such a cultivation of their crops as would provide them with bread, and such care of their immense flocks and herds, as would secure their profitable increase, must have kept at home the main body of the nation.  During the plague of darkness, God informs us that “ALL the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”  We infer that they were there to enjoy it.  See also Ex. ix. 26.  It seems improbable that the making of brick, the only service named during the latter part of their sojourn in Egypt, could have furnished permanent employment for the bulk of the nation.  See also Ex. iv. 29-31.  Besides, when Eastern nations employed tributaries, it was as now, in the use of the levy, requiring them to furnish a given quota, drafted off periodically, so that comparatively but a small portion of the nation would be absent at any one time.  The adult males of the Israelites were probably divided into companies, which relieved each other at stated intervals of weeks or months.  It might have been during one of these periodical furloughs from service that Aaron performed the journey to Horeb.  Ex. iv. 27.  At the least calculation this journey must have consumed eight weeks.  Probably one-fifth part of the proceeds of their labor was required of the Israelites in common with the Egyptians.  Gen. xlvii. 24, 26.  Instead of taking it from their crops, (Goshen being better for pasturage) they exacted it of them in brick making; and labor might have been exacted only from the poorer Israelites, the wealthy being able to pay their tribute in money.  The fact that all the elders of Israel seem to have controlled their own time, (See Ex. iv. 29; iii. 16; v. 20,) favors the supposition.  Ex. iv. 27, 31.  Contrast this bondage of Egypt with American slavery.  Have our slaves “flocks and herds even very much cattle?” Do they live in commodious houses of their own, “sit by the flesh-pots,” “eat fish freely,” and “eat bread to the full”?  Do they live in a separate community, in their distinct tribes, under their own rulers, in the exclusive occupation of an extensive tract of country for the culture of their crops, and for rearing immense herds of their own cattle—­and all these held inviolable by their masters?  Are our female slaves free from exactions of labor and liabilities of outrage? or when employed, are they paid wages, as was the Israelitish woman by the king’s daughter?  Have they the disposal of their own time, and the means for cultivating social refinements, for practising the fine arts, and for personal improvement?  THE ISRAELITES UNDER THE BONDAGE OF EGYPT, ENJOYED ALL THESE RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES.  True, “all the service wherein they made them serve was with rigor.”  But what was this when compared with the incessant toil of American slaves; the robbery of all their time and earnings, and even the “power to own any thing, or acquire any thing?” a “quart of corn a-day,” the legal allowance of food![C] their only clothing for one half the year,