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400 Account of Egyptian Antiquittes. 
particular difcoveries in fcience, which af- 
forded room to the hierophants for afcrib- 
ing new attributes both to Ifis and Ofiris. 
The fame objets or phenomena of nature 
were applied to the purpofes of allegory 
under different acceptations. The {cheme 
of religion was diverfified in various 
places. One fymbolic figure appears to 
have been fometimes explanatory of ano- 
ther. And the whole, being the progref- 
five work ef ages, produced by the fub- 
tlety, not of a fingle race, but of along 
fucceffion both of priefts and philofophers; 
and having its fyftem, both general and 
particular, expanded at their caprice, re- 
ceives another air of myftery, which the 
moft diligent fiudy alone can hope to pe- 
netrate. é 
‘The particular branches of Egyptian 
learning moft frequentiy committed to the 
facred chara&ters, form another object of 
enquiry. Some writers have fuppofed 
that they were almoft entirely appropriat- 
ed to theology and phyfics; but, others, 
and thofe more .acute examiners, - have 
traced the being and attributes of their 
gods ; the facrifices and adorations. that 
were to he offered to them; the concate- 
nation of the different clafies of beings ; 
the doctrine of the elements,,and of the 
good and bad dremons that were imagined 
to influence and direct them; the feveral 
operations and powers of nature; the ge- 
ometrical properties of lines and figures ; 
and, if the Rofetta infcription may be re- 
jied on, the nature of the hieroglyphics 
was by no means foreign to the prefer va- 
tion of hiftoric documents. 
Dark and impenetrable then as the my{f- 
tery may be, it feems evident, that the re- 
jigious riteso! Egypt never were inftituted 
on irrational grounds. The worfhip that 
avas afcribed to animals confeffedly was 
purely relative; they were reverenced not 
upon their own account, but as the natu- 
val and lively mirrors wherein to behold 
the divine perfeCtions ; and the Egyptians, 
eftceming them as the inftruments and 
workmanthip of an All-wife Being, were 
Jed, through them, to pay their worfhip 
and adoration, ina manner, at firfi, not 
unfimilar to thatin which the Reman Ca- 
tholics pay adoration to the holy crofs. 
Plutarch tells us (and Plutarch had clofe- 
ly fiudied the arcana of Egyptian fcience) 
that the original view with which thele 
rites and_ceremonies were founded was to 
promote the morality and happinefs. of 
thofe who were to obferve them, The 
fi: ft philcfophers by whom they were in- 
vented, undoubtedly proceeded with an ac- 
tivity that 1s now almof inconceivable ; 
[June ae 
they extended their enquiries over all the 
works of Nature, fought her in ther moft 
fecret and abftrufe recefles, and, like an 
univerfal intelligence, actuated the whole 
world of philofophy. They feemed, in all 
their difcoveries, to have been guided by 
fome particular infpiration, and Nature 
appears to have fineled them out as fub- 
jets upon whom .fhe would be lavith in 
the bounty of her favours. They were 
admitted to a particular intimacy, and 
were able to trace her through all her 
windings and turnings, till they difcerned 
her naked, in her bare and fimple form. 
How their knowledge became corrupted, 
is eafy to difcover; and affords a melan- 
chely inftance of human fallibility. The 
worfhip that was at firit but relative, foon 
became appropriate to its {ymbols, Its 
profeffors. embraced miftaken and ground- 
lefs opinions for religion; upon one. fal- 
lacy they built another ; and then violent 
ly impofed the whole on the faith and con- 
{ciences of mankind, as the oracles of 
truth and wifdom. The laws of inftituted 
worfhip, that were at fir impofeds in time 
were forgotten, and convinced’ the very 
priefis therfelves long before their final 
fubverfion by Cambyles, that,, in one de- 
gree or another, cufiom hides the truth 
from all men. Egypt, having enriched 
the carlieft nations of the world with the 
treafurés of her wifdom, fed many with the 
produce of her foil, and exceeded all in the 
greatnefs and the glory of her arts, dege- 
nerated from the light; became enveloped 
in her own myfteries, and irrecoverably 
fell, leaving only a wreck, which has for 
ages read this memorable leffon to man- 
ind—zchat no nation, however fplendid in 
the acquirements of art, rich im the oracles 
of {cience, or great among the princes of 
the world, can furvive the decay of true 
and folid wifdom. The fcattered frag- 
nients fhe has yet left, if underftood, 
might teach us knowledge; and there are 
two paths in which fomething may furely 
be difcovered——-One is the natural hiftory 
of Egypt; the other, a clofe attention to 
the remaining writings of Pythagoras. 
Plutarch obferves, that many of the Py- 
thagorean precepts come nothing fhort of 
the hieroglyphical reprefentations them- 
felves ; and he alfo thought, that when the 
Pytbagoreans appropriated: the names of 
feveral of the gods to particular numbers, 
as Apollo to the unit, Diana to the duad, 
Minerva to the feven, &c, they alluded to 
fomething which the founder of their fect 
faw in the Egyptian temples, to fome cer 
remenies performed there, or to fome fym- 
bols there exhibited. nis 
The 
