HELIOPOLIS. 147 
had ever removed her veil*; and the hnpenetra- 
ble secret seems not Ukely to be divulged. 
One solitary fact has been vouchsafed to ages 
of restless inquiry upon this subject; namely, 
that the hieroglyphic characters constituted a 
luritten language^, the signs of an antient alpha- 
bet, expressed according to the most antient 
mode of writing, in capital letters'^: and it is 
probable that the more compound forms were a 
series of monograms, like the inscriptions upon 
the precious stones worn by the High Priest of 
the Hebreivs, which were ordered to be made 
after the manner of "the engravings of a 
SIGNET ^" and thus to contain within a very 
small compass, " as stones of memorial ," 
even upon "two onyx-stones, the names of 
. fs) Tov Ifiov 'TirrXoi ouiiii -ra ^tnros a.-yrix.d.Xui^i)/. Plutarch, de hide ct 
Osir. cap. 9. 
(6) See the words of the Greek Inscription upon the Ptolemaic tablet 
found near Rosetfu. 
(7) The letters of the most antient written languasje of Egypt, ac- 
cording to Diod/irun, were derived from the Ethinpinns .- and represented 
all sorts of beasts, the parts of the hiiinan body, and divers instru- 
ments. The capital letters of the Armenian alphal)et (as published 
in the grammar printed by the Propaganda Fidei) are represented by 
animals : and it is observed by Pocncke, who mentions this circum- 
staace, (Descriptinn of the East, vol.1, p. 228. London, 1743,) that 
" the names of some antient letters are the names of beasts." 
(8) Exodus xw'iW. II. 
{!)) Ibid. ver. 12. 
l2 
