APPENDIX. 



*ts 



in Ifaiah * and in Lamentations f, and it feems particularly 

 to mean what the Egyptians made it a hieroglyphic or in 

 very ancient ages, and before the time of Mofes, maternal 

 affeclion towards their progeny. No mention is here made 

 of the male Rachama, nor was he celebrated for any parti- 

 cular quality. 



From this filence, or negative perfonage in him, arofe a 

 fable that there was no male in this fpecies. Horus' Apollo J, 

 after naming this bird always in the feminine gender, tells 

 us roundly, that there is no male of the kind, but that the 

 female conceives from the fouth wind. Plutarch §, Am- 

 mianus ||, and all the Greeks, fay the fame thing; and 

 Tzetzes f, after having repeated the fame itory at large, 

 tells us that he took it all from the Egyptians, fo there 

 feems to be little doubt either of the origin or meaning 

 of the name. 



The fathers in the firft ages, after the death of Chrift, feem 

 to have been wonderfully prefTed in point of argument be- 

 fore they could have recourfe to a fable like this to vindi- 

 cate the pollibility of the Virgin Mary's conception with- 

 out human means. Tertullian^.,Orgines|, Bazil=, and Am- 

 brofius ++ , are all wild enough to found upon this ridicu- 

 lous argument, and little was wanting for fome of thefe 



- Z 2 learned 



* Chap. xlix. ver. iy. 

 £ Hieroglyph, lib. i. cap. n. 

 Ij Lib. xvii. 

 ^ In Valentin, cap. 10. 

 ,= In h.exaem homU. .8. 



f Chap. iv. ver. 10. 

 $ Plut. In queft. Rom. quell. 93. 

 1 Chil. 12. hilr. 439. 



4 Lib- i. Contra Celfum. 

 ++ In hexaem. page 2 7. 



