long inscription concerning Pharoah seems to show that the monarch perished with his hosts in the Red Sea; for he is represented as first flying on horseback and then on foot, casting away his helmet in the vain hope of escaping. So also in three inscriptions which speak of the miracle of the quails the bird is described as the casarca or red goose, standing high on its legs, like a stork; and thus the two cubits high, on the face of the earth, refers to the stature of the birds, and not as it is vulgarly supposed to the thickness of the bed of quails which lay upon the ground. These incidental illustrations are of very great value.

The other miracles recorded in these inscriptions are, the fiery serpents; the smiting of the rock both at Horeb and Meribah; the battle at Rephidim; and Aaron and Hur holding up the hands of Moses; with many in which Israel is compared to a restive ass or to a led camel. The analysis of all these inscriptions is given, and several more are added as exercises to those who may be inclined to try their hands at decyphering by means of the alphabets which are printed on a separate chart to accompany the book..

These alphabets are not limited to such as are necessary for interpreting the Sinai inscriptions, but amount in number to forty-five, including nearly all the languages which are usually reckoned of the Shemitic class-all, at least, which are monumental or have any pretensions to either antiquity or tribual independence; and the arrow-headed characters of Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepolis are introduced, as well as the enchorial of Egypt, and the Punic of Carthage and of Malta. It forms an excellent basis for a comparative view of all the early alphabets of the Shemitic class; though we suspect that the time for doing this completely and satisfactorily is hardly yet come, fresh materials are so continually turning up.

It is not the least curious feature of these inscriptions that the figure of the thing spoken of should so frequently accompany the description. Thus, where the people are compared to the ass or the camel, a representation of these animals very often stands beside the inscription. A serpent striking a man accompanies the miracle of the fiery serpents-a rock is introduced in the miracles of Horeb and Meribah--a man holding up his hands represents Moses at Rephidim. These figures answer to us the double purpose, both of confirming the truth of the interpretation of the writing by its agreement with the pictorial representation, and of identifying the manner of the record with that of Egypt from whence the

children of Israel had just come out. For it is a common feature in Egyptian inscriptions to find them partly enchorial, partly pictorial; though we are not aware of such a practice being to be found in the monuments of any other country.

Great was the exultation of the learned when the hieroglyphics of Egypt were first decyphered, and found to confirm in so many respects the testimony of Herodotus. Greater still was the pleasure of the religious world in finding the still earlier history of the Bible corroborated in these the oldest known records of the heathen; and it was a source of honest and legitimate pride to our countrymen that Dr. Young, an Englishman, should have furnished the key which unlocked those repositories of ancient lore, disclosing treasures long hidden from the understanding, though patent to the senses, of mankind. A still more marvellous discovery is that of the Assyrian monuments of Nimroud, the remains of Nineveh; for, in this case, the memorials themselves were unknown, and the records had to be disinterred as well as interpreted: no one knew of the existence of such monuments-the place where they lay hid had to be discovered and none could have formed the least conception of the numbers there concealed.) And here, again, we have the gratification of tracing the most important portion of the discoveries to our own countrymen ; the disinterring of the principal monuments being effected by the sagacity and persevering enterprise of Mr. Layard, and the decyphering of the cuneiform character of the Assyrian inscriptions being almost entirely due to Major Raw

linson.

Mr. Forster, in the work before us, "The Voice of Israel, is, we think, putting a key-stone to the arch which will unite the early histories of Egypt and Assyria with that of the Bible, and consecrate the whole to the glory of God. The hieroglyphics of Egypt, while uninterpreted, had been regarded as a strong-hold of scepticism by the "savans" of the French revolution. Dr. Young led the way in wresting these memorials of ancient times out of the hands of infidels, and showing that, rightly understood, they are in entire harmony with the contents of Scripture. The arrow-headed characters are, in like manner, brought within the range of authentic history by Major Rawlinson; and Mr. Forster has now added to the fame of our countrymen by the interpretation of the Sinaitic inscriptions, which are still more intimately connected with our religious belief than either of the former classes of primæval remains,

And while in this last case the amor patriæ is gratified by remembering that here also the discovery has been made by an Englishman, we have the still higher gratification of being assured that, from the sacred calling of the discoverer and from the nature of the inscriptions themselves, we may expect far more important elucidations of Scripture in its earlier and more obscure portions, from the contemporaries of Moses, than from any other quarter whatsoever.

We have already intimated that the interpretations before us are only the first fruits of the abundant harvest we may expect when more inscriptions come to hand. There are thousands of them, and those the longest and most important, which have never yet been copied; and, when these are decyphered, we may reasonably conclude that they will furnish direct and collateral information on the actual condition, both of Israel and Egypt, at the time of the Exode, which we at present search for in vain. It has been remarked, as a singularity, that the Egyptian monuments afford no distinct traces of the Exode, or of the marvels by which it was brought about, or of the king under whose reign it took place. This may not unreasonably be ascribed to an unwillingness on the part of the Egyptians to record the history of their own disgraces and misfortunes. The Sinaitic inscriptions will, in all probability, fill up this blank; for the same events which brought shame upon Egypt brought glory upon Israel, which they would be proud of recording. The Sinaitic inscriptions may remove the veil and fill up the blank in this portion of Egyptian history, and fix the place of these occurrences in the long line of Pharoahs, whose order of sequence is already determined. And, above all, we may expect to find an acknowledgment of the hand of the Lord, and the glory ascribed wholly to him, reminding us of a prophecy of Isaiah, which, though spoken of a future time and to be understood in a far higher sense and applying to spiritual things, has yet some bearing upon the subject before us in connecting Egypt and Assyria with Israel-" In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign, and for a witness to the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying -Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance" (Isaiah xix. 20-25).

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ART. IV.-Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development. By HENRY GEORGE ATKINSON, F.G.S., and HARRIETT MARTINEAU. London: John Chapman. 1851.

AFTER having visited for a series of weeks the couch on which a friend has lain, during which the mind of the bystander has been often stirred to its depths by thoughts which proceeded from the mind which tenanted that emaciated shrine, we once more return to the same room and stand by the same couch, and look upon the identical form which but yesterday exercised such power over us, and we find that all that power is gone. Everything is there but that: every feature of a countenance which is better known to us than our own remains unchanged; every particle of matter which was there but a few hours ago is there now so far, at least, as the piercing eye can judge-and yet what a change of some kind has taken place! The remainder of the history of that body which once manifested to the eye and ear such wondrous powers is soon told: it will decay and there will remain but a few particles of earthly materials. What, then, is wanting to make those eyes and ears and hands, as of old, effectual instruments? They say life and mind are wanting; but what is life and what is mind?!

It cannot be matter, for there is the same matter now in that body as there was an hour ago. It is nothing which the human senses are able to discern. The material things, whose operations are the manifestations of life, are still as they were. The brain, which physiologists believe to be the organ of mind, from which proceeded those thoughts which the hand or the tongue conveyed to others, is yet unchanged; but that brain and whatever adheres to it, and those lungs, are but matter of peculiar forms, which forms are now seen to be of no more use for their former purposes than the most unorganised pieces of matter.iár

Now, unscientific as this statement is, yet the profoundest science has never been able to get beyond it. The mate rialist cuts the knot after his own fashion; but science, in his conclusion, there is none. We have recently seen the fixed belief of ages of the existence of an immortal and a spiritual -(i.e., not material)-principle, informing the material shrine of humanity, treated with absolute contempt by vaunters of assumed science whose conclusions are totally contradicted by other science. For that which made the brain the instrument of thought they have never discovered; and that which

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set certain parts of that corpse in perpetual motion (animal life), they have never been able to discover; though that motionless corpse, whose eyes, ears, and hands, are no longer instruments, proves that there must have been such living powers. And yet we are required, in obedience to the demands of such a miscalled science as this, to relinquish a theory of completed human nature which alone solves its hardest problems, and, though not founded on material evidence, yet receives support from it.

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We suppose it may be safely admitted that the discovery of the existence of an immaterial and immortal principle, dwelling within the material body, could never have been made by science. The anatomical knife which has laid bare the mysteries of the corporeal mechanism has not, amidst its other triumphs, triumphed over the mysteries of the principle of lifes and of the immaterial spirit. This kind of knowledge, therefore, has not come to us from the dissecting room; and yet it is perfectly certain that there was a living power, though not material(for, if it had been, it must have been amenable to the laws of sense)which once set in motion, and used instrumentally, that corporeal machine that now lies motionless before us. But what is it? The materialist denies its existence, because he never saw or touched it; but yet he can frame no theory which does not imply it, by obliging him to admit a something, to which he can give no name that must supply its place. For, notwithstanding the absence of direct proofs, it is certain that the brain is not the mind, or spirit, or soul for either of these popular names will serve the purpose in a popular discussion-any more than the hand is the soul. Both were alike instruments, depending wholly for their use upon an absent power. For the brain can exist in a recent corpse without visible defect, and yet be as powerless for its former uses as any chance lump of matter. That which we call thought is not, therefore, the result of any such mechanical organisation as constitutes the brain; and just as the most perfect piece of artificial machinery is known to be ineffective until some power, wholly foreign to itself and to its species, is applied to it, so is that corpse as it lies before us in the form of the most perfectly organised machine known to be useless, unless it could be again acted upon by some power wholly foreign to itself and its species. For, however galvanism may make a lifeless body imitate the actions of life, no human power can permanently inform that body with the principle that constitutes life and the

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