A moll lingular attention of this deduction, is alfo derived from one of the mo 
momentous monuments of antiquity that ever was difcovered ; the Marble fculp- 
tured over with facerdotal characters, dug up near to the city of Siganfu m Chin-^ 
which has given to the world fo much knowledge of the writings of that celebrate 
country f- On this the charatter, reprefented near the labyrinth, over E, is repe ' 
edly inferred, and feems but an abridgment of the Coptic IIOC : but what jen e 
it the more remarkable is, that it uniformly Hands for “ In the beginning $, or 
words that exprefs a correfpondirtg idea ■, and indicates a furprizing coincidence 
the ftrufture of the Signs, by which the fages of the Eaftern nations of the wo. 
conveyed their divine Lnftruttions. 
The three connected circles, already illuftrated in N° 14, here again confpicuoufl/ 
occur to view; carved parallel to thefe great characters of the univerfe now expire , 
and give additional emphafis to their fymbolical allufion ; for this figure was the me 
morial of the golden chain, or neccflary dependence, which philofophical difcernme 
faw in the creation. 
<« Thefe Sacred Rings,” fays Hermes, " O Afclepius f are the Original ° r £ e ^' 
« th e hieroglyphic infolding this oracle. On the Eternal Mind depends the 
« vidential Sway, by which the endlefs circle and Order of Nature is 
,c ported.” 
Thefe are the firft principles of that wonderful Chain, which Pythagoras * 
Plato celebrated, as containing the higheft myfteries revealed' to them by the P 
tiffs of JEgypt || . 
. qC/ 
primam literam referebant per n, quam portam appellabant Mundanx Domus ; reliquis duabus liten' 
Solcm & Lunam, xvpo*oyai 2 <, tefte Clemekte, indicantibus. Obelif. Pamphil. 492, 493. 
f See the Plate in Ker. China Illustrata. 
J With fome little variation : “ From the beginning ; Originally ; Firft of all. 
II Obelif. Pamphil. lib. v. 396. 
