or the steward. In relation to the attempt of Potiphar's wife to seduce Joseph, we of course find on the monuments no direct confirmation. We however find numerous representations, evincing unchastity and intemperance among the women of Egypt, which render the statement of the writer in the Pentateuch highly probable. In relation to the chief baker and butler, kitchen scenes, painted in some of the tombs, furnish abundant evidence that these offices were common in Egypt. The circumstances related in the dreams, also find abundant confirmation in the monuments. The wicker baskets, so constructed that they might be carried one above another, the carrying of them on the head, the vine, too, with the whole process of converting the grape into wine,these are all delineated on the monuments. We find equal confirmation from this source of the incident of Joseph's introduction into Pharaoh's presence to interpret his dream, and of the allusions in the dream itself. One circumstance is particularly striking-Joseph, being sent for, is said to have "shaved himself" before going in unto Pharaoh. This "casual and slight allusion to remarkable customs," it is well said by our author, "a mere inventor would not be likely to introduce at all, or at any rate without explanation." Contrary to universal custom among Orientals, the Egyptians are almost uniformly represented on the monuments as beardless. Accordingly, Joseph, who as a Hebrew or a man in prison, had suffered his beard to grow, "would not dare to enter the presence of Pharaoh without shaving." He knew that the customs of Egypt rendered it indispensable. Respecting the dreams, we will mention but one of several allusions, significant in themselves, and impressively confirmed by monumental evidence. In the second dream seven ears of corn came up on one stalk, that is, seven heads of wheat. Now, strange and inexplicable as this may appear, it is at once explained, and the significance of the allusion perceived, by a knowledge of the particular species of wheat, grown from the earliest periods in Egypt. Unlike that with which we are acquainted, this variety produces several ears, or heads, to each stalk. This peculiarity is ascertained, not alone by reference to the wheat grown in Egypt at the present day, but by the actual germination and fruitfulness of wheat, preserved from the most ancient times, and found in vessels in the tombs of the Pharaohs. The same variety of wheat is cultivated in California at the present time.

The next circumstance for which we seek confirmation from the monuments, is the promotion of Joseph from the oversight of Potiphar's house to that of the entire realm. We first notice here a large grant of power. Joseph becomes the first officer in the

kingdom. This is quite in keeping with all we know of Orientalism from the remotest antiquity. The next thing is the royal ring put upon Joseph's hand, like the great seal of England entrusted to the prime minister. Now, although this circumstance has given rise to an objection of a German infidel, who alleges that "these objects of luxury, especially polished stones, belonged to a later time," yet is the statement of the Bible supported in the clearest manner by monumental evidence. For not only are signet rings and bracelets distinctly delineated on the monuments, but they have been actually found in the most ancient tombs, together with rings and seals, cut both in gold and stone, and are now to be seen in the valuable cabinet of Dr. Abbot at Cairo. This is a specimen of the manner in which the statements of the German neologists have been disproved by disinterments and discoveries in the Egyptian tombs. Next we notice that vestures of fine linen were put upon Joseph. Did the ancient Egyptians manufacture or make use of linen fabrics? That they did so is demonstrable from a microscopic examination of the wrapping cloths of the mummies, some of which are ascertained to be linen. That such a ceremony of investiture had obtained in Egypt, is proved by a painting in a tomb at Thebes, which represents the investiture of a chief with a highly honorable office under the king. In this painting, "the two attendants," in the language of Wilkinson, "or inferior priests, are engaged in clothing him with the robes of his new office. One puts on a necklace; the other arranges his dress, a fillet being already bound round his head, &c." As to the chain of gold put about Joseph's neck, our author quotes from Hengstenberg, that "in the tombs of Beni Hassan many slaves are represented, each of whom has in his hand something which belongs to the dress or ornaments of his master. The first carries one of the necklaces with which the neck and breast of persons of high rank are generally adorned. Over it stands an inscription signifying, 'necklace of gold.'"

In reference to the circumstance of Joseph storing the fruits of the earth during the seven years of plenty, the following may be cited as strikingly illustrative and confirmatory. "In one of the grottoes of Eleithuias a man is depicted whose business it evidently was to take an account of the number of bushels which another man, acting under him, measures. The inscription over him is, the registrar of bushels."" Granaries, too, ordinarily constructed as a series of vaulted chambers, are depicted in the tombs, as also laborers engaged in filling them successively with grain,. the measurer, and the registrar who takes the account. Next follow the statements of the Bible, that there succeeded these years of extraordinary fertility, a famine which extended over all the neighboring countries; that Joseph gave an entertainment to his brethren on their second visit to Egypt; that he sent for his

father with vehicles denominated wagons in our version of the Scriptures; that his father and brethren on their arrival were settled in Goshen; that upon Jacob's death he was embalmed by the physicians of Joseph, and that upon Joseph's death he also was embalmed and put in a coffin in Egypt. In regard to these incidents, narrated in the Bible, our limits will not permit an extended notice. Enough to say that, inasmuch as from history we know that famines have occurred in several instances both in Egypt and in the adjacent lands, it is entirely credible that, although depending on different natural causes, they may yet have occurred simultaneously over the entire East. The incident of the wagons employed to transport the patriarch and his family from Canaan to Egypt is corroborated by monuments showing, in addition to the ancient war chariot, light covered carts or wagons, which are probably the vehicles referred to by the sacred writer. The settlement in Goshen, and the bestowment of this choicest portion of Egypt on the family of strangers, are explained, not only by the fact that the temper of the government at this time naturally disposed it to display extravagant liberality to the kindred of Joseph for Joseph's sake, but that Goshen, being a frontier territory between Egypt and Arabia, and thus exposed to the incursions of a nomadic foe, was less valuable to the Egyptians than its richness of soil would lead us to suppose. Being occupied by the native population, neither property nor life were secure, while the Israelites, having come from the East, would not only be more likely to remain unmolested, but would thus become a frontier guard to the rest of the kingdom. The remarkable respect paid by the Egyptians to the dead in the embalming of their bodies, is demonstrated by the actual existence of those embalmed bodies in the mummies of the present day.

ume.

We have thus given in a condensed and consequently imperfect form a specimen of the incidental coincidences with the statements of the Bible, and of the corroborations of its history, traced by Dr. Hawks more at length in the latter half of the present volWe have taken for our specimen the history of Joseph only. But the compiler has likewise compared scripture and monumental testimony respecting Abraham, the bondage in Egypt, the deliverance, the wanderings, and certain historical statements of the Bible not found in the Pentateuch. One of these statements furnishes, when thus compared with the monuments, so remarkable a confirmation of the Bible, that we quote his account of it. It relates to the invasion of Judea by Shishak king of Egypt, mentioned in the twelfth chapter of the second book of Chronicles. Shishak, it will be remembered, according to the Bible, came and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the king's treasures; in a word, he achieved a conquest of the country.