standing the ill-treatment of Pharaoh, the Israelites continued to prosper and multiply: for God blessed them. Then Pharaoh's anger and cruelty increased, and, finding that he could not destroy the people by hard usage and excessive toil, he commanded that all their sons born after that time should be cast into the river Nile.

It may be right to mention that the race of Shepherd kings, who desolated Egypt for a time, and left such a fearful impression of their cruelty upon the minds of the people, are supposed by some to have reigned during the abode of the Israelites in Goshen, with whom, by a few ancient writers, they have been confounded but the opinion more generally adopted is, that this barbarous dynasty had reigned and been finally expelled previously to Joseph's being sold into Egypt; and that on this account shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. If this were the case, and the mild and just rule of Joseph followed soon after the tyranical sway of this hated race, it would increase the veneration and love attached to his memory.

CHAPTER II.

MOSES SAVED BY PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER.

AMRAM and Jochabed, the parents of Moses, were descended from Levi, the third son of Jacob.

Amram and Jochabed had two children, Miriam and Aaron, before Pharaoh made the cruel law mentioned in the last chapter. These, therefore, were safe; but when Moses was born, his parents were in the greatest distress, not knowing how they should conceal him from the officers of the king. Jochabed hid the child with care for three months; after which time, as he grew stronger, she feared his cries would betray him, and she made an ark, or basket of bullrushes, which she covered with slime and pitch; and having placed her infant in it, "she laid it in the flags by the river's brink." Here she left it, and went away out of sight, afraid that her anxiety and agitation would betray her; while Miriam staid to watch, and see what would become of the child. Now God caused it to happen that Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river, as was the custom for women of rank to do in those times.

Moses lived more than three thousand years ago, when the manners and customs of nations were very different from those which now prevail.

The climate, too, in Egypt and Canaan, being so much hotter than in England, the daily habits of their inhabitants differ widely from ours: this should be remembered, or we shall not so well understand the history of the Israelites.

When Pharaoh's daughter saw the ark, "she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children."*

"Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went, and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me."

Thus was Jochabed restored to her child: for the infant was safe so soon as the princess took it under her protection; and the happy mother would bless God for having brought her out of her affliction. Pharaoh's daughter called the child's name "Moses," a word which meant in the Egyptian language, "saved, or drawn out of the water:" she adopted him for her son; and Moses was carefully brought up, and was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."

The Egyptians were then considered the wisest people in the world. Later than the time of Moses, statesmen and philosophers from other countries, particularly from Greece, used to travel

* The Israelites are called indifferently Hebrews or Israelites.

to Egypt, in order to study their laws, and learn their manners and customs. But the Egyptians had, notwithstanding, no just idea of the great and good Being who made them, and who was the Creator of every thing they saw around them. They did not worship Him, but they worshipped animals, and even vegetables.* Their chief god was Apis, a live bull, which the priests pretended to find by certain fanciful marks; it had a white spot in the form of a crescent on its forehead, the figure of an eagle on its back, and a beetle on its tongue. When the god Apis died, all the Egyptians put on mourning for him, and his funeral was conducted with great pomp, and cost immense sums! The mourning lasted until another god Apis was found, which was conducted in state to the temple, amidst public rejoicings.

Besides the bull Apis, the Egyptians worshipped cats; and the Ibis, a bird of the stork kind;+ and leeks and onions, and many other things quite as low and trifling. They paid divine honors to the river Nile, because its waters made the land fertile. This river rises in Abyssinia, a

These animals and vegetables were, no doubt, originally regarded by the priests as symbols or representations of their highest divinities, Osiris and Isis, the Sun and Moon: but the symbolical meaning was lost to the common people, who were characterized by the lowest superstition.

+ Baron Cuvier considers it to be a curlew (Numenius Ibis); "rather larger than that of Europe."

country to the south of Egypt, which being mountainous, and higher than Egypt, when rain falls there and on the table lands in Nubia during the rainy season of the Tropics, the water runs down the sides of the mountains, and forming numerous streams which join the Nile, this river pours down into Egypt, where it rises higher and higher until it overflows its banks, and at last covers the whole country. Canals were cut

by the Egyptians, to carry the water to every part, and pumps were constructed to raise it to the surface of the high ground. The towns were built on hills, with raised causeways between them for roads; as this inundation or overflowing of the Nile, happened regularly every year. The water was about three months rising to its greatest height, and nearly as long in subsiding. seldom falls in Egypt; but God appointed the river Nile to overflow its banks in this wonderful manner, which gives the country moisture, and renders the land rich and productive.

Rain