extent was this caste influence carried, that men were not allowed, 

 excepting under the most exceptional circumstances, to rise above 

 the class to which they originally belonged ; and children were 

 compelled by law to follow the occupation of their parents. The 

 discoveries of the magi of these countries are therefore the history 

 of art, for their art is in fact, in Egypt, symbolical and hieroglyphic 

 caligraphy. 



Interesting as this subject is, I must deal with it in the briefest 

 possible manner. I have already alluded to the proficiency to 

 which the Assyrians attained in the study of Astronomy; this 

 proficiency was shared by the Egyptians. Early in the history of 

 Egypt we find the country over-run and subjugated by a nation' of 

 shepherds, whose severe rule was so hated by the Egyptians, that 

 the name of shepherd — as we are informed in Scripture — became 

 an abomination to the Egyptians, even when the foreign yoke was 

 broken, and the invaders driven out. These shepherds were no 

 doubt Assyrians ; and in that instance, as in many others, the 

 two races mingled their lore of arts and science, accounting for the 

 close intimacy we find existing between the two. That the 

 divisions of time, the signs of the Zodiac, and the principles of the 

 solar, lunar, and stellar systems, were perfectly understood by both 

 nations, there is abundant proof; and it is to symbolism we must 

 look for the explanation of those signs of the Zodiac, which are so 

 interwoven into their Mythology and Art, and handed down to a 

 remote posterity. Thus, the habits of the people of these countries 

 give us the solution to these signs ; for we find the stars forming 

 the constellation under which the great event of the Egyptian year 

 occurred, viz. — the overflowing of the Nile — is called Aquarius, 

 the Water-carrier. The Ox, or Bull, denotes the ploughing season ; 

 Leo, the season when the Lion, driven by thirst from the desert, 

 invades the villages of the people, and commits his depredations in 

 the close proximity to the river ; Virgo denotes the harvest maid, or 

 reaping time; the Ram, the breeding season among their flocks; the 

 Crab is that season which is indicated by the stars which were visible 

 when the sun, having reached the bounds of the tropic, moved in 

 an eccentric orbit, backwards and forwards, like the crab ; the 



