[ 66 ] 



before, " Neque vero erraffe turpe eft, eft enim initium fapientiae ; 

 " fi non ei ipfi qui fallitur, at aliis non fallendi *." 



Should the learned favour this mode of explaining hierogly- 

 phics and pidure writing by fynonima, inftead of the ufual 

 method, from the qualities of the thing reprefented, the attempt 

 will afford me pleafure ; if not, the reader may flill be indebted 

 to my errors, and I truft to the cenfure of the public. 



The reading of Egyptian hieroglyphics by the various inter- 

 pretations of the word, fignifying the obje£l painted or repre- 

 fented, fceras to have ftruck Horapollo, or whoever was the 

 author of that work, but it was barely conjedure : — jGa«, bai, 

 fays he, fignified a hawk, the foul, and the wind, therefore the 

 Egyptians ufed the hawk as a fymbol for the foul. The word 

 is written bais in the Nomenclatura Egyptiaco-Arabica, publifhed 

 by Kircher. Do£lor Woide follows Kircher ; but in the Lexicon 

 Coptico-GrjEco, in the Bibliotheque du Roy at Paris, we find 

 jS«i bai, fpecies aliqua accipitrum ; nnd the fame occurs in Caslius, 

 1.4. c. 16, viz. " opinantur Egyplii animae conceptum effe cor-, 

 " qua ratione cum accipitris nomine indicari aniinam putent, 

 *• ilium vocabulo gentihtio jGaiiyS-, bai-eth, nuncupant, quod 

 " animam fignat & cor: fiquidem bai^ anima eft, eth vero 

 " cor t." 



* ScAL. de Caiif. L. L. 



f See alfo Jablonski Egypt. Panth, Prokg. p. cxxxvii. and Eusebivs Pnp. 

 I. 3. c. 12. 



This 



