364 ANTIQUITY OF WRITING. 



strength of argument, endeavours to prove, that Egypt was pro. 

 bably one of the first civilized countries on the globe. 



In order to give the reader a clear idea of the several kinds of 

 Egyptian writing, it will be proper to observe, that this writing was 

 of four kinds. The first, hieroglyphic ; the second, symbolic; the 

 third, epistolic; and, the fourth, and last, hierogrammic. 



Porphyry *, speaking of Pythagoras, informs us, < ; That he so. 

 journed with the priests in Egypt, and learnt the wisdom and Ian. 

 guage of the country, together with their three sorts of letters ; 

 the epistolic, the hieroglyphic, and the symbolic j of which, the 

 hieroglyphic expressed the moaning of the writer, by an imitation 

 or picture of the thing intended to be expressed ; and the symbolic, 

 by allegorical enigmas." Clemens Alexandrinus is larger and more 

 explicit " Now those who were instructed in the Egyptian wis- 

 dom, learnt, first of all, the method of their several sorts of letters ; 

 the first of which is called epislolic ; the second, sacerdotal, as 

 being used by the sacred scribes; the last, with which they con. 

 elude their instructions, hieroglyphical. Of these different me. 

 thods, the one is in the plain and common way of writing by the 

 first elements of words, or letters of an alphabet- the other, by 

 symbols. Of the symbolic way of writing, which is of three 

 kinds ; the first is, that plain and common one, of imitating the 

 figure of the thing represented; the second is, by tropical marks; 

 and the third, in a contrary way, of allegorizing by enigmas. 



Of the first sort, namely, by a plain and direct imitation of the 

 figure, let this stand for an instance: to signify the sun, they 

 made a c'rcle ; the moon, a half circle. The second, or tropical 

 way of writing, is by changing and transferring the object with 

 justness and propriety : this they do sometimes by a simple change, 

 sometimes by a complex multifarious transformation ; thus they 

 have engraven on stone and pillars, the praises of their kings, un. 

 der the cover of theologic fables. Of the third sort, by enigmas, 

 take this example ; the oblique course of the stars, occasioned their 

 representing them by the bodies of serpents; but the sun they 

 likened to a scarabaeus, because (his insti t makes a round ball of 

 beast's dung, and rolls it circularly, with its face opposed to that 

 luminary." 



These two learned Greeks, though not quite correct in their do. 



* De Vita Pythag. cnp. xi. |t. 16. 



