1802.] 
we have the pofitive teftimony of a varie- 
ty of Greek hiftorians, thar the A was the 
letter peculiarly appropriated to thele dei- 
ties. But what refemblance, it may be 
afked, is there between the a, and the 
Egyptian bull or cow greater than be- 
tween thefe and the M? or, what poffible 
reafon could the Egyptians have for dedi- 
eating it to their honour? A little atten- 
tion will, [ traft, explain thefe difficulties. 
The pyramidal letter a was an emblem of 
the breath or emanation of fire: and the 
bull or cow was probably reprefented, like 
the chimera, which was an animal of this 
very clafs, as breathing or emaning’ fire 
from its noftrils, We are at leaft well 
afiured, that it was the head alone of thefe 
animals, and probably, like the crefcent 
moon, from the circular figure of their 
horns, that was efteemed facred, Aage, 
Coos wepary, mawxes, fays Hefychius very 
jutily—« Tt was the bead of the ox 
that the Phoenicians called alpha.” The 
ox"s head and the letter a are  here- 
by, therefore, rendered convertible charac- 
ters; and itis a curious fatt to obferve, 
how beth of them are blended in the 
aleph, or correfponding letter of the He- 
brew and Chaldaic alphabets, which oc- 
curs thus x, and feems to be a compound 
of the ox’s horns, and a fection of the py- 
ramid: in the older Chaldean alphabets, 
however, the facred horns alone are depiét- 
ed, and they then appear croffwile, thus %. 
__ Thecharaéter 1, correfponding with the 
Roman P, Mr. Allwood deduces from the 
Egyptian prefix TU: and ©‘ as the prefix( {ays 
he) is to the word before which it is 
placed, fo was the original of the hiero- 
glyphic 1, by which it is reprefented, to 
the ftruéture to which it was the entrance ; 
for it was no other than the portal of an 
Egyptian temple.” The 2 he refolves, 
as it has generally been refolved, intoa 
ferpent coiled round in the figure of a 
circle ; the two ends of the coil repre- . 
fenting its head and tail, and the circle it- 
felf being complete in almoft every re- 
main of Egyptian antiquity. With this 
laft import I perfeétly agree, and fhall 
not be found to difagree very largely with 
_the former. Throughout the whole of 
thefe explanations there is, neverthele{s, a 
want of general defign: every conjecture 
is ifolated, and detached from every other : 
_ there is lefs fyftem than we have even a 
right to expeét-—though we have no reafon 
_to expect any thing of this kind in a 
. ftate of complete harmony and perfection 
-~—and the individual interpretations are 
_many of them extremely irrelevant and 
_ mntlatisfattory. 1 fhall proceed, therefore, 
Mr. Good on the Origin of the Greek Alphabet. 
489 
to offer an hypothefis of a different kind, 
and, as I hope, of more general and perti- 
nent application. 
The Greek characters, then, I conceive, 
with Mr. Allwood, to have been almof, 
if not altogether, imported from Egypt; 
and my intention is to prove, that they are 
every one of them, without a fingle ex- 
ception, facred fymbols; equally fo, in- 
deed, by figure as by name. ‘The idola- 
‘try of the Egyptians, upon the fyftem al- 
ready detailed, divided itfelf into the three 
grand claffes of the folar, arkite, and 
ophite worfhip—the adoration of the fun, 
of the ark, and of the ferpeat. Each had 
occafionally its exclufive votaries ; but the 
generalityof the people were attached to the 
whole, giving, perhaps, at different periods 
or on different occafions a preference to the 
one over the other: in confequence of which, 
we have a right to expect fimple or un- 
compounded fymbols of each individual 
idolatry, in fome infiances ; and mixed or 
blended fymbols of the whole, in others. The 
Greek hieroglyphics, then, are precifely of 
this defcription: they are all of them either 
folar, arkite, or ophite characters, or com- 
binations of thefe various fuperftitions ; 
or, in other words, they are etther pyrami- 
dal, crefcent, or obelifcal, or intermixtures 
of any two, or of the whole: the pyramid, 
as Ihave before obfenved, being the form 
of the temic peculiarly dedicated to the 
fun; the obelifk, that of the temple of the 
ferpent; and the-crefcent, the exclufive 
fymbol of arkite devotion. This being 
premifed, it is obvious, that A, A, A, are 
all folar hieroglyphics ; the firft reprefent- 
ing a ftory or piatform in the middle of the 
pyramidal temple, of which it was the 
immediate type; the fecond, a mere 
ground-floor, or platform at the bafe; 
and the third, an unexcavated pyramid, or 
with a chamber too {mall for notice. It 
has been generally conceived, that the 
Egyptian pyramids were not pofleffed of 
ftories, but this is an undoubted miftake; 
for thofe of Sakkara, in the vicinity of 
Memphis, afford many examples of this 
kind of edifice ; a fact long fince noticed 
by M. Grobert, and now fully confirmed 
by the teftimony of M. Ripaud, fince his 
return with Bonaparte. In reality, the 
pyramids of Babylon were moft of them 
of this defcription, particularly the Tower 
of Bel, which is {pecially noticed by He- 
rodotus: the pagodas of Hindu and China, 
which are only variations of the Ammo- 
nian pyramid, uniformly prefent a fimilar 
appearance of diftiné& ftories ; and there 
is no reafon to fuppofe, that a divifion of 
the ftrufture iato a variety of tiers was 
. ever 
