emperor, by the magical skill of one of these doctors, obtained an interview with his deceased mistress, a circumstance which riveted the whole order in the affection and esteem of the deluded prince. Here our readers will observe the exact counterpart of the fable of Eurydice, so famous in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. That such a system of religious principles must have abounded with mythological adventures is highly probable; but as the missionaries, to whom we are chiefly indebted for our information relating to the religion of the Chinese, have not taken the pains to record them, we find it impossible to gratify the curiosity of our readers on that head.

The worship of the idol Fo, or Foe, was transplanted from India into China about the 56th year of the Christian æra, upon the following occasion. One of the doctors of the Fao-sse had promised a prince of the family of Tchou, and brother of the emperor Ming-ti, to make him enter into communion with the spirits. At his solicitation an ambassador was dispatched into India, in order to enquire where the true religion was to be found. There had been a tradition, say the missionaries, ever since the age of Confucius, that the true religion was to be found in the west.-The ambassador stopt short in India; and finding that the god Foe was in high reputation in that country, he collected several images of that deity painted on chintz, and with it 42 chapters of the canonical books of the Hindus, which, together with the images, he laid on a white elephant, and transported into his native country. At the same time he imported from the same quarter the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which is firmly believed in China to this day. The doctrine and worship of Foe, thus introduced, made a most rapid progress all over China, Japan, Siam, &c. The priests of Foe are called among the Siamese, Talopoins; by the Tartars, Lamas; by the Chinese, Ho-chang; and by the people of Japan, Bonzes. By this last appellation they are generally known in Europe.

An infinitude of fable was invented and propagated by the disciples of Foe, concerning the life and adventures of their master. If the earlier ages of the Chinese history are barren of mythological incidents, the later periods, after the introduction of the worship of Foe, furnish an inexhaustible store of miracles, monsters, fables, intrigues, exploits, and adventures, of the most villanous complexion. Indeed, most of them are so absurd, so ridiculous, and at the same time so impious and profane, that we are convinced our readers will easily dispense with a detail from which they could reap neither entertainment nor instruction. Such as may find themselves disposed to rake into this abominable puddle we must refer to the reverend fathers Du Halde, Couplet, Amiot, Kircher, and other members of the propaganda, in whose writings they will find wherewithal to satisfy, and even to surfeit, their appetite.

The Hindus, like the other nations of the East, for a long time retained the worship of the true God. At length, however, idolatry broke in, and, like an impetuous torrent, overwhelmed the country. First of all, the genuine history of the origin of the universe was either utterly lost, or disguised under a variety of fictions and allegories. We are told that Brimha, the supreme divinity of the Hindus, after three several efforts, at last succeeded in creating four persons, whom he appointed to rule over all the inferior crea

tures.-Afterwards Brimha joined his efficient power with Bishon and Rulder; and by their united exertions they produced ten men, whose general appellation is Munies, that is, the inspired. The same being, according to another mythology, produced four other persons, as imaginary as the former; one from his breast, one from his back, one from his lip, and one from his heart. These children were denominated Bangs; the import of which word we cannot pretend to determine. According to another tradition, Brimha produced the Bramins from his mouth, to pray, to read, to instruct; the Chiltern from his arms, to draw the bow, to fight, to govern; the Bice from his belly or thighs, to nourish, to provide the necessaries of life by agriculture and commerce; the Sodor from his feet, for subjection, to serve, to labour, to travel. The reader will see at once, in these allegorical persons, the four casts or septs into which the Hindu nations have, time immemorial, been divided. These are some of their most celebrated mythological traditions with relation to the origin of the universe.

The Hindus have likewise some mythological opinions which seem to relate to the general deluge. They tell us, that desiring the preser vation of herds and of brahmans, of genii and of virtuous men, of vedas of law, and of precious things, the Lord of the universe assumes many bodily shapes; but though he pervades, like the air, a variety of beings, yet he is himself unvaried, since he has no quality in him subject to change. At the close of the last calpa, there was a general destruction, occasioned by the sleep of Brahme, whence his creatures in different worlds were drowned in a vast ocean. Brahme being inclined to slumber after a lapse of so many ages, the strong dæmon Hayagri-va came near him, and stole the vedas which had flowed from his lips. When Heri, the preserver of the universe, discovered this deed of the prince of Dainavas, he took the shape of a minute fish called Sap-hari. After various transformations, and an enormous increase of size in each of them, the Lord of the universel oving the righteous man, who had still adhered to him under all these various shapes, and intending to preserve him from the sea of destruction caused by the depravity of the age, thus told him how he was to act: "In seven days from the present time, O thou tamer of enemies! the three worlds will be plunged in an ocean of death; but in the midst of the destroying waves a large vessel sent by me for thy use shall stand before thee." The remaining part of the mythology so nearly resembles the Mosaic history of Noah and the general deluge, that the former may be a strong confirmation of the truth of the latter. To dry up the waters of the deluge, the power of the Deity descends in the form of a boar, the symbol of strength, to draw up and support on its tusks the whole earth, which had been sunk beneath the ocean. Again, the same power is represented as a tortoise sustaining the globe, which had been convulsed by the violent assaults of dæmons, while the gods charmed the sea, with the mountain Mandar, and forced it to disgorge the sacred things and animals, together with the water of life which it had swallowed. All these stories, we think, relate to the same event, shadowed by a moral, a metaphysical, and an astronomical allegory; and all three seem connected with the hieroglyphical sculptures of the old Egyptians.

The Hindus divide the duration of the world into four Yugs or Jugs, or Jogues, each consisting of a prodigious number of years. In each of those period, the age and stature of the human race have been gradual diminished; and in each of them mankind has gradually declined in virtue and piety, as well as in age and stature. The present period they call the Collæ, i. e. the corrupt Jogue, which they say is to last 400,000 years of which near 5000 years are already past. In the last part of the preceding Jogue, which they call the Dwa paar, the age of man was contracted into 1000 years, as in the present it is confined to 100. From this proportional diminution of the length of the human life, our readers will probably infer, that the two last Jogues bear a pretty near resemblance to the Mosaic history of the age of the antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs; and that the two first are imaginary periods prior to the creation of the world, like those of the Chinese, Chaldeans, and Egyptians.

According to the mythology of the Hindus, the system of the world is subject to various dissolutions and resuscitations. At the conclusion of the Colie Jogue, say they, a grand revolution will take place, when the solar system will be consumed by fire, and all the elements reduced to their original constituent atoms. Upon the back of these revolutions, Brimha, the supreme deity of the Hindus, is sometimes represented as a newborn infant, with his toe in his mouth, floating on a camala or water flower, sometimes only on a leaf of that plant, on the surface of the vast abyss. At other times he is figured as coming forth of a winding shell; and again as blowing up the mundane foam with a pipe at his mouth. Some of these emblematical figures and attitudes, our learned readers will probably observe, nearly resemble those of the ancient Egyptians.

But the vulgar religion of the ancient Hindus was of a very different complexion, and opens a large field of mythological adventures. We have observed above, that the Fo or Foe of the Chinese was imported from India; and now we shall give a brief detail of the mythological origin of that divinity. We have no certain account of the birth-place of this imaginary deity. His followers relate, that he was born in one of the kingdoms of India near the line, and that his father was one of that country. His mother brought him into the world by the left side; and expired soon after the delivery. At the time of her conception, she dreamed that she had swallowed a white elephant; a circumstance which is supposed to have given birth to the veneration which the kings of India have always shown for a white animal of that species. As soon as he was born, he had strength enough to stand erect without assistance. He walked abroad at seven, and, pointing with one hand to the heavens, and with the other to the earth, he cried out, "in the heavens, and on the earth, there is no one but me who deserves to be honoured." At the age of 30, he felt himself all on a sudden filled with the divinity; and now he was metamorphosed into Fo or Pagod, according to the expression of the Hindus. He had no sooner declared himself a divinity, than he thought of propagating his doctrine, and proving his divine mission by miracles. The number of his disciples was immense; and they soon spread his dogmas over all India, and even to the higher extremities of Asia.

One of the principal doctrines which Fo and

his disciples propagated, was the metempsychosis or transmigration of souls. This doctrine, some imagine, has given rise to the multitude of idols reverenced in every country where the worship of Fo is established. Quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and the vilest animals, had temples erected for them; because, say they, the soul of the god, in his numerous transmigrations, may have, at one time or other, inhabited their bodies.

Both the doctrine of transmigration and of the worship of animals seems, however, to have been imported from Egypt into India. If the inter course between these two countries was begun at so early a period as some very late writers have endeavoured to prove, such a supposition is by no means improbable. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was early established among the Egyptians. It was, indeed, the only idea they formed of the soul's immortality. The worship of animals among them seems to have been still more ancient. If such an intercourse did actually exist, we may naturally suppose that colonies of Egyptian priests found their way into India, as they did afterwards into Asia Minor, Italy, and Greece. That colonies of Egyptians did actually penetrate into that country, and settle there, many centuries before the Nativity, is a fact that cannot be called in question, for reasons which the bounds prescribed us on this article will not allow us to enumerate. We shall only observe, that from the hieroglyphical representations of the Egyptian deities seem to have originated those monstrous idols which from time immemorial have been worshipped in India, China, Japan, Siam, and even in the remotest parts of Asiatic Tartary.

Foe is often called Budha, Budda, and some. times Vishnou; perhaps, indeed, he may be distinguished by many other names, according to the variety of dialects of the different nations among which his worship was established. An infinitude of fables was propagated by his disciples concerning him after his death. They pretended that their master was still alive; that he had been already born 8000 times; and that he had successively appeared under the figure of an ape, a lion, a dragon, an elephant, a boar, &c. These were called the incarnations of Vishnou. At length he was confounded with the supreme God; and all the titles, attributes, operations, perfections and ensigns of the Most High were ascribed to him. Sometimes he is called Amida, and represented with the head of a dog, and worshipped as the guardian of mankind. He sometimes appears as a princely personage, issuing from the mouth of a fish. At other times, he wears a lunette on his head, in which are seen cities, mountains, towers, trees, in short, all that the world contains. These transformations are evidently the children of allegorical or hieroglyphical enblems, and form an exact counterpart to the symbolical worship of the Egyptians.

The enormous mass of mythological traditions which have in a manner deluged the vast continent of India would fill many volumes: we have selected the preceding articles as a specimen only, by which our readers may be qualified to judge of the rest. If they find themselves disposed to indulge their curiosity at greater length, we must remit them to Thevenot's and Hamilton's Travels, to Mons. Aquetil in his Zond Avesta, Halhed's Introduction to his translation of the Code of Gentoo Laws; Col. Dow's History of Hindos tan; Grose's Voyage to the East Indies; Asiatic Researches, vol. I. and II.

The mythology of the Persians is, if possible, still more extravagant than that of the Hindus. It supposes the world to have been repeatedly destroyed, and repeopled by creatures of different formation, who were successively annihilated or banished for their disobedience to the Supreme Being. The monstrous griffin Sinergh tells the hero Caherman that she had already lived to see the earth seven times filled with creatures, and seven times a perfect void; that before the creation of Adam, this globe was inhabited by a race of beings called Peri and Dives, whose character formed a perfect contrast. The Peri are described as beautiful and benevolent; the Dives as deformed, malevolent, and mischievous, differing from infernal demons only in this, that they are not as yet confined to the pit of hell. They are for ever ranging over the world, to scatter discord and misery among the sons of men. The Peri nearly resemble the fairies of Europe; and perhaps the Dives gave birth to the giants and magicians of the middle ages. The Peri and Dives wage incessant wars; and when the Dives make any of the Peri prisoners, they shut them up in iron cages, and hang them on the highest trees, to expose them to public view, and to the fury of every chilling blast.

When the Peri are in danger of being overpowered by their foes, they solicit the assistance of some mortal hero; which produces a series of mythological adventures, highly ornamental to the strains of the Persian bards, and which, at the same time, furnishes an inexhaustible fund of the most diversified machinery.

One of the most celebrated adventurers in the mythology of Persia is Tahmurus, one of their most ancient monarchs This prince performs a variety of exploits, while he endeavours to recover the fairy Merjan. He attacks the Dive Demrush in his own cave; where, having vanquished the giant or demon, he finds vast piles of hoarded wealth: these he carries off with the fair captive. The battles, labours, and adventures of Rostan, another Persian worthy, who lived many ages after the former, are celebrated by the Persian bards with the same extravagance of hyhyperbole with which the labours of Hercules have been sung by the poets of Greece and Rome.

The adventures of the Persian heroes breathe all the wildness of achievement recorded of the knights of Gothic romance. The doctrine of enchantments, transformations, &c. exhibited in both, is a characteristic symptom of one common original. Persia is the genuine classic ground of eastern mythology, and the source of the ideas of chivalry and romance; from which they were propagated to the regions of Scandinavia, and indeed to the remotest corners of Europe towards the west.

Perhaps our readers may be of our opinion, when we offer it as a conjecture, that the tales of the war of the Peri and Dives originated from a vague tradition concerning good and bad angels: nor is it, in our opinion, improbable, that the fable of the wars between the gods and giants, so famous in the mythology of Greece and Italy, was imported into the former of these countries from the same quarter. For a more particular account of the Persian mythology, our readers may consult Dr. Hyde de Relig. vet. Pers. Medor, &c.; D'Herbelot's Bibl. Orient. and Mr. Richardson's Introduction to his Persian and Arabic Dictionary.

The mythology of the Chaldeans, like that of

the other nations of the East, commences at a period myriads of years prior to the æra of the Mosaic creation. Their cosmogony, exhibited by Berosus, who was a priest of Belus, and deeply versed in the antiquities of his country, is a piece of mythology of the most extravagant nature. It has been copied by Eusebius (Chron. 1. i. p. 5); it is likewise to be found in Syncellus, copied from Alexander Polyhistor. According to this historian, there were at Babylon written records preserved with the greatest care, comprehending a period of fifteen myriads of years. Those writings likewise contained a history of the heavens and the sea, of the earth, and of the origin of mankind. "In the beginning (says Berosus, copying from Oannes, of whom we shall give a brief account below) there was nothing but darkness and an abyss of water, wherein resided most hideous beings produced from a twofold principle. Men appeared with two wings; some with two and some with four faces. They had one body, but two heads; the one of a man, the other of a woman. Other human figures were to be seen, furnished with the legs and horns of goats. Some had the feet of horses behind, but before were fashioned like men, resembling hippocentaurs." The remaining part of this mythology is much of the same complexion; indeed so extravagant, that we imagine our readers will readily enough dispense with our translating the sequel. "Of all these (says the author) were preserved delineations in the temple of Belus at Babylon. The person who was supposed to preside over them was called Omorea. This word, in the Chaldean language, is Thalath, which the Greeks call Janacea, but it more properly imports the moon. Matters being in this situation, their god (says Eusebius), the god (says Syncellus) came and cut the woman asunder; and out of one half of her he formed the earth, and out of the other he made the heavens; and, at the same time, he destroyed the monsters of the abyss." This whole mythology is an allegorical history copied from hieroglyphical representations, the real purport of which could not be decyphered by the author. Such, in general, were the consequences of the hieroglyphical style of writing.

Oannes the great civilizer and legislator of the Chaldeans, according to Apollodorus, who copied from Berosus, was an amphibious animal of a heterogeneous appearance. He was endowed with reason, and a very uncommon acuteness of parts. His whole body resembled a fish. Under the head of a fish he had also another head, and feet below similar to those of a man, which were subjoined to the tail of the fish. His voice and language were articulate and perfectly intelligible, and there was a figure of him still extant in the days of Berosus. He made his appearance in the Erythrean or Red Sea, where it borders upon Babylonia. This monstrous being conversed with men by day; but at night he plunged into the sea, and remained concealed in the water till next morning. He taught the Babylonians the use of letters and the knowledge of all the arts and sciences. He instructed them in the method of building houses, constructing temples, and all other edifices. He taught them to compile laws and religious ceremonies, and explained to them the principles of mathematics, geometry, and astronomy. In a word, he communicated to them every thing necessary, useful, and ornamental: and so universal were his instructions, that not one single article had ever been added to them since the

time they were first communicated. Helladius is of opinion that this strange personage, whoever he was, came to be represented under the figure of a fish, not because he was actually believed to be such, but because he was clothed with the skin of a seal. By this account our readers will see that the Babylonian Oannes is the exact counterpart of the Fohi of the Chinese, and the Thyoth or Mercury Trismegistus of the Egyptians. It is likewise apparent, that the idea of the monster compounded of the man and the fish has originated from some hieroglyphic of that form grafted upon the appearance of man. Some modern mythologists have been of opinion, that Oannes was actually Noah the great preacher of righteousness; who, as some think, settled in Shinar or Chaldea after the deluge, and who, in consequence of his connection with that event, might be properly represented under the emblem of the Man of the Sea.

The nativity of Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, is another piece of mythology famous among the Babylonians and Assyrians. An egg, say they, of a prodigious size, dropped from heaven into the river Euphrates. Some doves settled upon this egg, after that the fishes had rolled it to the bank. In a short time this egg produced Venus, who was afterwards called the Dea Syria, the Syrian goddess. In consequence of this tradition (says Hyginus), pigeons and fishes became sacred to this goddess among the Syrians, who always abstained from eating the one or the other. Of this imaginary being we have a very exact and entertaining history in the treatise De Dea Syria, generally ascribed to Lucian.

In this mythological tradition our readers will probably discover an illusion to the celebrated Mundane egg; and at the same time the story of the fishes will lead them to anticipate the connection between the sea and the moon. This same deity was the Atargatis of Ascalon, described by Diodorus the Sicilian; the one half of her body a woman, and the other a fish. This was no doubt a hieroglyphic figure of the moon, importing the influence of that planet upon the sea and the sex. The oriental name of this deity evidently points to the moon; for it is compounded of two Hebrew words, which import "the queen of the host of heaven."

The fable of Semiramis is nearly connected with the preceding one. Diodorus Siculus has preserved the mythological history of this deity, which he and all the writers of antiquity have confounded with the Babylonian princess of the same name. That historian informs us, that the word Semiramis, in the Syrian dialect, signifies "a wild pigeon;" but we apprehend that this term was a name or epithet of the moon, as it is compounded of two words of an import naturally applicable to the lunar planet. It was a general practice among the Orientals to denominate their sacred animais from that deity to which they were consecrated. Hence the moon being called Simiramis, and the pigeon being sacred to her divinity, the latter was called by the name of the former.

As the bounds prescribed this article renders it impossible for us to do justice to this interesting piece of mythology, we must beg leave to refer our readers for farther information to Diod. Sic. Lii. Hyginus Poet. Astron. fab. 197. Pharnutus

de Nat. Deor. Ovid. Metam. 1. iv. Athes. in Apol. Izetzes Chil. ix. cap. 275. Seld. de Diis Syr. Syrit. ii. p. 183.

We should now proceed to the mythology of the Arabians, the far greatest part of which is, however, buried in the abyss of ages; though, when we reflect on the genius and character of that people, we must be convinced that they too, as well as the other nations of the East, abounded in fabulous relations and romantic compositions. The natives of that country have always been enthusiastically addicted to poetry, of which fable is the essence. Wherever the muses have erected their throne, fables and miracles have always ap peared in their train. In the Koran we meet with frequent allusions to well-known traditionary fables. These had been transmitted from generation to generation by the bards and rhapsodists for the entertainment of the vulgar. In Arabia, from the earliest ages, it has always been one of the favourite entertainments of the common people to assemble in the serene evenings around their tents, or on the platforms with which their houses are generally covered, or in large halls erected for the purpose, in order to amuse themselves with traditional narrations of the most distinguished actions of their most remote ancestors. Oriental imagery always embellished their romantic details. The glow of fancy, the love of the marvellous, the propensity towards the hyperbolical and the vast, which constitute the essence of oriental description, must ever have drawn the relation aside into the devious regions of fiction and fairyland. The religion of Mahomet beat down the original fabric of idolatry and mythology together. The Arabian fables current in modern times are borrowed or imitated from Persian compositions; Persia being still the grand nursery of romance in the East.

In Egypt we find idolatry, theology, and mythology, almost inseparably blended together. The inhabitants of this region, too, as well as of others in the vicinity of the centre of population, adhered for several centuries to the worship of the true God. At last, however, conscious of their own ignorance, impurity, imperfection, and total unfitness to approach an infinitely perfect being, distant, as they imagined, and invisible, they began to cast about for some beings more exalted and more perfect than themselves, by whose mediation they might prefer their prayers to the supreme majesty of heaven. The luminaries of heaven, which they imagined were、 animated bodies, naturally presented themselves. These were splendid and glorious beings. They were thought to partake of the divine nature: they were revered as the satraps, prefects, and representatives of the supreme Lord of the universe. They were visible, they were beneficent; they dwelt nearer to the gods, they were near at hand, and always accessible. These were, of course, employed as mediators and intercessors between the supreme divinity and his humble subjects of this lower world. Thus employed, they might claim a subordinate share of worship, which was accordingly assigned them. In process of time, however, that worship, which was originally addressed to the supreme Creator by the mediation of the heavenly bodies, was in a great measure forgotten, and the adoration of mankind ultimately terminated on those illustrious creatures. To this circumstance, we think, we may ascribe

the origin of that species of idolatry called Sabaeism, or the worship of the host of heaven, which overspread the world early and almost universally. In Egypt this mode of worship was adopted in all its most absurd and most enthusiastic forms; and at the same time the most heterogeneous mythology appeared in its train. The mythology of the ancient Egyptians was so various and multiform, so complicated and so mysterious, that it would require many volumes even to give a superficial account of its origin and progress, not only in its mother country, but even in many other parts of the eastern and western world. Besides, the idolatry and mythology of that wonderful country are so closely connected and so inseparably blended together, that it is impossible to describe the latter without at the same time developing the former. We hope, therefore, our readers will not be disappointed if, in a work of this nature, we touch only upon some of the leading or most interesting articles of this complicated subject.

The Egyptians confounded the revolutions of the heavenly bodies with the reigns of their most early monarchs. Hence the incredible number of years included in the reign of their eight superior gods, who, according to them, filled the Egyptian throne successively in the most early periods of time. To these, according to their system, succeeded twelve demigods, who likewise reigned an amazing number of years. These imaginary reigns were no other than the periodical revolutions of the heavenly bodies preserved in their almanacks, which might be carried back, and actually were carried back, at pleasure. Hence the fabulous antiquity of that kingdom. The imaginary exploits and adventures of these gods and demigods furnished an inexhaustible fund of mythological romances. To the demigods succeeded the kings of the cynic cycle, personages equally chimerical with the former. The import of this epithet has greatly perplexed critics and etymologists. We apprehend it is an oriental word importing royal dignity, elevation of rank. This appellation intimated, that the monarchs of that cycle, admitting that they actually existed, were more powerful and more highly revered than their successors. After the princes of the cynic cycle comes another race, denominated Nekyes, a title likewise implying royal, splendid, glorious. These cycles figure high in the mythological anuals of the Egyptians, and have furnished materials for a variety of learned and ingenious disquisitions. The wars and adventures of Osiris, Orus, Typhon, and other allegorical personages who figure in the Egyptian rubric; the wanderings of Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris; the transformation of the gods into divers kinds of animals; their birth, education, peregrinations, and exploits; compose a body of mythological fictions so various, so complicated, so ridiculous, and often so apparently absurd, that all attempts to develope and explain them have hitherto proved unsuccessful. All, or the greatest part, of those extravagant fables are the offspring of hieroglyphical or allegorical emblems devised by the priests and sages of that nation, with a view to conceal the mysteries of their religion from that class of men whom they stigmatized with the name of the uninitiated rabble.

The worship of brute animals and of certain vegetables, universal among the Egyptians, was

another exuberant source of mythological adventures. The Egyptian priests, many of whom were likewise profound philosophers, observed, or pretended to observe, a kind of analogy between the qualities of certain animals and vegetables, and those of some of their subordinate divinities. Such animals and vegetables they adopted, and consecrated to the deities to whom they were supposed to bear this anological resemblance; and in process of time they considered them as the visible emblems of those divinities to which they were consecrated. By these the vulgar addressed their archetypes: in the same manner, as in other countries, pictures and statues were employed for the very same purpose. The mob, in process of time, forgetting the emblematical character of those brutes and vegetables, addressed their devotion immediately to them; and of course these became the ultimate objects of vulgar adoration.

After that these objects, animate or inanimate, were consecrated as the visible symbols of the deities, it soon became fashionable to make use of their figures to represent those deities to which they were consecrated. This practice was the natural consequence of the hieroglyphical style which universally prevailed among the ancient Egyptians. Hence Jupiter Ammon was represented under the figure of a ram, Apis under that of a cow, Osiris of a bull, Pan of a goat, Thoth or Mercury of an ibis, Bubastis or Diana of a cat, &c. It was likewise a common practice among those deluded people to dignify these objects, by giving them the names of those deities which they represented. By this mode of dignifying these sacred emblems, the veneration of the rabble was considerably enhanced, and the ardour of their devotion inflamed in proportion. From these two sources, we think, are derived the fabulous transformations of the gods, so generally celebrated in the Egyptian mythology, and from it imported into Greece and Italy. In consequence of this practice, their mythological system was rendered at once enormous and unintelligible.

Their Thoth, or Mercury Trismegistus, was, in our opinion, the inventor of this unhappy system. This personage, according to the Egyptians, was the original author of letters, geometry, astronomy, music, architecture; in a word, of all the elegant and useful arts, and of all the branches of science and philosophy. He it was who first discovered the analogy between the divine affections, influences, appearances, operations, and the corresponding properties, qualities, and instincts of certain animals, and the propriety of dedicating particular kinds of vegetables to the service of particular deities.

The priests, whose province it was to expound the mysteries of that allegorical hieroglyphical religion, (see MYSTERY), gradually lost all knowledge of the primary import of the symbolical characters. To supply this defect, and at the same time to veil their own ignorance, the sacerdotal instructors had recourse to fable and fiction. They heaped fable upon fable, till their religion became an accumulated chaos of mythological absurdities.

Two of the most learned and most acute of the ancient philosophers have attempted a rational explication of the latent import of the Egyptian mythology; but both have failed in the attempt; nor have the moderns, who have laboured in the same department, performed their part with much