THE ANTIQUITIES OF EGYPT.*

In the whole course of human action, nothing has tended more effectually to check the presumption of man, and to demonstrate the ultimate prevalence of truth, than the important discoveries which have been recently made, and are still making, amongst the antiquities of Egypt. The nature of those extraordinary relics of the early ages of mankind; their preservation amidst the wreck of dynasties and empires, and when the races which raised those monuments of human industry have been for centuries swept from the face of the earth; the process by which the secret of interpreting their characters, after being lost for two thousand years, has been recovered in our own day;—all these circumstances, were they not traceable to natural causes, might well suggest the idea of a special interposition of Providence, more especially when it is considered that the mere historical utility of these remains, great as it is, bears but a small proportion to their value as testimonies to the truth of the Bible. As if still more to enhance their importance in the latter respect, they were seized upon at first, with eagerness and avidity, by the enemies of Revelation, whose superficial knowledge tempted them to triumph at the disclosure of a mass of unimpeachable and unquestionable facts which appeared to flatter their incredulity, but which, in the end, have covered them with confusion. If the Scriptures had been a record of secular history, divested of every title to confidence but what it derived from its own internal evidence, no candid person would presume to say that the discovery of such confirmatory proofs, under circumstances which repel every suggestion of collusion or imposture, would not have established its veracity even against conflicting testimony.

The antiquities of Egypt, therefore, furnishing direct as well as collateral testimony to the truth of Holy Writ, are now legitimately invoked into its service, and although we are as yet scarcely beyond the threshold of this new course of study, enough has been gained from it to illustrate in a considerable degree the fidelity of the Sacred Scriptures as records of events, of persons, and of manners, and to supply a link of union between them and the ancient profane histories. Several works, published with this view, have lately appeared, and we have now before us a valuable one issued by the Religious Tract Society.

This work is carefully, and we may add soberly, written; it does not press the evidence to be deduced from Egyptian antiquities, in favour of the Scriptures, one jot beyond its strict applicability; there is nothing of a controversial, or even theological, character about it; a disbeliever in Revelation might read it without feeling his prejudices shocked in the outset, although he would probably find them to disappear at the end.

After pointing out the Scripture references to Egypt, especially in the earliest portion of the Bible, and describing the climate, so congenial to the preservation of works of art, and the nature of the monuments which still remain there, the author treats of the arts of design amongst the ancient Egyp

The Antiquities of Egypt; with a Particular Notice of those that Illustrate the Sacred Scriptures. With numerous Engravings. London. The Religious Tract Society. 1841.

tians, and gives a correct, though succinct, view of this subject. Their deficiency in this respect, especially in the art of perspective, not only injures the effect of their paintings and sculptures, but sometimes obscures the meaning which their hieroglyphics are intended to convey. Their indifference to mere picturesque effect in the details of their designs, however, has not destroyed the arrangement and harmony of the whole. "The effect of the immense coloured reliefs which cover the walls of some of the caves and temples, is said far to surpass that of the most celebrated efforts of Grecian art, notwithstanding the uncouthness and clumsiness of the details."

The impression upon the mind of the spectator, when he first enters one of the vast halls which still remain in the interior of the palaces at Thebes, is described to be absolutely stunning. Some of these halls are 600 feet both in length and breadth, and are crowded throughout their entire area with massive columns 12 feet in diameter and 66 feet high. The walls, pillars, and gateways are all covered with colossal figures in relief of gods and kings, and with the representation of long triumphal and religious processions. These designs are also painted with the most vivid colours, which are applied everywhere with very skilful attention to general harmony of effect. It may readily be imagined that the sensations excited by the contemplation of a scene so wonderful and so strange are as difficult for one who has seen it to describe, as for one who has not seen it to conceive.

The chapter on the "Recovery of the Mode of Reading Hieroglyphics," contains an interesting summary of the progressive steps by which this grand result has been obtained, in spite of difficulties apparently insuperable, not the least of which were interposed by the directions of ancient writers, who were either deceived themselves, or in league to deceive, for their statements are calculated to divert attention from the real clue. As soon as this was gained, and the supposed dates of the monuments began to be read, scepticism exulted at the revelation of monuments pretended to be 17,000 years older than the Christian era. The temple at Esneh, supposed to be of that early date, is now shewn to have been built 140 years after Christ. "This exposure of the groundlessness of infidel assertions," observes the writer, "was highly beneficial; it exercised much influence in exposing the pretensions of a class of arrogant writers upon antiquity, who had assumed a tone of all but infallibility in perverting every thing to be found upon any part of this subject, either in existing remains or in ancient writings, to support their opposition to the Bible."

The account of the "Construction of the Language and Writing of Ancient Egypt" is illustrated by texts and inscriptions, and that of the "Religion of the Ancient Egyptians" contains a brief, but good elementary notion regarding this cbscure and copious topic. Notices of the early annals and monumental history of Egypt conclude the volume, and they contain abundant allusions to matters referred to in the Bible. We subjoin one example, which is highly curious, though not quite intelligible without the plate :—

But amid all these details of the greatness and magnificence of Egypt, the Christian's heart will still be with the people of God; and he will naturally

inquire, What evidence do the monuments afford of the state in Egypt, at this period, of the descendants and lineage of Joseph, by whose instrumentality God had poured the wealth that accomplished these wonders into its coffers? We answer him in the words of holy Scripture :-" The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour," Ex. i. 13, 14; and as an unanswerable proof of this, we refer to the annexed design which is copied from the tomb of Rek-sharé, the chief architect of the temples and palaces of Thebes, under Pharaoh Maris. Never, perhaps, has so striking a pictorial comment as this upon the sacred text been before recovered. The physiognomy of the Jews it is impossible to mistake; and the splashes of clay with which their bodies are covered, the air of close and intense labour that is conveyed by the grouping on the left side of the picture, and above all, the Egyptian taskmaster, seated with his heavy baton, whose remorseless blows would doubtless visit the least relaxation of the slaves he was driving from their wearisome and toilsome task of making bricks, and spreading them to dry in the burning sun of Egypt, give a vivid impression of the exactitude of the Scripture phrase, "all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour." The inscription at the top of the picture, to the right, reads, "Captives brought by his majesty," (Maris) "to build the temple of the great god." This means either that Moeris was the king, "that arose, that knew not Joseph, and that reduced the children of Israel to servitude;" or, more probably, that the family or gang of Israelites, which are here represented, had been marched up from Goshen, and attached especially to the building of the temples at Thebes. This was also the case with prisoners of war.

The group of Egyptians to the right of the picture affords also a confirmation of the literal correctness of the inspired narrative, and of the uniformity of all things in Egypt. We read in the fifth chapter of Exodus, that when Moses and Aaron had been before Pharaoh, "he said, behold the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of bricks which they did make heretofore ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof." In consequence of this arbitrary order, "the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw. And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task, in making brick both yesterday and to-day, as heretofore?" Ex. v. 6-14. The picture before us shews that this cruel mode of procedure had always been the practice during the bondage in Egypt. Two of the Egyptian officers over the Israelites, sufficiently distinguished from them by their head-dresses and complexions, are compelled by the blows of the taskmasters over them, to bear themselves the vessels of clay and the brick yoke, and to complete the work which they had failed to exact from the captives entrusted to their charge. That these men had not come forth to labour, is sufficiently indicated by the right-hand figure with the yoke, who, having not taken up his burden, has not yet girt his loins, like his companions and all the other labourers in the picture, and also according to the invariable practice of the East, but still wears his dress loose, after the fashion of the officer who is sitting in the centre with the baton, and of the superior taskU Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.37.No.147.

master (probably the personage by whom the tomb was excavated), who is represented as beating the officer, his companion. This incident conveys a fearful impression of the rigour of the bondage.

We also find in this most interesting picture, the full establishment of our conjecture in considering the Scripture history, that the Israelites would adopt the dress and manners of the Egyptians. The cap worn by them is the ancient Memphitic cap, which appears on the monuments of the era of the pyramids, and of the seventeenth dynasty. The wig worn by the Egyptians in the picture before us, the monuments shew to have been an innovation, which was probably introduced by the eighteenth dynasty. It was the univer sal custom to shave the head and beard in Egypt. But it may be observed that, in this picture, the Israelites have their beards half grown, to denote the abject and slavish nature of servitude, which did not allow them the leisure to attend even to this necessary act of cleanliness. This was a common mode of denoting earnestness and haste with the Egyptian artists. In the stupendous reliefs at Ipsambul, Sesostris fights his battles unshaven; and even appears in this condition before the gods, to denote the entire possession of his mind with the purpose before him.

This extract will serve as a specimen of the manner in which this work is made subservient to the illustration of "The Book."

LINES FROM THE MATLA'UL ANWAR OF AMIR KHOSRÜ.

شرم نداري که ترا حتي پاک خوانده بمعراج و تو خفته بخاک هرچه بدهر آدمیست و پري نیست مگر بهر پرستشگري أي ببطالت جو فرو مایگان چند خوري نعمت حق رایگان وحش و طيوري که چراخوار کرد بگه خورد نگر نسار کرد سر قطره آبی نخورد ماکیان تا نکند رو بسوي آسمان

جسم و جمادي كه بكوي و ره اند*

هم بزباني بتعالي الله اند

سنگ و گیاهی که تو بيني خموش غلغل شانست فلک را بگوش وانكه پري خارج حیوان شدست

هم به پرستش همه تن جان شدست بلکه فلک پایه ترجیح یافت بر شدنش + رشته تسبیح یافت جمع کواکب که چنان میروند هم بدرش سجده کنان میروند و آتش و بادی که درین پرده اند هم رخ خواهش بسما کرده اند و آب و گلي كآن بته آسوده اند هم سر طاعت بزمین سوده اند خلق همه بر در دادار خویش هست پرستنده بمقدار خویش

آدمیست آنکه بمغفلت گم است

دیو دل است ار چه بتن مردم است

برشدن از Some MSS + بکوه آورند and one بگرد رهند .One MS *

دیو و دد .One MS

دلدار f Some MSS