1? 



Egyptians sent colonies into other countries; that tl)e Athe- 

 nians were a colony sent from Sais in Egypt; that 

 Bekis led a colony into Babylonia, and Danaus another 

 into Greece. These extravagant fictions,* so contrary eveu 

 to the tenor of tlieir own institutions, and to every other 

 history, both Diodorus and Herodotus were weak enough 

 to receive, and particularly the latter, tor which he was 

 severely censured by Strabo, Lib. 11, p. 507, and even by 

 Diodorus. However, I must allow the Egyptians the merit 

 of having never admitted hero worship :-f- this I am inclined 

 to beheve, though contradicted by Diodorus, p, 17. Schuck- 

 fbrd supposes idolatry to h^ve been introduced into Egypt 

 by Suphis, one, as is said, of their kings, who, he thinks, 

 began his reign about eighty years after the entry of Abraham 

 into Egypt ; but the existence of this prince rests only on 

 the authority of Manetho, a writer whom, for reasons I 

 cannot here detail, I thi,nk unworthy of credit. 



Polytheism was in most countries soon followed bj 

 idolatry. This also seems to have originated in Chaldea, or 

 Mesopotamia, so early as the year 1860^ B. C. for we read, 

 Gen. xxxi. 19, 30, that at that time, Lahan, the grand- 

 nephew of Abraham, who lived in Mesopotamia, had house- 

 hold Gods or Images, which his daughter Rachel stole 

 from him. They must have been very small, since they 

 were concealed in a camel's saddle ; these, it is said, had 

 VOL. XI. D planetary 



* Diodor. 33, 32, 92. f Herod. Lib. 2, § 50. 



X See this well proved, 1 Jacks. 127. 



