his erection of the tabernacle, into whose service almost all the arts of civilized life were pressed, from the jewelry of the ephod and breast-plate, to the weaving of the covering of the tabernacle, and of the linen of the priests. Signets in the age of Joseph were in common use, as Judah parts with his to Tamar, and Pharaoh to Joseph: nor would such a passage as the following have appeared in the book of Job,* unless the practice of sculpturing hieroglyphic writing upon rocks and buildings, and of writing upon the papyrus, had been a matter of the "Oh that my

commonest occurrence.

66

words were now written! oh that they were written in a book! that they were

*The date of the transactions recorded in the book of Job, from their internal evidence, appear to have been laid about the time of the birth of Moses, as Eliphaz the son of Teman is one of the speakers, and Teman was the son of Eliphaz the son of Ishmael; and Job himself was a descendant of Huz, and not so far removed, but that intimacy still subsisted between the speakers as relations. The best opinion is, that it was written by Moses.

graven with an iron pen, and lead* in the rock for ever!" and again, "Oh that mine adversary had written a book!"

If, then, all the arts and sciences had, in the age of Joseph and Moses, arrived at such a degree of excellence, and if the Egyptian monarchs of that age had revenues far greater than any other sovereigns in the world, and indeed than any of their successors, I can see no reason, why we should not expect to find existing in Egypt, monuments of their wealth and power, or why so many chronologers should labour, against all historic evidence, to bring down the monuments of her splendour to an age, when Egypt had passed the meridian of her greatness, and her resources must have been on the decline.

With all the preceding deductions, and

* Query, a leaden mallet, such as our carvers and some sculptors use at the present day. Rosellini has given several pictures of Egyptians sculpturing with a mallet and stele; but the mallet is so small that it could hardly have been of wood.

with the result of this inquiry, I must confess I am not perfectly satisfied: yet, in the present state of monumental discovery, I feel convinced that a far greater number of coincidences present themselves from assuming the correctness of the Hebrew numbers, and taking the records of Eratosthenes and the Greek historians as we find them, than from any other systems or alterations, that have been yet proposed.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

4004. Creation.

2348. Deluge.

2192. Foundation of the kingdom of

Egypt.

XVI. DYNASTY. 190 years. OC. E. MTh.*

MJ. Manetho according to Josephus.

MM. Memphite list of Manetho.

MT. Thinite list of Manetho.

MTh. Theban list of Manetho.

OC. Old Chronicle.

S. Sanchoniatho.

SS. Bible.

T. Manetho according to Theophilus.

The inventor of letters and medicine, the first who built with hewn stone in Egypt, and inscribed his monuments with hieroglyphics. He is said to be the same with Asclepius.

2071. 3. THOTH II. 32.

Athothes E.

Kenkeres. MT.

2039. 4. DIABIES. 19. E.

Messochris. MM.

Venephes. MT.

Pyramids Building?

2020. 5. PEMPHOS. 18. E.

Souphis MM.

Usaphædus MT.

Pyramids ?

2002. Conclusion of the 16th or 1st mortal dynasty of Egypt, by the invasion of the Shepherd kings, who were not finally ex