ANTIQUITIES, 
■il« 
were floating in (he ’world, ami leaves the 
truth to rest on belter authority : apparently 
thinking that with regard to such a race mi- 
nute enquiry was unnecessary. Though, at 
this period, the page of Jewish history was 
•fully disclosed, and accessible to the curiosity 
of every Roman ; Josephus lived, at Rome, 
tinder v espasian, Titus, and Domitian ; and 
.under . the last of those emperors his Jewish 
.Antiquities were given to the world. 
A sufficient knowledge , of the general an- 
tiquities of the Hebrews may be obtahied 
from the Bible, JPhilo and Josephus, and the 
Talmud ; and, among the writers of more 
.modern date, Arias Montanus-, Carpsovius, 
.-Maim Guidos, Buxtorf, Reland, Leusden, Cal- 
inet, Witsius, Bucher, Benzelius, Basnage, 
Hottinger, and Miehaelis, may be deemed 
-The best. Among the English, Selden, God- 
wyn, and Lewis. Calmet’s Dictionary of the 
Bible also contains many references for the 
curious reader ; and those who would know 
.how far their antieut and modern practices 
agree, may consult Levi’s Jewish Ceremo- 
nies. 
On the civil history of the Jews, Josephus 
.may be consulted: with Struckford, and Pri- 
Meaux’s Connections. On the life and death 
.of Moses, however ; on the Exodus of the 
Israelites, and their leaders; on the Jewish 
Lings ; the Babylonish captivity ; and on the 
history and condition of the Jews in different 
.countries subsequent to their dispersion ; the 
writers are extremely numerous : and a com- 
plete catalogue of them may he found in 
Mensel’s 'Bibliotheca Historica. On the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, Josephus and Tacitus 
are the principal writers in repute. And for 
the history of the Jews in England, Tovey’s 
.work may be referred to. 
But the most copious work on Jewish anti- 
quities is Ugolinus’s Thesaurus, in thirty-four 
volumes folio ; the first bearing the date of 
1744, the last 17C9 ; containing all the best 
■works which, previously to that time, had ap- 
peared, on the manners, laws, rites, and in- 
stitutions of the Hebrews : amounting in num- 
ber to no less than four hundred and eighty- 
eight distinct treatises. 
The most curious collection of Hebrew 
manuscripts in this country which illustrate 
-the literary antiquities of the Jev/s, maybe 
found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 
>Few of them, in point of age, run beyond 
eight hundred years ; and the most antient, 
we believe, were brought by Dr. Pococke 
Jrom Constantinople. 
We cannot , close this part of our article 
without recommending to attentive perusal 
ihe late bishop Lowth’s Lectures on the Poet- 
ry of the Hebrews, which afford a better 
view than any other work of the taste and 
learning of that extraordinary people. 
We now come to the Antiquities of 
Egypt : a country once as remarkable for 
the scheme of its laws, and the dark oracles 
of its priests, as for the commerce of its ci- 
ties, the grandeur of its buildings, and the 
fertility of its territory. The earliest nations 
-of the world are emphatically described by 
Dr. White to have been fed with the produce 
-of her soil, and enriched with the treasures of 
her wisdom ; and not only the more .-civilized 
.countries at the present day, but the Arabs 
and the Indians, still view the relics of her 
greatness with a reverential regard. In .1801, 
when General Baird led his army from the 
Red Sea, a party of Seapqys, who saw the 
hooded serpent upon one of the antient mo- 
numents ot Egypt, fell down and worshipped 
it. 
The quarries of marble and porphyry of 
Upper Egypt furnished the principal mate- 
rials with which the first inhabitants raised 
their most stupendous works of art. But 
whence their oracular intelligence was drawn 
it is impossible to say. To Hermes Trisme- 
gistus, a sage as highly reverenced among 
them as Zoroaster was among the Persians, 
the Egyptians ascribed the inventions of chief 
use to human life ; and like every people 
who are unable to settle the antiquity of their 
origin, they represented his works to have 
outstood the shock even of the universal de- 
luge. They otherwise called him Thoth ; 
and their priests as constantly maintained that 
from the hieroglyphic characters upon the 
pillars lie erected, and the sacred books, all 
the philosophy and learning of the world has 
been derived. 
Both the earliest and the latest writing of 
the country, to the time of Cleopatra, appears 
to have been symbolic ; and the use of hiero- 
glyphic characters was not only applied to sa- 
cred, but to other uses : through them alone 
the avenues to knowledge could be opened ; 
and their secret appears principally to have 
lain in certain analogies and correspondences 
between the forms, actions, and qualities of 
animals, and 'certain facts in nature, morals, 
or history. The animals which in the grosser 
periods of Egyptian history received the 
worship of the people, in the first ages it is 
probable were only used to express the attri- 
butes of the Egyptian gods ; and their regard 
for them perhaps was much increased by their 
adherence to the doctrine of transmigration. 
A black ox, the symbol of the sun, was sacred 
to Osiris ; and Isis typified the moon. Isis 
and Osiris indeed were every where adored, 
though differently represented ; and the Mne- 
vis, Apis, and Mendesian goat, are looked 
upon by the best writers but as different sym- 
bols of the same deity, or as animals in which 
the same deity was manifest. Thebes was in 
early times the grand deposit of Egyptian 
mystery : it is mentioned by Homer ; and 
exists in ruins to the present hour. Dendera 
and Heliopolis present other ruins. To enter 
deeply here either into the particular cere- 
monies, or the mythological doctrines of 
Egypt, to seek for the phenomena of nature 
which were allegorized in the history of Isis 
and Osiris, or to detail the history of the 
priestly orders, would be impossible- Of 
the latter, the first after the inferior degrees 
was the chief of the music band, who usually 
carried some musical instrument as the ensign 
of his office ; the next was. the diviner, who 
in public processions bore the symbols of as- 
trology ; the third was the master of the sa- 
cred wardrobe; and the fourth, or chief 
priest, was the prophet, who interpreted the 
laws of Hermes, and presided over the cere- 
monies of religion. To these exclusively the 
Hennaic doctrines were accessible : and upon 
them the constitution of their country seems 
entirely to have depended. 
In regard to Egyptian history, its early 
chronology is so perplexed, its facts and fable 
so heterogeneously blended, and its vanity of 
a remote antiquity so great, that little certain 
can be collected. ’ Egypt was antiently di- 
vided into three parts. Thebais was a distinct 
district ; -the dynasty of Memphis was the 
upper Egypt ; and that of Heliopolis, com- 
prehending the rest of the Delta, the lower 
region, f rom Menes the Egyptian, priests 
were accustomed to reckon no less than three 
hundred and thirty kings. Like other states, 
however, it had its revolutions ; and the 
three districts did not in every period of its 
history form separate states. Under the 
shepherd kings, two of them were united. 
At a period considerably • lower, Egypt be- 
came a kingdom still more flourishing than 
- r er ; and increased gradually till Sesostris, 
one of the greatest of its sovereigns, erected 
an universal empire. At a period still more 
subsequent, it was subjected by Cambyses to 
the Persian empire ; and to his ravages it 
appears that Egyptian grandeur was princi- 
pally indebted for its fall. 
In the wreck of greatness which it still pre- 
sents, the following are the principal remains : 
the colossal sphinx, and the pyramids 
among the level plains by Memphis ; the 
statues which bear the name of Memnon ; 
the catacombs of Saccara \ the temples of 
Thebes, Tentyris, and Apollinopolis ; and the 
Needle of Cleopatra. Pompey’s Pillar is- 
imdoubtedly a monument of subsequent erec- 
tion. One" or two of the antient obelisks 
were transported to Italy at a very early pe- 
riod. But the finest remnants of Egyptian 
grandeur, which have been brought away of 
late years, are now in the metropolis of Rug- 
land. The sarcophagus of brecciated mar- 
ble, reputed to be Alexander’s tomb; and 
the triple inscription from Rosetta, in the hie- 
roglyphic, the vernacular Egyptian, and the 
Greek characters ; are undoubtedly the most 
curious. The latter, when in possession of 
the French, was termed the gem of anti- 
quity. 
To recite even the titles of the different works 
in which the antiquities of Egypt h ve been 
treated, would be endless. Among the an- 
tient writers, Herodotus, Pausanias, Strabo, 
Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch, are the prin- 
cipal. Herodotus, Thales, and Pythagoras, 
it will be remembered, were initiated among 
the Egyptian priests. The best work on the 
m ) (hoiogy of Egypt is Jablonski’s Pantheon 
Egyptiacmn. On its present remains, Po- 
cocke, Norden, Niebuhr, Sonnini, and De- 
non, may be consulted : G reaves and Norden 
have expressly written on the pyramids : 
Kircher on the mummies: and all that is 
material on the subject of the obelisks, may 
be found in Zoega De Obeliscorum Usu. In 
the simple and authentic narrative of Dr. 
Wittman, modern readers will find some facts 
worthy of their attention, relative to the mo- 
numental remains still existing in Egypt. 
For the illustration of the Antiquities of 
India our accessible materials are less nu- 
merous and less distinct. The light which so 
strongly radiates from the page of classical 
antiquity upon most other abstruse points of 
literary research, casts but a glimmering ray 
on this subject. Whatever genuine informa- 
tion may be obtained on other points, its 
early history and literature can only be ac- 
quired by the generality of readers through 
the medium of faithful versions from the San- 
screet, the antient original language of the 
country, and the grand repository of all its 4 
history and sciences. 
. So long ago as 1776, Mr. Halhed, in the 
Code of G entoo Laws, compiled under the 
