of thought, worthy of Mgpytian wifdom, in their fo frequent allufions to the vaft domi- 
nion which the fun pervades, when he leaves our hemifphere, equally enlightening the 
Surrounding worlds, while to usit is night*. The inculcating this, imprefled new 
J deas of the amplitude of the univerfe, and gave dignity and force to the hieroglyphic 
the fcepter, that governs all things in the heavens above, and equally rules among 
c he conftellations which replenilh the etherial depths that are under the earth. 
The extraordinary and almoft unaccountable refemblance between the quadrangu- 
figures on the obelifks A and B, and thofe at E and F, on the Hone D, fo divinely 
Commented on in the wonderfully juft and deep fpeculations of Athenasius Ker- 
CiiER > “ e Societate Jesu !” j- muft vindicate the enlarging farther on this fo fingu- 
ar and facred fubjedt. 
The two Great Lights of this myftic temple of the fquare ! are the fun and moon, 
he fun’s place in the zodiac, from the earlieft ages of aftronomy, had the appellation 
°Shis houje. When the moon apparently occupied the fame place in the heavens, formed 
an eclipfe, or, moving from it, renewed her crefcent — this was the firft great index for 
Pertaining time ; the epoch by which religious folemnities, and aflemblies for the 
celebration of all divine inftrudtive rites, were regulated: it was the beginning of 
Months !. 
It is doubly exprefied, by the fymbols of the fun and moon in one houfe, and the 
Ueroglyphic of an eclipfe at the gate. 
When there was yet no alphabet or written record, we cannot conceive a more fuita- 
concatenation of citcumftances, to conftitute characters of the Beginning of 
Wtfdo m , and of the Source of Knowledge. But at this late period how fhall we enter 
Ir tt° the depth of contemplation that fwayed the memorials of primaeval piety, in ap- 
l%ing the fymbols of fcience to a more hallowed communication ? for thefe figures, 
c hofen to fignify the moft refpkndent objedts of creation, and the line wherewith they 
^’ ere bounded, were appropriated to infpire refiedtion on the Origin of all things, and 
be came the FIRST LETTERS by which a for the DEITY was exprefled J. 
The original Coptic hierogram nOC, is therefore added over the figure F, to 
' lu ftrate this myfterious doctrine. And the refpedtable authority,, already quoted, 
be here again more efpecially adduced, to authenticate that the above approach 
0 Primeval Light is no fancied vifion 1|,. 
A moft 
Eusebius. Pluto vero Sol eft, Terram fubiens, atque occultum percurrens Oibem. 
' C^belir. Pamphil. 4.93, lib. v. 
^ This wonderful epoch is perhaps alluded to Gen. iv. 26. ult. mn 1 diva I'rnniN. To the 
re°T PUrpafe the common tranftation is fufficiently explicit; but the text may with equal juftice be 
II " Then began men to call the Lord by a holy name.” 
1 D ei nomen Hoc dicebatur, quod in Lingua ^Egypt-iaca idem fignificat quod Dominus : 
T primam 
