Jamblichus (e) informs us the Egyptians called that efficient fpirit, which does all things with truth and wisdom, Phtha; and the Greeks Vulcan, only confidering the art with which it produces. This fpirit, to which they affign the highest rank, they say, gave chaos firft the form of an egg, and, from that, afterward, created all things. Thales, the Milesian, taught by the priests of Memphis, fays (ƒ), "Water is the prin"ciple of all things, and God the spirit "which has formed the universe from this "humid principle." The verfe of Genefis (g) and the spirit of God moved (brooded) upon the face of the waters,' is very correfpondent to the Egyptian doctrine of the creation. We may naturally suppose Mofes, educated in the court of Pharaoh, there obtained a part of this knowledge, and, afterward, difencumbered truth of mystery and fable, The Egyptians, that they might give the Creator a fenfible form, attributed two fexes to him; that is, they acknowledged a power refident in him

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(e) De Myfteriis, fect. 8.

(f) Cic. de Nat. Deorum. lib. 4.

(g) Chap, i, ver. 2.

which could produce without the affiftance of any other being. Synefius, full of this ancient theology, fpeaking of him, fays, "The father, mother, male, and female, "art thou (b)."

On the obelisk of granite, tranfported from Egypt to Rome, among the hieroglyphics, interpretated by Hermapion, is the following remarkable paffage, relative to Ramestes, king of Heliopolis (i). "Him hath "Phtha, father of the gods, chofen." The words, father of the gods, meant the stars, which the fages of Egypt held to be the moft ftriking emblems of the deity, and which the people really adored. In the time of Herodotus (k), fire, water, earth, heaven, the fun, moon, day, and night, had divine honours paid them, but were only the gods of the vulgar; the initiated had another faith, and acknowledged the author of nature, only, who drew all creatures from non-entity.

The first dynasty of Manetho includes the reign of the gods in Egypt (1), at the head (b) Hymn III.

(i) Ammian. Marcellin. lib. 17.

(k) Herod. lib. 2.

(1) Manetho apud Syncellum.

of

of whom is Phtha, or Vulcan, and, after him, the fun, his fon, which paffage, understood allegorically, is not contrary to found theology. The fun, the work of the Creator, may be confidered as his fon, and the Egyptians, to ennoble their origin, worfhipped the Creator as the first of their kings. To each of these material gods Manetho asfigns a certain length of reign; which we muft understand as folar and lunar cycles, invented by aftronomers (m). This dynasty proves Phtha antecedent to time, the course of which was regulated, when men studied the heavens, by the regular fucceffion of thefe vifible deities. The Egyptian priest pofitively declares (n), "No determinate "epocha can be fixed to Phtha, because he "fhines as well in darkness as in day." The ftars appear and difappear, their empire had a beginning, therefore is not eternal, But the invifible fpirit was before time; his power fhines, everlaftingly, in his works, and his reign is immutable.

In the fanctuaries of their temples the Egyptian priests fecluded this fublime doc

(m) Vide Vignoles, tom. II. (n)M aneth. apud Syncell.

trine, either tranfmitted by the first men or
imagined by their own genius; as by Abra-
ham, from the efforts of reafon, and the
study of aftronomy (c). Having enveloped-
them in allegories which themselves, only,
could unfold, they left the people in total
ignorance, favoured their idolatry, and, at
the death of each individual, thus prayed:
"O Sun, and ye other gods, who bestow
"life, receive me; reftore me to the eternal
"deities, that I may dwell with them (p)."
The Greeks pretend that, according to
the Egyptians, Phtha was only the most
pure
and fubtle fire, above the ether, whence
fouls came to animate bodies; wherefore
they named him Vulcan, who prefided over
"The fages of Egypt," fays
Servius (q), "embalmed, in order to pre-

that element.

(0) Clemens Alexandrinus affirms Abraham attained the knowledge of one God by the study of aftronomy, which appears to be the opinion of the Arabs. Mahomet, having collected their traditions, represents the patriarch of the faithful looking to the heavens, and, after obferving, with amazement, the appearance and difappearance of fun, moon, and stars, which he, at first, had fuppofed divinities, he exclaims, "I will not worship gods that rife and "fet."

(P) Porphyr. lib. 6,

(9) Serv. Comment. in Æneid. lib. 3.

" ferve

"ferve bodies; and that their fouls, re

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maining longer, might not quit them to "animate others; the Romans, on the con

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trary, immediately burn them, that they may return to their primitive nature." Herodotus (r) fuppofes this metempsychofis came first from Egypt. If these authors may be credited, the Egyptians held Phtha, or the Upper Ether, to be the being which fucceffively gave life to the universe. The Platonists and Pythagoreans held the same belief, and that the foul, immortal in its nature, leaving the body, returned to the foul of the world, whence it first came (s). These are the opinions of the Greeks; who, no doubt, disfigured the religion of Egypt, by mingling their own metaphyfical reveries. What I have cited, in a former part of this letter, proves Phtha was anciently regarded as the ordaining spirit, the grand architect of the universe; he was principally adored at Memphis, where he had a temple (t);

(r) Lib. 2.

(s) Plutarch de placitis philofoph, lib. 4.

(t) Defcribed by Herodotus and Diodorus.

Suidas

adds the people of Memphis adored Vulcan by the name

of Phtha,

but,