(f) adds, they alfo infcribed remarkable ac- tal book, a kind of Cyclopædia, which in The custom of making marble, and its durable characters, the book of fcience, is almost as ancient as the world. We have reafon to believe this book was the first men ever read. "The patriarch Seth, knowing (f) In Timæum, lib. 1. (g) Tamblichus de Myfteriis, Egypt. (b) Lib. 3. (i) Apud. Eufeb. Præp. Evan. lib. 1. "Adam "Adam had predicted all that earth contains "should perish, either by conflagration or "univerfal deluge; and fearing philofophy "and aftronomy would be loft to man, and "buried in forgetfulness, engraved his knowledge on two columns, the one of brick, "the other of ftone, that fhould the waters deftroy the first, the latter might remain, "and teach men aftronomical discoveries. "This column is ftill to be seen in the Siri"adic land." (k) Let us hear what Manetho fays, the famous hiftorian, and facred Egyptian writer, who lived more than three centuries before Jofephus. He affirms (1) "that he obtained "his knowledge from the pillars (ra) "in the Siriadic land, on which Thoth, the "first Mercury, had engraved it, in the fa cred language and hieroglyphic characters; "whence the good genius, fon of the fecond 66 Mercury, had thefe characters tranflated "into the dialect of the priests, and written "in facerdotal letters." Here, Sir, are two men, of two nations, who engrave their (4) Antiq. Jud. lib. 1. (7) Manetho, in his Sothis, dedicated to Ptolemy Philadelphus, vide Syncelli Chronographiam. difcoveries difcoveries on marble. I fhall not examine whether Seth, as Jablonski fuppofes (m), be the fame as Thoth; or if Jofephus, pofterior to Manetho, wifhed to transfer the honour of an act to the patriarch which the Egyptians had long attributed to themselves. This is an enquiry of mere curiofity; the matter of most importance would be to prove, from authentic monuments, the existence of these columns, and the place where. Both thefe hiftorians call it the Siriadic land, a land as much unknown to the ancients as moderns; which has inclined feveral of the learned to imagine that, for Siriadic, we ought to read Siringic, which fignifies fubterranean alleys. This idea was, perhaps, fuggefted by the following paffage. "It is "affirmed (2) that the Egyptian priests, in"fructed in all that concerned religion, on "the approach of the deluge, feared left divine "worship would be effaced from the memory "of man. To preferve it, therefore, they dug, "at a vaft expence, and in various parts of "the kingdom, fubterranean winding paf (m) Panth. Egypt. lib. 3. cap. 20. VOL. II. G g "fages, fages, in the walls of which they engraved "their knowledge, under the forms of various "animals, and birds, called by them hieroglyphics, and which are unintelligible to "the Latins." This writer, it feems, has decided the queftion; and by the Siriadic land must be understood the fubterranean canals dug in the rocks round Thebes and Memphis. In the immenfe labyrinths, beneath the plain of Saccara, are vast numbers of the figures of men, birds, and animals, fculptured in the walls; like hieroglyphicks are found in the numerous caverns of the mountains hear Thebes, among which facred characters, fome are painted, fome engraved, and fome in baffo relievo, divided into compartments, or columns. Are not these the fanctuaries which the priests alone might enter, and where they confided to stone historical events, the wonders of art, and the inventions of fcience? I know the Scholiaft on Sophocles (2) pretends the columns (ra) on which (e) In Electram. thefe these memorable things were infcribed (*) were square ftones: fo they were, perhaps, in Greece; but obelisks, columns, and the walls of temples and caverns, in which were innumerable hieroglyphics, divided into compartments, were the Era of the Egyptians, as Sanchoniathon, Manetho, and the most ancient authors atteft. The monuments described by Ammianus Marcellinus still remain, and the traveller beholds them with barren admiration, as the firft efforts of human genius to render its labours immortal. But the testimony of authors will not be fufficient, Sir, to perfuade us these hieroglyphics were anterior to the deluge, the truth or falfhood of which can only be fatisfactorily proved by understanding and reading them. There is little doubt but they would inform us when they were engraved, and give the history of the first ages of the world; at least, we may reasonably conclude these characters preceded writing, and are the most an *It seems ftrange the Author fhould fuppofe the infcriptions on the columns here meant, which were merely the boundaries, or goal, of a chariot course, could have any Lelation to the hieroglyphic learning of the Egyptians. T. |