apart, with regard to the Shepherds; and Both were fupplied from the Governor's table, which was furnished from the Steward's flaughter-house. The truth of this is farther feen from the murmuring of the Ifraelites in the wilderness, when they faid, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we fat by the FLESH-POTS, and when we did eat bread to the full'. Now we can scarce fuppofe the Egyptians would permit their flaves, whom they kept in fo hard oppreffion, to riot in flesh-pots, while, as Sir Ifaac fuppofes, they themselves fared hardly and abstained from Animals. 4. Again, he fuppofes, that the exact division of the land of Egypt into Property was first made in the time of Sefoftris. Sefoftris (fays he) upon his returning home, divided Egypt by measure amongst the Egyptians; and this gave a beginning to furveying and geometry". And in another place, he brings down the original of geometry ftill lower; even as late as Mæris, the fifth from Sefoftris. Maris (fays he)-for preferving the divifion of Egypt into equal shares amongst the foldiers-wrote a book of furveying, which gave a beginning to geometry Let the reader now confider, whether it be poffible to reconcile this with the following account of Jofeph's administration. And Jofeph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians fold EVERY MAN HIS FIELD, because the famine prevailed over them: fo the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to the other end thereof. Only the land of the Priests bought be not for the Priests had a portion affigned them of EXOD. xvi. ver. 3i Page 218. a Page 248. Pharaob Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they sold not their lands. Then Joseph said unto the people, Bebold I have bought you this day, and your land for Pharaoh : lo here is the feed for you, and ye hall for the land. And it shall come to pass, in the increase, that you soall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food and for them of your own housholds, and for food for your little ones. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaob should have the fifth part; except the land of the Priests only, which became not Pharaoh'so. Here we have the description of a country very exactly set out and settled in private property. It would afford room for variety of reflexions: I shall confine myself to the following. If private property had not been, at this time established with the utmost order and exactness, what occasion had Joseph to recur to that troublesome expedient of transplanting the People, reciprocally, from one end of Egypt to the other? his purpose in it is evident: it was to secure Pharaoh in his new property, by defeating the ill effects of that fondness which people naturally have to an old paternal inheritance. But what fondness have men for one spot, rather than another, of lands lying in common, or but newly appropriated? Were the Egyptians at this time, as Sir Isaac Newton seems to suppose, in the state of the unsettled Nomades, they would have gone from one end of Egypt to the other, without Joseph's sending; and without the least regret for any thing they had left behind. But without weakening the great man's conjecture by Scripture-history, How does it appear • Gen, xlvii. 20, lege from Y2 . Book IV. from the fimple fact of Sefoftris's dividing the large champion country of Egypt into square fields, by cross-cut canals, that this was a dividing Egypt by measure, and giving a beginning to furveying and geometry? If we examine the cause and the effects of that improvement, we fhall find that neither one nor the other part of his conclufion can be deduced from it. The caufe of making thefe canals, was evidently to drain the fwampy marshes of that vaft extended level; and to render the whole labourable. But a work of this kind is never projected till a people begin to want room. And they never want room till private property hath been well established; and the neceffaries of life, by the advancement of civil arts, are become greatly increafed. As to the effects; Ground, once divided by fuch boundaries, was is no danger of a change of landmarks; and confequently had fmall occafion for future furveys. So that had not the Egyptians found out geometry before this new divifion, 'tis probable they had never found it out at all. The moft likely caufe, therefore, to be affigned for this invention, was the neceffity of frequent furveys, while the annual overflowings of the Nile were always obliterating fuch landmarks as were not, like thofe crofs-cut canals, wrought deep into the foil. But thefe put a total end to that inconvenience. Indeed, Herodotus feems to give it as his opinion, that geometry had its rife from this improvement of Sefoftris . But we are to re PIt is true Diodorus fuppofes, the principal reason was to cover and fecure the flat country from hoftile incurfions: Tò dè μέγισον, αφὸς τὰς τῶν πολεμίων ἐφίδες ὀχυρὰν καὶ δυσέμβολον ἐποίησε τὴν xar, p. 36. But fure he hath chofen a very unlikely time for fuch a provifion. The return of Sefoftris from the conqueft of the habitable world would hardly have been attended with apprehenfions of any evil of this kind. 4 Δοκέοι δέ μοι ἐνθεῦτεν γεωμετρία ευρεθεῖσα, ἐς τὴν ̔Ελλάδα ἐπαν 20. Herodot. 1. ii. c. 109. I member member what hath been aid of the mashitaka tiquity which the ancicat Cack winers, ווין 小 ticularly Aristotle', alligned to this Here. tl.. natural confequence of the gypums toying, com founded the ages and action, dwugde i perfons, of Oliris and Seloltura. de 5. The next inference this illatturare Warr makes from his fyftem is, that later wars unkind in Egypt till the time of David mites (says he) fled from Duoad cathe thon tians afrised this fasch KY TYGANA mus ir gluhom we pull it seems most probable that they learnt it of the Egyptians. But, for a full confutation of this fancy, and of the arguments that fupport it, I am content to refer the reader to what I have occafionally obferved, though to other purposes, in my difcourfe of the Egyptian hieroglyphics'. 6. Lastly, he obferves, that Egypt was so thinly peopled before the birth of Mofes, that Pharaoh faid of the Ifraelites, "Behold the people of the chil dren of Ifrael are more and mightier than we :' and that to prevent their multiplying, and growing too strong, be caufed their male children to be drowned". Yet this country, fo thinly peopled at the birth of Mofes, was, we find from Scripture, fo vaftly populous, by the time Mofes was fent upon his miffion, that it could keep in slavery six hundred thousand men befides children; at a time, when they were moft powerfully inftigated to recover their liberty; which, yet after all, they were unable to effect but by the frequent defolation of the hand of God upon their infolent and cruel mafters. And is this to be reconciled with Sir Ifaac's notion of their preceding thinnefs? But he likewife fupports himself on Scripture. Egypt was fo thinly peopled-that Pharaoh faid-Behold the people of the children of Ifrael are more and mightier than we. Strange interpretation! The Scripture relation of the matter is in these words: And Pharaoh faid unto his people, Behold the people of the children of Ifrael are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wifely with them: left they multiply, and it come to pass, that when there falleth out any war, they join alfo unto our enemies, and fight against us, and fo get them up |