built Pithon and other important towns, by the forced labor
of the Israelites. Rameses and Pithon were called treasure-cities, the
site of the latter having been lately discovered, to the east of Tanis.
They were located in the midst of a fertile country, now dreary and
desolate, which was the object of great panegyric. An Egyptian poet,
quoted by Dr. Charles S. Robinson, paints the vicinity of Zoan, where
Pharaoh resided at the time of the Exodus, as full of loveliness and
fertility. "Her fields are verdant with excellent herbage; her bowers
bloom with garlands; her pools are prolific in fish; and in the ponds
are ducks. Each garden is perfumed with the smell of honey; the
granaries are full of wheat and barley; vegetables and reeds and herbs
are growing in the parks; flowers and nosegays are in the houses;
lemons, citrons, and figs are in the orchards." Such was the field of
Zoan in ancient times, near Rameses, which the Israelites had built
without straw to make their bricks, and from which place they set out
for the general rendezvous at Succoth, under Moses. It will be noted
that if Rameses, or Tanis, was the residence of the court when Moses
made his demands on Menephtah, it was in the midst of the settlements of
the Israelites, in the land of Goshen, which the last of the Shepherd
Kings had assigned to them.

It is impossible to tell what advance in civilization was made by the
Israelites in consequence of their sojourn in Egypt; but they must have
learned many useful arts, and many principles of jurisprudence, and
acquired a better knowledge of agriculture. They learned to be patient
under oppression and wrong, to be frugal and industrious in their
habits, and obedient to the voice of their leaders. But unfortunately
they acquired a love of idolatrous worship, which they did not lose
until their captivity in Babylon. The golden calves of the wilderness
were another form of the worship of the sacred bulls of Memphis. They
were easily led to worship the sun under the Egyptian and Canaanitish
names. Had the children of Israel remained in the promised land, in the
early part of their history, they would probably have perished by
famine, or have been absorbed by their powerful Canaanitish neighbors.
In Egypt they were well fed, rapidly increased in number, and became a
nation to be feared even while in bondage. In the land of Canaan they
would have been only a pastoral or nomadic people, unable to defend
themselves i