These examples are all from texts of the same period as our Israel inscription; and numbers 3 and 4 make it very evident that the phrase indicates the destruction of supplies. Hence, the word translated "grain" in our passage, cannot, by any possibility, mean "seed," in the sense of "offspring" or "posterity," a meaning which it elsewhere occasionally has. Giving it this meaning, "seed," the attempt has been made to interpret the passage as narrating the destruction of Israel's seed or children, in retaliation for the destruction of the Egyptian firstborn. Anyone reading the above five parallel passages will see how impossible is this last interpretation; for the phrase, "his grain is not," is there applied to the Libyans twice, to the Seped once, and to the northern maritime peoples and to the Tehenu once each. It is perfectly clear, therefore, that the phrase cannot refer to an incident peculiar to the history of Israel, but that we have in it a conventional, stereotyped phrase, which could be and was applied to any conquered and plundered people. It indicates nothing more than the loss of their supplies of grain or produce incident to some defeat. Israel, therefore, unless the list of conquered peoples be mere boasting, as the mention of the Hittites would indicate, has suffered defeat and been despoiled of her provisions and produce. It is further perfectly clear that the author of the text thinks of Israel as in Syria among the Syrian peoples and cities mentioned with her. It is hardly necessary to add that line ten indicates that Palestine has become as helpless as widows before the attacks of Egypt.

As above stated, it is difficult to decide whether or not these twelve verses indicate that Merneptah made a campaign in Syria. The definite mention of so many places would incline one to the conclusion that he did; against which the improbable overthrow of the Hittites (v. 4) must, however, be placed. Moreover,

* Name of a tribe broken out of the original; it is the antecedent of "its."

the Hebrew records know of no such defeat of Israel. It is of no great importance to decide this question, in so far as the problem of Israel is concerned. Whether this was a fictitious victory or not does not in any way vitiate the evident location of Israel in the mind of the writer of the inscription. In publishing a list of fictitious victories, he would be no more likely to misplace Israel than he would were the victory real. It is clear, therefore, that in the fifth year of Merneptah, Israel is in Asia, and the Exodus has already taken place; and, although this inscription does not necessarily identify the Pharaoh of the Exodus for us, it gives us a definite date, the latter part of the thirteenth century B.C., at which we find the Israelites in Palestine, and later than which the Exodus could not have taken place. The hypothesis of a divided. Israel, one part of which never left Palestine for Egypt, has been urged against the above conclusion and deserves a hearing; but space will not permit its discussion here.

The recent astonishing discovery of the tomb of Amenhotep II at Thebes, with the garlanded body of the king lying uninjured in his coffin, furnishes incidentally a rather amusing commentary on the popular theories that have had their day among the dilettanti. The writer has often been approached by people who were certain that Seti II of the nineteenth dynasty was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, because his body had never been found, proving conclusively that he was drowned in the Red Sea! Apart from the fact that the Exodus narrative does not state that the Pharaoh was drowned, and the further fact that many Pharaohs' bodies are missing, the above refreshing hypothesis has received a cruel blow; for in the tomb of Amenhotep II, just discovered, a number of other royal bodies had been deposited for safety, among which is the coffin of Seti II. Of course, the obvious reply is, that among the Egyptians dead upon the seashore" (Ex. xiv, 30), the body of the drowned Pharaoh was discovered by his servants and given the usual interment at Thebes, Delightful! But how about the disappearance of his body as proof that he was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. It is to be seriously feared that Seti II will be hereafter forced to retire to private life and relinquish all claim to popular attention.

It has not been the writer's intention in the above article to present more than the chief more recently discovered monumental evidences in Egypt, which relate to Israel. There is, of course, a mass of material to which no reference could be made. The subject, also, does not permit any account of the recent remarkable discoveries from the remotest prehistoric

age, on the one hand, or of the wealth of historic documents of the latest antiquity in Egypt, viz., the Roman period, from many hitherto lost treasures of Greek and early Christian literature, to the private correspondence and official documents belonging to Roman provincial life in the Nile Valley from 1,500 to 2,000 years ago. JAMES HENRY BREASTED, Ph.D. THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.

T

HE death of Georg Ebers, the German Orientalist, to whom readers of fiction owe much of their knowledge of ancient Egypt, is a serious loss to letters. A cable dispatch from Munich states that the great scholar died at Tutzing, Bavaria, on the 8th of August, in his sixtyfirst year. Professor Ebers was the son

of a banker of Berlin, who died before his famous son's birth. He was educated first at a school in Thuringen, and afterwards at Göttingen, where he suffered from a paralytic affection, which, during life, more or less interfered with his studies as well as with the freedom of his movements in foreign travel. At Göttingen he devoted himself to classical and Oriental Philology and Archæology, and from Göttingen he proceeded to the University of Berlin, where he pursued his researches in his favorite studies. In 1865, he became a lecturer at the University at Jena, and three years later was appointed to the chair of Egyptian languages at that institution. In the following year (1869), he set out on a lengthened tour in North Africa, Egypt and Arabia Petrea. By this time his fame had grown as an archæologist, and on his return to Germany his scholarly reputation secured for him the professorship of Egyptology at Leipsic.

In the winter of 1871-72, Professor Ebers again visited Egypt, where he pursued his archæological researches, and deciphered various interesting inscriptions on recovered monuments. He also discovered the important papyrus which bears his name, and which has thrown much light on ancient medical science. While his antiquarian work in the land of the Pharaohs excited the warmest admiration of Egyptian scholars, Professor Ebers also earned laurels in the realm of fiction by weaving his learning into a romantic web, to the delight of novel-readers throughout the world. A second attack of paralysis, which necessitated his retirement from active life, gave him the opportunity to indulge his tastes in novelwriting, which happily had Egypt for its chief theme.

In 1864, he published his best-known work, "An Egyptian Princess," which depicts the daily life of the Egyptians at the time of the Persian conquest. This work has been translated into most European languages; "Carda: A Romance of Ancient Egypt," followed in 1877; "Homo Sum," in 1878; "The Sisters," in 1880; "The Emperor," and "The Burgomaster's Wife," in 1881; "Serapis," in 1885, and "Cleopatra," in 1894.

In addition to other tales dealing with Egyptian life and with mediæval Germany, Professor Ebers wrote various more elaborate works which greatly enhance his reputation for solid learning. The more notable of these are his splendid work on (( Egypt, Descriptive, Historical and Picturesque » (1878); a similar work on Palestine (1881), and a work of travel, "Through Goshen to Sinai," which appeared in 1872. Of his romance, "An Egyptian Princess," the London Saturday Review" has this to say of its evolution and the success it subsequently met with:

"Determined, with the peculiarly characteristic German tendency toward special branches of knowledge, to devote himself to the study of Egyptology, Dr. Ebers had the good fortune as a young man to be placed under the guidance of the great Lepsius. His course of study, mapped out for him by the latter with the broadest latitude as regards kindred sciences, led to the aggregation of an immense number of valuable facts connected with Asiatic history, especially as regards the twenty-sixth dynasty of the Pharaohs of Egypt and the fall of the kingdom through the Persian invasion under Cambyses. Dr. Ebers felt that this rich material was well adapted for the construction of a history of that critical period, and straightway applied himself to the task. But as he progressed in the work it was borne in upon him more and more that the subject was far more suitable for epic or dramatic treatment than to stand the critical test of historical exactitude. Instead of a dry chronicle he, therefore, wrote the romance which made his fame, and carried the bulky MS. in considerable trepidation to his master Lepsius. It was received with scientific scorn, and the fear expressed that Dr. Ebers would seriously compromise his academic reputation by such a piece of folly. But after reading the book Lepsius changed his opinion. He pronounced it to be a learned work worthy of being published, and of absorbing interest; but he thought it too erudite for the general reader and advised a careful reconstruction. Ebers had the good sense to perceive the truth of the criticism, and the story was thoroughly revised before it was issued in its present form." A.

TTM

HE war of the United States with Spain is one of the most important events of this closing century, and is plainly a question of cause and effect. As to the cause, doubtless the destruction of the "Maine » precipitated the conflict; but it was not the chief cause. There is a new nationalism in America, which, like the old, is an extension of the feeling for humanity created by the Christian religion. It is in this, as we think, that we are to find the chief motive for the

war.

The old ideal of the nation's destiny was expressed in the words "America for Americans," and there is still a large number who cherish this as the American ideal par excellence. Accordingly, though a welcome has been extended to all nationalities loving liberty to settle in the United States, the idea has been maintained that the manifest obligation of this country was to attend to its own affairs and to leave other nations to themselves. And there are reasons for this which

appeal to common sense. For example, America is a country of great material resources, which, years ago, were comparatively undeveloped. Hence the hold. which the policy of protection has held on the industrial life of the nation. How, it was asked, shall we best secure the rewards of our labors, based, as these are, upon our resources? The answer was, by keeping ourselves free from all European entanglements. So, indeed, Washington, in his Farewell Address, had already warned the young nation, in the words: "History and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government." It was by following this advice, in the period of the nation's infancy, that the unmatched progress of the last seventyfive years, in material things, has been possible. Again, the old sore of republics, the failure to preserve the union of the parts, has also tended to confirm this policy.

The war of the rebellion originated, ostensibly, in this thoroughly American theory, that the Union must be preserved at any cost. I say with design ostensibly." But it is well known that with the material growth of the country,

political ambition had been active sowing the seeds of heresy, feeding upon certain social abuses which, like slavery, would, doubtless, have been abolished in due time. That war proved the stability of republican government, and was a practical vindication of the North in its opposition to secession and slavery. During the period of Reconstruction that has followed, however, there have not been lacking men to raise the same or similar issues, and prophesy the disruption of the union of States. Now, the most earnest and philosophical critics of things American have taught that the best contribution America could make to the welfare of mankind was to purge itself of political corruption and subserviency to the almighty dollar, to build up its interior life on the basis of solid reform; and in view of recent experience this reasoning was not without application. America's destiny, America's ideal, as a country was and should be, according to this view, to maintain the highest standard of internal integrity, by strict attention to the purity and strength of its national life.

Now, though this ideal has not been given up (and there is no need that it should be), a broader conception has, nevertheless, sprung slowly into life. Observe the influences which have operated to bring this about. Undoubtedly one of these is the rapid growth of the population and the amalgamation of the different races of mankind in the United States. English people cannot entirely appreciate this unless they have, like the writer, lived some time in America. Novalis truly said "every Englishman is an island." And England is comparatively free from infusions of foreign blood. But in America every man is, so to speak, a continent, where there is room for all. The constant inflow of new blood has created a new physical type, a new kind of man, in the United States, possessed of a superiority very different from that of the original inhabitant, and capable of new duties.

The expansion of trade has been another potent influence tending to the same result. This fact causes wonder to most of us; but it is not this so much as the fact that trade brings nations into touch with each other, upon which we dwell.

It is well known that American food products and manufactures are to be found in every market in the world. The effect of this on a generous and imaginative people is, naturally, to widen the circle of interest and to develop new conceptions of the world and of the part each nation has to play in it. Material progress, however it may be decried by pessimists, generally goes along with expanding life in a nation. Certainly this is so in the case of the United States and practically this is at present only beginning. Is it strange, therefore, that a sense of power to serve the markets of the world in free and open competition should go along with this expansion of trade, and that efforts should be put forth looking to the consolidation of American influence in this direction?

periods. First, there is the period of dependence, when the colonies were English possessions. Then came the period of independence, when the ideal of "splendid isolation" from Europe formed the fundamental working conception. And now we observe the beginnings of the third (and greatest ?) the period of inter-dependence, when America will seek to work out its own salvation in harmony with other nations as one of their circle; and this last phase of development rests securely on the first two, and is the legitimate outcome of them. Now, it is essential to observe that the moral motives of the new aspirations are radical and sound, based on history and elementary human needs, issuing in the broadening of the national life and character already mentioned. It should always be remembered that the theoretical Puritanism upon which the American nation was founded, and which was chiefly a cult at first, has now assumed the Cromwellian form, so to speak, and has become militant and practical. The present war with Spain is being carried forward entirely in the spirit of the Protector and his Ironsides. It could not be otherwise, considering the combatants. A new ingredient, however, that which depends on guns and ships as well as on prayer, has become a ruling element of the situation. Indeed, there is much food for reflection in the thought that possibly the new spirit is not as religious as the old, because not so subjective. But America is still Puritan. Several centuries of inspiration are yet in the great ideas upon which the American Commonwealth was founded. However this may be, there can be no doubt that the psychological moment has arrived, and that America is possessed by the spirit of enlargement, and will shape its future course in accordance with its expanding ideas. The situation is this: America is becoming conscious that obligations may be involved in a nation of 75,000,000 which do not exist for 3,000,000. And the first of these is the pursuit of true happiness in union with the good of all, and the suppression, by force if necessary, of all tyranny. The first duty of a great nation is towards humanity. In obedience to this spirit, then, war was declared on Spain. That war was a departure from the settled policy of peace in this country, and can be understood best, I think, in the light of the new

No little influence is to be attributed to the fact of propinquity to the islands. which command strategical positions in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. The recent annexation of the Hawaiian Islands is a sign of a long existing ambition and need, and the case of Cuba, though involved in war, is not essentially different. Both islands have been knocking at the door of the Senate for years, each, however, with different motives. Territorial expansion is not the goal of the new movement in this direction. When it is asked why war was declared against Spain, there is only one answer, and that is because Spain understands no other argument. It is more than doubtful, however, if America would have struck a blow had Cuba not been near at hand, had not her long suffering been known and felt for several decades, and had not American trade been injured by the continuance of the Spaniards on the island. Concrete appeals like these cannot fail to touch a nation which sympathizes with republican aspiration everywhere. So that propinquity to these places has had its influence in broadening the national spirit. The conquest of the Philippines was an accident in the general plan of campaign, the outcome of which is not difficult to see, when respect is paid to the rapid spread of the new nationalism.

Amid these general influences has the "great nation" idea been slowly forming. Looking at it from a still broader standpoint we may observe that American history divides itself into three well-marked