V. 
THE PYRAMIDS. 203 
the Priests kept their sacred vestments*. Nor, chap. 
perhaps, would these conjectures have ap- 
peared so visionary, if those distinguished 
writers had carried the investigation somewhat 
further. If the connection between antient 
Egyptian mythology and Jeivish history had been 
duly traced, an evident analogy, founded upon 
events which have reference to the earliest 
annals of the Hebrews, might be made manifest. 
The subject, of itself sufficient to constitute a 
separate dissertation, would cause too much 
digression; although an endeavour may be made 
to concentrate some of its leading features 
within the compass of a note\ The main object 
(4) See ^S'Afl 2^*5 Travels, p. 371. Lond-lthl. 
(5) Perhaps, with due attention to facts collected from antient and 
modern writers, the whole connection might be traced between the 
history of Joseph, and ihe Egyptian mythology founded thereon. For 
this purpose, the reader may be referred to all that Fossius has written 
upon the subject fP'id. lib. i. cap. 29. torn. I. p. 213. de Theologid 
Centili: Amst. \Mi), yiho cons'ulevs the Egyptian Xvis as a symbol 
of the Patriarch. He supports his opinion by authority from 
RuFFiNUS ( Histories Ecclesiasticce, lib. ii. C07J. 33.); and derives evidence 
from AuGUSTiN, (Script. Mirah. I. i. c. 15.) to prove that Wvi Egyptians 
placed an Ox near the sepulchre of Joseph. It appears also, from 
Suidas {voce SajaT/j), that Apis was by some considered a symbol of 
Joseph : " Quo ut magis inclinem /acit," observes Vossius, " quod 
Josephus Deuteronomii cap. penult, commute 17, hos vocetur, secundum 
eodices Hebrceos." But if Apis were the same as Joseph, so must also 
be Serapis (or Sarapis, as it was written by the Greeks) and Osiris ; 
for these are but different names of the snme mythological personage. 
"Factus 
