oderate size, Syria and Upper Mesopotamia, as far as the
Khabour river. Alexander overran and subdued the entire tract between
the AEgean and the Sutlej, the Persian Gulf and the Oxus. He conquered
Egypt, and founded a dynasty there which endured for nearly three
centuries. Thothmes subdued not a tenth part of the space, and the
empire which he established did not endure for much more than a century.
It is thus absurd to compare Thothmes III. to Alexander the Great as a
conqueror.

Alexander was, besides, much more than a conqueror; he was a first-rate
administrator. Had he lived twenty years longer he would probably have
built up a universal monarchy, which might have lasted for a millenium.
As it was, he so organized the East that it continued for nearly three
centuries mainly under Greek rule, in the hands of the monarchs who are
known as his "successors." Thothmes III., on the contrary, organized
nothing. He left his conquests in such a condition that they, all of
them, revolted at his death. His successor had to reconquer all the
countries that had submitted to his father, and to re-establish over
them the Egyptian sovereignty.

In person the great Egyptian monarch was not remarkable. He had a long,
well-shaped, and somewhat delicate nose, which was almost in line with
his forehead, an eye prominent and larger than that of most Egyptians, a
shortish upper lip, a resolute mouth with rather over-full lips, and a
rounded, slightly retreating chin. The expression of his portrait
statues is grave and serious, but lacks strength and determination.
Indeed, there is something about the whole countenance that is a little
womanish, though his character certainly presents no appearance of
effeminacy. He died after a reign of fifty-four years, according to his
own reckoning, having practically exercised the sovereign power for
about thirty-two of the fifty-four. His age at his death must have been
about sixty.

[Illustration: BUST OF THOTHMES III.]

During these stirring times, what were the children of Israel doing? We
have supposed that Joseph was minister of the last of the Shepherd
Kings, under whose reign his people had entered upon the peaceful
occupation of the land of Goshen, where they were received with
hospitality by a population of the same simple pastoral habits with
themselves; and it seems probable that, under Thothmes III., they were
increasing abundantly and waxing mighty, and that the land between the
Se