S7C 
EGYPT. 
fools on thefe fobject's.’’, Such were the communications 
of the Egyptian with the Greek philofophers. 
The hieroglyphic language of the Egyptians is thus 
deduced by Dr. Bryant: “ As Egypt was the land of 
Ham, who, as the Sun, was {tiled Ait, it alfo was called 
Ait, rendered by the Greeks A (ha. ; and as the heart in 
the body may be efteemed what the Sun is in his fyftem, 
the fource of heat arid life, it .was therefore called Ait, 
which word having tliefe two fenfes, was the reafon why 
they made a heart over a vafe of burning incenfe, the 
firft hieroglyphic or emblem of their country. The prin¬ 
cipal, rites in Egypt were confelfedly for a perfon loft, 
and for a time configned to darknefs, who was at laft 
found. This was Ofiris. Hence thole exclamations at 
the feafts of Ifts : See Plutarch. 
If. et Ofiris, v. i. the ultimate to which vve can apply is 
Egypt. Every facred thing in Egypt was at length dif- 
tinguifhed by fome fymbr /1 of the deity. The Egyptians 
had many fubordinate deities, which they efteemed fo 
many emanations, from the Supreme Being. 
They were refined in their fuperftition, above all nations 
in the world ; and conferred the names and titles of their 
deities upon vegetables, and animals of every fpecies; 
and not only upon thefe, but alfo on the parts of the hu¬ 
man body, and the very paffions of the mind. Whatever 
they deemed falutary, or of great value, they diftinguiftied 
by the title of facred, and confecrated by fymbol to fome 
god. Thus they had many emblematical perfonages, fet 
off with heads of various animals, to reprefent particular 
virtues, and affections; as well as to denote tlie various 
attributes of their gods. Hence the origin of their hiero¬ 
glyphics. Blit vve muft m ike a material diftindtion be¬ 
tween the hieroglyphics of old, when Egypt was under 
her native kings ; and thofe of later date, when that 
country was under the government of the Greeks: at 
which time their learning was greatly impaired, and their 
ancient theology ruined. 
“If any means can be found to obtain the latent pur¬ 
port of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, they muft arife from 
confidering thefe emblems fingly, and obferving their 
particular lcope and deftination. When we have afeer- 
tained the meaning of fome individuals, we may pofiibly 
difeover their drift, when confidered colledtively. Thefe, 
I think, are the principles upon which we muft proceed : 
but after all it will be a dark refearch, in which many 
have been bewildered. There are authors who mention 
an ancient piece of hicroglyphical fculpture, which was 
to be feen in the city Sa'is. It confided of a child, an 
old man; and near them ftood an hawk. After thefe 
a cetus, or fea-fifti ; and laft of all an hippopotamus. 
Clemens of Alexandria mentions the fame hiftory ; but 
lays, that it was at Diofpolis. Inftead of the river-horfe 
he introduces a crocodile, which lie fays was an emblem 
of impudence. It it-to be obferved, that the hippopot¬ 
amus and crocodile were fymbols of the fame purport; 
both related to the deluge : and, however the Greeks 
might iometimes reprefent them, they were both in dif¬ 
ferent places reverenced by the ancient Egyptians. The 
interpretation given by Clemens, is this: ‘All ye who 
are juft come into the world, and all ye who are going 
out, remember, that God hates impudence.’ As there 
are fo many crimes of high moment, which demand ani- 
madverfion, it is ftrange, that fo foletun a caution fhould 
be given merely again)! impudence. The infeription teems 
■to have been put up in two places : one of which was 
the temple of I(is at Sal's ; the other the temple at Diof¬ 
polis, called Theba. Thefe are two remarkable places ; 
in confequence of which, one would imagine, that the in¬ 
feription fliould contain fome memorial of more confe¬ 
quence : fomethiog which had a reference to the temples 
wherein it was found. Were I to attempt the deci¬ 
phering of thefe hieroglyphics, which however diverli- 
fied, feem toamount to the fame purport, I fhould begin, 
as in reading their common written language, from right 
to left, in a /cries different'from thofe who have gone be¬ 
fore me. T find, according to this order, that the hippo-- 
potamus, or Crocodile, hands firft ; and then the cetus. 
Next comes the figure of the facred hawk, under which 
femblance Divine Providence was always depicted ; and 
after this an old man, and a child. It may feem prefump- 
tuous to pretend to interpret what was a fecret two thoiu 
fand years ago : I (hall therefore only mention what I have 
to fay, as matter of opinion. I apprehend it may be read 
in the following manner: ‘As the hippopotamus, or croco¬ 
dile, furvives the inundation of the-Nile, juft fo that facred 
receptacle, the cetus, or ark, through the interpofition of 
Providence, weathered the deluge; by which means the 
aged patriarch efcaped, and obtained a renewal of life.’ 
I-Iotv true this interpretation may be, I will not prefume 
to fay : it certainly correfponds with the hiftory of each 
emblem, as they have been feparately confidered ; and is 
confonant to the general fcope of the rites and mythology 
of Egypt. What is Hill more to the purpofe, it perfectly 
agrees with the deftination cf the two temples, where it 
is faid to have been found : for by Ills was meant a facred 
receptacle ; and Theba is literally the ark. The tem¬ 
ples were both of them built in memory of that event, 
which the hieroglyphic feents to deferibe.” 
Voltaire gives a curious inftanee of the force and con. 
eifenefs of hicroglyphical communication, which-is taken 
from Herodotus. That Liftorian informs us, that when 
Darius invaded Scythia, the Scythians fent him the figures 
of a bird, a moufe, a frog, and five arrows.. By this 
lymbolical admonition they informed him, that if he did 
not fly away as fwiftly as a bird, or conceal himfelf like 
a moufe or a frog, lie would perifh by their arrows. This 
ftory, fays Voltaire, may pofiibly not be true; but it ne- 
verthelefs furnifiies a {Hiking example of the fimplicity 
of the emblems employed in thofe diftant ages. 
The hieroglyphic language of the Egyptians, fays fir 
John Marfham, is the greateft proof of their antiquity as a 
people. But, however intelligible this mode cf commu¬ 
nicating ideas might 1 at firft have been, it is reafonable to 
conclude that when their popular language came to be re¬ 
fined by the invention of letters-, the hieroglyphic fymbols 
began to be difufed, and the people gradually forgot the 
fignification of them. The priefts, ftill retaining and 
cultivating the knowlege of them, becatife they were the 
repolitories of their learning and hiftory, at length ap¬ 
plied them to the purpofe of preferving the fecrets of 
their religion. Thus hieroglyphics became the fource of 
animal worfhip in Egypt, as fir John conjectures, Can. 
Ckron. p. 5S, becatife in thefe hieroglyphics was recorded 
the hiftory of their greater deities, their kings, and law¬ 
givers, reprefented by animals, and other grofs emblems. 
The fymbol of each god was well known and familiar to 
his worfliippers, by means of the paintings and engravings 
on their temples and other facred monuments; fo that 
the fymbol prefenting the idea of the god, and that idea 
exciting fentiments of religion, it was natural for them, 
in their addreffes to any particular god, to turn to his re- 
prrefentative mark or fymbol ; efpeci'ally when vve confi- 
der further, that the Egyptian priefts feigned a divine ori¬ 
ginal for hieroglyphic characters, in order to increafe the 
veneration of the people for them. Thefe would of 
courfe bring on a relative devotion to thefe fyntbolic fi¬ 
gures, which, when it came to be paid to the living ani¬ 
mal, would foon terminate in an ultimate worfliip ; and 
which fubfequently proved to be the faCt. 
In their written characters, the' A was not the firft letter 
ot tiie Egyptian alphabet, but the T, in honour of Thoth, 
or Hermes, the genius that prefided over the fciences and 
the arts. Their writing was from right to left, like the • 
Hebrew ; and it is certain that they trfed fimilar letters lo 
early as the age of Mofes. Thefe characters have been 
lately found upon manuferipts in the fvvathings of their 
mummies, as exhibited in the annexed engraving. 
“The fubjeCtof this engraving,•(fays Denon,) is part 
of a manufeript found rolled up in a mummy. The pa¬ 
pyrus on which it is written is prepared of two layers of 
the 
