^10 Origin of Mythology,- 



This ancient Egyptian word mot, from the root mo or 

 muo, water, from- which the Greeks formed their t^^au, 

 the Latins their madeo, and the Welch their muydo, to 

 wet or moisten, we retain ahriost unalteied in the Eng-^ 

 lish word mud, wet earth. And in conformity with the 

 universal opinion of antiquity, that the earth was the pa- 

 rent of productions, nations have formed on this rcot,c 

 mot, mud, the words matter and mother- — matte?', the 

 material, out of which things are formed — and mother,,. 

 the female parent of beings. Hence the Greek ^^n/J and 

 ^■iTiip; the Latin mater ; the Dutch moeder ; the German 

 mutter ; the Swedish moder ; and Irish mathair, a fe- 

 male parent. Hence the Latin materies, matter, mate- 

 rial, that out of which any thing is formed. But what 

 is remarkable, we retain the original sense of the word^ 

 that of a moist slimy substance, as in vinegar, in the 

 English word mother ; the Dutch modder, mud ; the 

 German moder, mud, mold ; and in the Celtic Lish, ma^ 

 thair, gore, matter. Equally remarkable is it that the 

 word matter retains the sense oi pus. 



This singular concurrence of facts demonstrates the 

 truth of history, in regard to the opinions of men in ear- 

 \f ages, concerning the origin of things ; and in my ap- 

 prehension, goes very far to prove the real existence of 

 the Phenician historian, Sancheniathon. It proves also 

 the common origin of the Egyptian, Celtic and Teuto- 

 nic languages ;■ and accounts for the common origin of 

 the 2'oddess Rhea and the Frea of the north — the word 

 which signified the earth, the parent of production, be- 

 ing applied to a female cf the human race, in a like cha- 

 racter. 



Certain it is that the mythology of the Celtic and Teu- 

 tonic nations, who were unquestionably the ancestors of 

 the Greeks and Romans, was essentially the same, as 

 that of their descendants m Greece and Italy. The 

 names of their deities were, at least in many instances, 

 different; but their characteristic powers and offices were- 

 the same. Of this feet we have full evidence in the brief 

 account which Cesar has left, of the deities of Gaul : — 

 *' Deum maxime Mercurium cokint : hnjus sunt pluri- 

 ma simulacra : hunc, omnium invcntorem artium fe- 

 runt ; hunc, viaruni atque itinerum duceni : hunc ad 



