S70 
E G Y P T. 
time is uncertain. Jofephus, out of a defire to aggrandize 
his own nation, fuppofes that the Shepherds who bore 
rule in Egypt were his anceftors ; and that hence arofe 
the hatred that the Egyptians bore to them. For this 
reafon he makes no difference between the twofold 'race 
of fliepherds, which Manetho fufiiciently diftinguilhes. 
The firff were the Cufeans and their pajlor kings, wlio 
held the country in bondage : the others were the Ifra- 
elitifh fliepherds, who fucceeded to the firff, and were 
themfelves afterwards held in bondage, and delivered by 
Mofes. 
Idolatry, too, foon became the degrading character of 
the Egyptians ; though, according to M. Pauw, who 
clofely inveftigated this theology, it was by no means 
fo grofs as lias been reprefented. They acknowledged an 
intelligent Being, diftindt from matter, by the name of 
Phtka, fabricator of the world, but not the creator of 
matter. Here we feem to derive the firff fprings of their 
religion; and if the confequent ceremonials of it have 
periflied from the annals of their country, we muff endea¬ 
vour to glean them from the regions into which they have 
fublequently patted. Anaxagoras travelled into Egypt 
to ftudy philofophy, as was the cuftom with his country¬ 
men ; on his return to Greece, he brought with him a 
fyffem fo entirely new, that the Greeks, ever delighting 
in novelties, raifed flatues to his honour, and diftinguiflied 
him by the title of Ns;, the Intelligence. The heads of 
liis fyffem, as brought from Egypt, are the following : 
“ Two things were from eternity, Mind and Matter. 
Thefe two beings were clearly diftindl. Matter extended 
■without thought, motion, or order ; but divided into 
parts extremely minute, and poffefled of qualities fimilar 
and unalterable. Mind was fimple, without material ex- 
tendon, having in itfelf thought, activity, and an execu¬ 
tive power over matter. An infinite time had paired be¬ 
fore the formation of the world. The Sovereign Mind, 
feeing that order was' better than confufion, refolved on 
the meafure. Anaxagoras. mentis infinite vi et ratione rerum 
omnium modum et deficriptionem defignari et confici voluit. —The 
Mind watches over men with a particular attention; for 
them it was that the world was made. Their country is 
heaven, to which they are to be recalled, if, by their 
virtue, they deferve it. The bodies of the firff animals, 
confequently that of man, were formed out of earth, tem¬ 
pered with moifture and heat; after this, the individuals 
generated others, each imtheir own kind. Zw« ymv 9 «i e| 
zai 0 ££p, 8 , vca vrigev o£ aAAijAwz. DlOg. Laer. 
Neither fun, moo-n, nor liars, are gods or demons, or ani¬ 
mated bodies; they are folid mattes fet in motion by In¬ 
telligence, the foie caufe of motion.”—It muff be con- 
feffed, that there is a ftriking agreement (the creation of 
matter excepted) between this Egyptian theology, and 
the Mofaic fyffem. 
Os-i-ris, in Coptic, fignifies conformator ; T-s\s, forma- 
rum receptaculum , perfonifications of Mind and Matter; by 
which, the firff principles of their philofophy were raifed 
by the Egyptians into the higheft objedls of their wor- 
fhip. The general doctrine deduced from thefe firff prin¬ 
ciples was the omnipotence of a Supreme Divinity, known 
as to its exiftence, unknown as to its offence. This was 
the univerfal fource from which all beings proceeded ; 
whether by emanation, as the rays of light ; or by gene¬ 
ration, as in animals; or by accretion and feparation, as 
in vegetables and minerals ; or, in ffiort, by fome other 
way unknown, without fixing the time, the manner, or 
entering into any philofophicul difcuflion of the fubjed. 
This was the fyffem of all the molt ancient people of the 
earth ; efpecially of the orientals, who to thefe general 
ideas added a theocracy peculiar to themfelves, in which 
they fuppofed the Supreme Majeffy retired into the hea¬ 
ven of heavens, leaving to a chief minifter (himfelf the 
ifTue of the divinity) the care of governing the world, 
and of keeping within bounds a certain principle of male¬ 
volence and rebellion, of which they conceived the ex- 
iftence, from a view of the evils natural and moral by 
z 
which the world was afflided. Of moral obligation they" 
appear to have conceived that virtue confifts in a ftridt 
obfervance of the laws, fubmiffiori fo the magiffrate, re- 
fped for fuperiors, modefty towards equals, and tender- 
nefs for inferiors. This is therefore the fublime of pagan 
theology. To oiy.caov eivsii y.u .i ro aiir^ov ov tyves i «AAa i/o/j-io. 
Jufiiim et turpe non natura confiare, Jed Lege. Diog. Laer. in 
Archelao. 
The Gymnofophifts of Africa acknowledged one Crea¬ 
tor, incomprehenfible in his nature, but intelligible in 
his works ; this was the origin of fymbolic worfhip. The 
worfhip of ferpents, very general throughout Africa, ob¬ 
tains at this day in many parts. The eneph, a fnake, is 
the emblem of divine goodnefs ; the viper, of power; 
hence the diadem of the Pharaohs was adorned with this 
emblem. The Egyptians ufually perfonified the divine 
wifdorn under the name of Neph, reprefented fpringing 
out of the body of a lion ; the manifeft prototype of the 
Greek Minerva fpringing from the head of Jupiter'; 
emblem of the union of wifdorn and of power. It is re¬ 
markable that the Egyptians gave an exclufion to Nep¬ 
tune ; they deteffed the fea ; and yet, with a ffrange in- 
confiffency, they made their Nephthis, or Venus, to 
fpring out of its froth ; whence the Aphrodite of the 
Greeks. “ Almoft all the names of the gods, (fays He¬ 
rodotus,) came out of Egypt into Greece.” And the 
Greeks changed their names, and made the gods theif own. 
The Egyptian religion rejefted eternity of punifhments; 
admitting a purgatory, whence, in a certain time, men 
were to refume their bodies ; hence the practice of em¬ 
balming and preparing their mummies: but philofophers, 
and the truly virtuous, were to pafs diredtly into heaven. 
Similar notions that the lives of animals would be re- 
ffored, muff have induced the practice of embalming the 
ibis. On infpedting the vaults of Saccara, Denon found 
more than five hundred mummies of the ibis in a fepul- 
chral cave. There feems a confiderable variety in the 
degree of care beftowed in embalming this facred bird ; 
but the earthen pot, in which the whole is contained, is 
common to all. The difference and pains beftowed on 
mummies taken from the fame cave, proves that the 
price of the work varied confiderably for thefe birds, as 
well as for men, and confequently that it was done at the 
expence of individuals; and alfo it may be prefumed, 
that the embalmed birds had not all been fed in temples, 
or colleges of priefts, in reward of fervices rendered by 
the whole fpecies. If the fame had been the cafe with 
thefe birds as with their god Apis, a tingle individual 
would have fufficed, and thefe pots would not be found 
by thoufands. We may then fuppofe that the ibis, as it 
deftroys all reptiles, was religiotifiy venerated in a coun¬ 
try in which thefe noxious animals fo much abound at a 
certain time of the year ; and, like the ftork in Holland, 
this bird growing tame from the good reception which it 
met with every where, each houfe had its own winged 
inmates of this fpecies, to which, after their death, the 
honours of fepulture were given according to the means 
of the inhabitants. Herodotus relates, that he was in¬ 
formed that in the earlieft times of the records of the 
country, the ibis abounded every where, but that in pro¬ 
portion as the marfhes of Upper Egypt were drained, the 
birds retired to the lower province in queft of their food ; 
which accounts for their being now fo rarely feen. 
In moft nations the profufion of the table was confi- 
dered as the teft of opulence, or of the progrefs of lux¬ 
ury; but in Egypt it was made an inlet into their reli¬ 
gion, manners, and charadter. The peculiar circumffances 
of their climate and foil made it expedient for the Egyp¬ 
tians to have a particular attention to their food ; hence 
moft of their religious obfervances : Mofes adopted many 
of thefe, but wifely deferted the fyffem in fome points, 
confulting the character of his people, and the circum¬ 
ffances of the country in which they were to live. Pytha¬ 
goras was not fo wife ; having paffed into Egypt, and 
i'ubmitted to circumcifion, he, in the true ipirit of a 
fanatic, 
