The tribes were one nation.  While the people of Israel were oppressed, they were not enslaved.  They were tributary, but not reduced to personal bondage.  They dwelt together in that portion of Egypt assigned to them.  They spoke their own language.  They seem to have regulated their internal affairs by their own elders.  They maintained their own worship.  Their family relations were unbroken.  They must have amassed riches, for they brought great wealth out of Egypt, as the offerings at the tabernacle show—­and although in part this may have been received from the restitution which the conscience-smitten Egyptians offered upon their departure, all could not have been thus derived.  The whole narrative of the Israelites shows that they were rich in silver and gold, and possessed much cattle.  Yet all their property was personal—­they owned no land.  And much of the tribute was, doubtless, exacted as rent, paid by many in personal labour; and while they thus erected, perhaps, the proudest monuments of Egyptian art by this enforced labour, they were acquiring the various knowledge needful to a nation; while their very task-masters, by compelling them to acquire the habits of industry, to which a pastoral people are always averse, were school-masters, needful though harsh, teaching them to develop their energies and forcing them to exercise patience and to acquire skill.

Learning and wisdom have departed from Egypt.  She has long been the basest of kingdoms.  The race of the Pharaohs has passed away.  She has been for ages governed by slaves.  Temple and palace are in ruins.  Her tombs, sacred and precious, have been pillaged; And the bones of her great and noble ones, her priests and kings, feed the fire by which the wandering Arab prepares his food.  Yet many monuments of her ancient arts remain, interesting as attesting her power, grandeur, and high advancement in civilization, and still more valuable as corroborating the sacred history and throwing light on many passages of the inspired word,—­at once showing the former residence of the Israelites in Egypt, the close connection of these ancient people, and affording proofs of that wisdom which selected Egypt for the cradle and school of the chosen race.

The Egyptians, gradually after the flood, lost the knowledge of Jehovah and departed from his worship.

At the time Joseph married the daughter of the priest of On, the Egyptians could not have sunk into that gross idolatry which contrasted so strangely with their wise legislation and scientific attainments; and their priests are supposed to have concealed, under mystic symbols, mysterious truths, which they imparted to the initiated, while they taught a grosser system to the common mind.  While in Egypt the Israelites seem never to have been exposed to the debasing immoralities which prevailed among the nations around the promised land.