honest folk of all
kinds; because it is so simply human and humane; and therefore it taught
them far more than they could learn from many a lofty, or seemingly
lofty, book of devotion, when it spoke to them of the very duties they
had to fulfil, and the very temptations they had to fight against, as
members of a family or as members of society. "One touch of Nature (says
the poet) makes the whole world kin;" and the touches of nature in this
story of Joseph make us feel that he and his brethren, and all with whom
he had to do, are indeed kin to us; that their duty is our duty too--their
temptations ours--that where they fell, we may fall--where they conquered
we may conquer.

For what is the story? A young lad is thrown into every temptation
possible for him. Joseph is very handsome. The Bible says so expressly;
so we may believe it. He has every gift of body and mind. He is, as his
story proves plainly, a very clever person, with a strange power of
making every one whom he deals with love him and obey him--a terrible
temptation, as all God's gifts are, if abused by a man's vanity, or
covetousness or ambition. He is an injured man too. He has been basely
betrayed by his brothers; he is under a terrible temptation, to which
ninety-nine men out of one hundred would have yielded--do yield, alas! to
this day, to revenge himself if he ever has an opportunity. He is an
injured man in Egypt, for he is a slave to a foreigner who has no legal
or moral right over him. If ever there was a man who might be excused
for cherishing a burning indignation against his oppressors, for brooding
over his own wrongs, for despairing of God's providence, it is Joseph in
Egypt. What could we do but pity him if he had said to himself, as
thousands in his place have said since, "There is no God, or if there is,
He does not care for me--He does not care what men do. He looks on
unmoved at wrong and cruelty, and lets man do even as he will. Then why
should not _I_ do as _I_ will? What are these laws of God of which men
talk? What are these sacred bonds of family and society? Every one for
himself is the rule of the world, and it shall be _my_ rule. Every man's
hand has been against _me_; why should not my hand be against every man?
_I_ have been betrayed; why should not _I_ betray? _I_ have been
opprest; why should not _I_ oppress? I have a lucky chance, too, of
enjoying and revenging myself at the same time; why should I not tak