subversion of the Christian faith by the evidence of antiquity, to be furnished when the Egyptian hieroglyphics should be deciphered. For a time the believers in revelation were unable to read the evidence to which the infidel appealed, but modest and persevering research has enabled them out of this armoury to select weapons for his overthrow, has falsified all his predictions, and demonstrated and manifested the wisdom which belongs only to the Ancient of days. A most interesting letter is preserved from Champollion, whose name is identified with the most valuable discoveries in Egyptian hieroglyphics, in which he affirms distinctly his own conviction of the absence of any chrcnological discrepancy between the records of Scripture and the facts recorded on the monuments. The letter refers to one of his publications, containing a recapitulation of his historical and chronological discoveries. "They will find," he writes, alluding to the adversaries of revelation, " in it an absolute reply to their calumnies, since I have demonstrated that no Egyptian monument is really older than the year 2,200 before our era. This certainly is a very high antiquity, but it presents nothing contradictory to the sacred histories, and I venture to affirm that it establishes them on all points; for it is, in fact, by adopting the chronology and the succession of kings given by the Egyptian monuments, that the Egyptian history wonderfully accords with the sacred writings."

The second class of materials for the history

of Egypt consists of the tombs, temples, and monuments of all kinds, which survive the lapse of ages, together with the valuable inscriptions in explanation of them. There are here and there throughout all the monuments the names of kings, and the dates of their reigns, besides several tables of genealogy, giving in succession the names and titles of the sovereigns who have ruled in Egypt.

The third class of materials consists of the writings of the ancient historians. These are by no means so easily adjusted as the two former classes, and from their fragmentary nature the principal difficulty has arisen in the elucidation of Egyptian history. The most important of these historians is Manetho. He was a learned Egyptian, native of Sebennytus, a town of the Delta, and thence surnamed the Sebennyte. By some he is affirmed to have been a priest and scribe of Heliopolis. M. Bunsen, however, who has devoted much research to the vindication of his historical character, supposes him to have been born and to have lived at Thebes. At the suggestion of Ptolemy he wrote a work on Egyptian history in three books. It was derived from the Egyptian records, and was written in Greek, about two hundred years before Christ. The first book comprehends the period before history is certain the reigns of the gods; and the other two books embrace the dynasties of Egypt down to the conquest by Alexander. After the reigns of the gods, Manetho enumerates thirty-one

dynasties, or, as reduced by Bunsen, thirty. The same writer distinguishes between the records of the authentic Manetho, and spurious personages who may have borne his name. He affirms that Manetho's work comprised a period of 3,555 years, although many of his reigns are to be esteemed as contemporary. The work of Manetho is lost, and only fragments of it remain, preserved in the writings of Josephus, the Jewish historian, Eusebius, and Syncellus. The value of Manetho's work has been greatly enhanced by its manifest agreement in so many particulars with the testimonies of the monuments.

Another Egyptian historian is Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who was superintendent of the Alexandrian library somewhat later than the date of Manetho. He constructed a catalogue of kings of Egypt from information given him by the scribes of Thebes. This work also has perished, and our knowledge of it is derived from Syncellus, who copied the parts he has preserved from Apollodorus of Athens. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus come in as helps to the difficult task of arranging the order of the kings, and furnish information derived from the inquiries made by them in the age in which they lived. These are the principal materials from which Egyptian history has to be compiled, and we now present a brief enumeration of the events of which it is composed.

The Bible tells us that Egypt was colonized by the descendants of Ham, whence the ancient

name Chemi, by his second son Mizraim, who settled in Egypt after the dispersion at Babel. Bochart, however, contends that the word Mizraim is to be understood as a dual form to denote the two Egypts, the Upper and the Lower, and that it is derived from either a word signifying a fortress, or from one meaning narrow, in allusion to the shape of the country. Omitting the legendary records of the reigns of the gods, Menes appears in the darkness of antiquity as the first king, reigning many years before the time of Abraham. His name is found in the list of kings at Thebes, and in the roll of papyrus preserved in the museum at Turin. By some he is identified with Mizraim, but the opinion is liable to grave objection. He is supposed to have built Memphis, and thus to have diminished the power and glory of Thebes. With him the government of Egypt became a monarchy, and was transmitted to his descendants. He was a warrior, and made foreign conquests, but was slain by a wound from a hippopotamus in the sixty-second year of his reign. This king was the first of the Thinite dynasty, which included eight princes. The second king is reported to have built a palace at Memphis, and through all the eight the kingdom descended from father to son.

Another dynasty of nine princes succeeds, and a third, the Memphite, of eight, before we arrive at the age of the existing monuments. Champollion Figeac assigns to the later kings of this third dynasty the building of pyramids at

Dashour and Saqquara, supposing them to be older than those of Gizeh. The fourth dynasty is one in which we begin to emerge into the light afforded by existing monuments. It is remarkable for the number of the princes of which it is composed, and for the length of their reigns. The first three kings of this dynasty were the builders of the pyramids of Gizeh, and around these stupendous structures, which served as their own tombs, are to be found the burying-places of their descendants and companions. The names of the builders, in harmony with Manetho's list, have been discovered on the three pyramids by colonel Vyse. At this early age of the world's history, the arts of building and of design seem to have been as fully understood and as skilfully practised as in later ages.

At the end of the fourth dynasty, Memphis no longer had the honour of giving sovereigns to the land of Egypt. The next line of princes sprang from the island of Elephantine, on the borders of Egypt and Ethiopia, embracing nine kings, and giving place in its turn to another Memphite dynasty of six. The fifth sovereign in this line is the first queen of Egypt that we meet with the celebrated Nitocris. She is said to have been distinguished for her beauty, and Herodotus records several particulars respecting her. Two other dynasties of Memphis succeeded, and then came another change. The ninth and tenth dynasties, comprising, the one four, and the other nineteen kings, were