In view of his object, he has carefully studied the history and chronology of Egypt, and endeavored to inform his mind upon the manners, customs, laws, religion, and polity of the ancient Egyptians, so far as to aid him in an intelligent and practical execution of his work.

The difficulties which the question of dynasty, and of individual reigns have presented, will be understood by the Egyptian student. Whatsoever chronology or theory the author might finally decide upon, he saw would be open to the objections of adherents to the opposite school.

After a thorough examination of the subject of the dynasties, the author has followed, chiefly, the chronology and theory of Nolan and Seyffarth, whose opinions are sustained by the ablest scholars.

But this work is by no means a "Book on Egypt." It professes to have nothing more to do with Egyptian antiquities, mythology, chronology, and history, than these naturally assemble about his subject, which is, mainly, "The Bondage and Deliverance of the Children of Israel from the Land of Egypt."

The plan upon which the author has constructed his work is {6} similar to that of "The Prince of the House of David;" viz., by presenting the scenes and events he would describe, through a series of letters, alleged to be written by one who is supposed to witness with his own eyes what he is made to place before those of the reader.

{6}

As in "The Prince of the House of David," a young Jewish maiden is supposed to witness many of the most remarkable scenes in the human life of the Lord Jesus, and to write of them to her father in Egypt, so in the present work a young prince of Phœnicia is made the medium of communication between the author and his reader.

This prince, Sesostris, the son of the king and queen of Phœnicia, upon reaching the age of eight-and-twenty, prepares to go into Egypt, for the purpose of studying the laws and arts, religion and government of that country, which, at this period, was the most powerful kingdom of the earth. Mistress of wisdom, learning, and letters, she drew to her brilliant court youths, nobles, philosophers, and travellers of all lands; as in later centuries, even in her decadence, Greece sent her scholars there to be perfected in the sciences and philosophies of her academies.

Sesostris

Young Sesostris takes leave of his mother, now a widowed queen, and 

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