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THE BOOK FOR ALL AGES; OR, STORIES OF THE GREEN PASTURES WHERE ALL MAY FEED. Original, and Edited by the Author of "Have You?” With coloured Frontispiece. Foolscap 8vo, 3s. 6d. cloth.

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ISABELLA HAMILTON, THE MARTYR. A Tale of the Sixteenth Century. Edited by the Author of "Aids to Development," "Memoirs of Two Sisters," &c. &c. 16mo, 1s. 6d. cloth.

with the heavy mould clinging to the body; and cannot you imagine, children, under such circumstances, how great a comfort it must have been to Joseph to embalm his father? Besides, the Egyptians had an idea that only as long as the body was thus preserved could the soul continue in heaven; when that was destroyed, the soul, they thought, would be expelled from the mansion of the blest, and made to wander restlessly about for thousands and thousands of years, passing through various forms of existence, and then, at last, it would be admitted again into heaven; for they had not our happy faith, that, once having crossed the river of death, and having entered the home of the redeemed, the spirit would be for ever with the Lord. No marvel, then, that such importance was attached to embalming the dead.

I do not, by what I have said, wish you to suppose that Joseph had any of these fancies. He had committed the keeping of his body as well as of his soul to a faithful Creator; and, though he knew according to the natural course of corruption worms would destroy his body, yet he knew also, that in his flesh he would see God, his Redeemer, who would stand at the latter day upon the earth.

The process of embalming occupied some considerable time. The body was laid in natron thirty days,

and then gums and spices, which had undergone a peculiar preparation, were put into it.

After the embalming was accomplished, the body was mourned over for seventy days.

Dr. Kitto says, "It is observable, that Diodorus mentions seventy-two days as the period for mourning for the king, whence some have considered that Jacob was mourned for as a king, and that the seventy in that text is a round number for seventy-two."

I have no doubt that at his death they observed all the regal forms of mourning, for king Pharaoh very greatly respected and esteemed Joseph.

I have no doubt that the temples were shut up, and that people abstained during the time of mourning from all public feasts, sacrifices, and solemnities; that they rent their clothes, put earth upon their heads, and that the streets were full of plaintive songs, mourning for the departed one, and telling of his goodness and virtue.

A very great company Joseph and his brethren took up with them to Canaan to bury their father.

The funeral trains of those times were very large. Upon some of the old Egyptian monuments are sculptured representations of these processions, and the arms of the mourners are raised over their heads, which attitude was expressive of great grief.