144 On the Ancient HELLENES. 



life of Moses, after informing his readers, that this legiflator 

 had been inftrucled, during his youth, in arithmetic, in geo- 

 graphy, in hieroglyphics, adds, tqvfa uXXr.v eyzvzXtav Truihictg, x. 

 r. X. *, " the remainder of the circle of fciences he learned from 

 " the Hellenes ;" not I fuppofe from the Hellenes of Greece, 

 who, if they did exift at that early period, were (till a race of 

 barbarians, if not abfolute favages ; but from the Egyptian 

 priefts of that denomination, who had actually by that time 

 eftablifhed feminaries or colleges in feveral parts of Egypt, as 

 early as the age of Moses. The learned Jew was acquainted 

 with the term Hellenes, but was ignorant of its import and fig- 

 nification. He is indeed grofsly miftaken in his application of 

 it; as is likewife Clemens Alexandrinus, who borrows it from 

 him, and applies it to the fame purpofe f. 



Diodorus Siculus informs ns, that the great Osiris, return- 

 ing from his travels over mofl parts of the then known world, 

 " inltituted religious ceremonies, and founded fchools of elo- 

 " quence in Egypt. Of thefe he appointed Hermes the Pre- 

 " feci, who taught the Hellenes the rites relating to augury and 

 " divination^." Thefe Hellenes could be none other than the 

 priefts of Hel En, that is, the Sun. The fcholiaft on Apollo- 

 nius's Argonautics informs us from Dicearchus, that "Seson- 

 " chosis, i. e. Sesostris, was a zealous imitator of the Hel- 

 " lenic way of life §. The author's meaning is no doubt, that 

 he was an admirer of the auftere manner of life praclifed by 

 the Hellenes, or priefts of the fun. 



From the foregoing detail, we hope it will appear, that there 

 were in the eaftern parts of the world people called Hellenes, 

 many ages before the Hellenes of Greece were known or ex- 

 ifted ; that this was originally not a Gentile, but a facred or 

 religious namej that it meant . worfhippers of the fun, and 



imported 



* Vol. ii. p. 84. % Lib.!, p. 16. Edit. Steph. 



+ Vol. i. p. 413. $ Lib. v. ver. 273. 



