2 
INTRODUCTION. 
by the representation of vegetables that are 
foreign to their climate. 
Brown says in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 
“ that of all men that suffered from the confu¬ 
sion of Babel, the Egyptians found the best 
evasion ; for, though words were confounded, 
they invented a language of things, and spake 
unto each other by common notions in nature, 
whereby they discoursed in silence, and were 
intuitively understood from the theory of 
their expressions : for they assumed the shapes 
of animals common unto all eyes, and by 
their conjunctions and compositions were able 
to communicate their conceptions unto any 
that comprehended the syntaxis of theii 
natures.” 
The labours of M. Champollion in deci¬ 
phering the ancient Egyptian Papyri at the 
Royal Museum at Turin, have proved this 
emblematical writing to have existed prior to 
the days of the Pharaohs. 
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