PR I MJE FAL HIEROGLTP HICS. 
fjN introducing the hieroglyphical fcuiptures on the obelifks reprefented in the 
plate, to that particular notice which their facred nature feems to demand, it 
rtta y not be improper to quote fome pafiages from the earlier writers, by whom men- 
ll °n of them has been made, 
t ^°etius talks of thefe myftic figures, exprefsly, as having fome unknown allufions 
^ national record or religious truths, and of their unaccountable refcmblance to 
j c vptian fymbols; and, when producing fome parts of hiftory relating to Aber- 
■inney in Angus, feems to refer to the monument A, when he defcribes, " a huge 
C{ f° ne credted there, on which are figures of animals and abftrufe devices, engraven 
111 ft*'ange charadlers, which had no doubt been intended, according to the mode of 
Anting at the time, to convey the memory of certain tranfa&ions to pofterity 
Induced by this part of Boetius' s narrative, Mr, Cordon examined the ftone in 
S’Jeftion, and gives the following account of the figure at the top f : “ There is a 
({ ier oglyphic, which I own I am at a lofs to defcribe or explain, only it is a bor- 
f{ ere< I fquare, with another fmaller fquare within it, fomewhat refembling a door or 
,, etttr y > above that pafles a line, at one end of which hangs a plummet : near there 
a bordered circle, from which project two fmaller circles oppofite to each other,” 
,1IS pafiage is quoted partly to exprefs the attention which thefe figures attracted, 
a nd partly to authenticate their identity, and fo guard againft the fufpicion of inno- 
i°n, by Ihewing, that notwithstanding the curfory manner in which Mr. Gordon 
• at *e his drawings, ftill that he nearly traced the genuine figures, although of their 
,^Port he had no adequate idea, and that they only are more accurately delineated 
die plate, while they form the high fubjeft of great part of the following dil- 
Eu fiion„ 
p^die other correfponding reprefentation of the ftone, marked B, is part of an obe- 
Ending on the northern declivity of the mountain Benachie, in the county of 
e a °d is yet entire and undefaced, notwithftanding the rigours it muft have 
r ■ Ure d of near a thoufand winters ■, and is alfo figured in plate LIX. of the Itinera - 
and* ^ e P tentr * ona l e - Now in thefe the Triune Line is again confpicuous, begun 
th e *? n ^ed w 'th the fceptral emblem, and (as illuftrated in the former number) was 
hieroglyphic of the efficient power of the Deity. But here, extending over the 
fio ^ ,rn d°k of the folar fyftem and the gate of time , other important confidera- 
^ occur, necefifary to unfold the full import of the fublime inftruftion couched 
er thefe enigmatical flgns. 
But 
t perhaps an apology is requifite for driving to unravel them at all, as the 
e s muft be elaborate. Why return to the beginning of ages, to decypher 
s and fymbols, now altogether obfolete, and almoft unknown ? 
* Boetius , lib. xii. p. 2 43 . f Iter. Seften. 15 1. 
One 
