Hawks, Francis L.: The monuments of Egypt: or Egypt a witness for the Bible (New York, 1850)

INTRODUCTION.

The compiler of the following pages was prompted to the
work partly by his own reflections, and partly by the request
of a friend, who thought that such a labor might be useful
to the cause of truth. It is not a scientific work, nor was it
penned for the learned. They probably will have already
acquired, in their studies, all the information they can gather
from its pages.

On such a subject as this book presents, to have attempted
originality, would unavoidably have been to commit error;
for its simple object was to collect into a plain and com-
prehensible compend, the results of the research of many
different inquirers in the field of Egyptian archaeology. The
writer, therefore, begs leave distinctly to disavow all claim to
the merits of authorship. He aspires here to no more than
the humble office of a compiler. He will be abundantly
satisfied, if he shall be found to have so used the materials,
furnished by others more learned than himself, as to have
made an intelligible, true, and readable book.

He would not be guilty of the injustice of robbing those
to whose labors he has been so largely indebted. He has