158 



phical writing, such as is found, not on the 

 pyramidion, but on the great faces of the obe- 

 lisks. The famous inscription of Thebes^ cited 

 by Plutarch, and by Clement of Alexandria *, 

 the only one, the explanation of which has 

 reached us, expressed by the hieroglyphics of a 

 child, an old man, a vulture, a fish, and a hippo- 

 potamus, the following sentence : " You who 

 are born, and who are to die, know, that the 

 Eternal hates impudence." A Mexican, to express 

 the same idea, would have represented the great 

 spirit, Teotl, chastising a criminal ; certain cha- 

 racters placed above two heads, would have 

 been sufficient to indicate the age of the child, 

 and that of the old man : he would have indivi- 

 dualized the action, but the style of his hierogly- 

 phical paintings would not have furnished him 

 with the means of giving a general expression to 

 the sentiment of hatred and vengeance. 



According to the ideas which the ancients 

 have transmitted to us of the hieroglyphical in- 

 scriptions of the Egyptians, it is very probable, 

 that they might have been read, as we read 

 Chinese books. The collections, which we im- 

 properly call Mexican manuscripts, contain a 

 great number of paintings, which may be inter- 



* Plut. de Iside ; ed. Par. 1624, Vol. 2, p. 363, F. Clem 

 Alexand. Stromat. Vol. 5, c. 7, ed. Potter, Oxon, 1715, Vol. 

 2, p. 670, lin. 30. 



