defirous of making their moft excellent difcovery immortal; a discovery which, according to Plato, muft either be invented by a divine man or a god. It is poffible, also, that the fhadow of this Coloffus ferved to indicate the moment of the equinox; fo, at leaft, we may be led to think from its name, formed from Ame nouphi (d), teller of good tidings (e). The Greeks adopted these ancient ideas when they attributed to Apollo (the Sun) the invention of the lyre and mufic. This allegory, which denoted the admirable harmony of the fpheres, became obfcured by poetical fictions, and was no longer understood. I have the honour to be, &c. (d) Jablonski de Memnone, (e) The Sun's arrival at the Equator promifed the ceflation of the fouth wind, and the coming of the inundation, which occafioned the Egyptians to obferve it fo carefully. LETTER LETTER XXXIX. REFLECTIONS ON THE RELIGION OF The Egyptians had but two religious dogmas, that of a creating deity, and the immortality of the foul; the rest was all allegory, and this worship was preferved pure within the temples. The necefity of using emblematic figures, before the invention of letters, infenfibly led to their adoration, which happened when the eafy method of writing occafioned the fenfe of the hieroglyphics to be forgotten. Conjecture concerning the gods of Laban. To M. L. M. Grand Cairo. INDULGE me, Sir, in a few short reflections on a religion whose mysteries I have interpreted. It contained but two established principles, that of the Creator, an Infinite Spirit, and the Immortality of the Soul. The firft is demonftrated by the temples of Phtha, pro Neith, and Cneph, confecrated to the power, wifdom, and goodness of the Supreme Being. The fecond by the care with which bodies were embalmed, and the prayer recited at the death of an Egyptian. The temple of Cneph, in the island of Elephantina, may be regarded as the most ancient in Egypt; for, before the people defcended into the valley, where the ftagnant waters of the Nile formed impenetrable marshes, till drained and rendered per for agriculture by men's labours, according to Herodotus, they inhabited the mountains befide the cataract. This monument, then, is a teftimony their worship of the Creator preceded every other, and we may, even, fafely affirm it was preferved, in all its purity, among the pries; for men once, by the effort of reafon, attaining the knowledge of one God, or receiving this knowledge by tradition, cannot, while form_ ing an enlightened fociety, fall back to ido, latry, which always fuppofes profound igno rance. All the remaining Egyptian theology was purely allegorical, which included the courfe of the fun, moon, and ftars, and the most remarkable phænomena of nature, each of which was perfonified in the facred language of the priests. But, far from adoring, they confidered them only as admirable figns, in which the fplendor cf the most high was made manifeft. This religion was, probably, fo first taught, but infenfibly corrupted, because the vulgar, accustomed to fee the fymbolical figures I have mentioned, in the fanctuary, and, when taken thence, at certain periods, to offer facrifices of thanksgiving to the creator, forgot the invifible object of adoration in the emblem. But, wherefore did not the priests remove this blindness? Wherefore enflave a nation by fuch wretched fuperftition? It was not their intent, at firft, no doubt; but the neceflity of expreffing themselves by allegorical fables, before the invention of letters, and keeping them in the temples, accustomed the people to hold them facred. When writing became familiar, and they had wholly forgotten their first fignification, they no longer prefcribed bounds to their veneration, but actually worshipped fymbols which their ancestors had only honoured. Oris and Ifs became the tutelar deities of Egypt; Scrapis prefided over the inundation; Apis prefaged abundance; and the evil ge. nius Typhon menaced deftructive ills. Deeply imprefied on their minds, it was difficult to erase these ideas without overthrowing the eftablished religion. It may be, too, for men were ever the fame, the priests adroitly profited by this ignorance, to make themselves mediators between heaven and earth, and the difpenfers of the divine will: yet we ought to be circumfpect in prefuming to judge a body of the learned, who published the wife laws that Athens profited by, and raised fo great a number of useful and durable monuments, when we reflect that the Hebrews, though kept feparate from the Egyptians, and in the ancient faith of Abraham, by their leaders, and prophets, no fooner came to the defert, than, profiting by the abfence of Mofes, who waited on the mountain to receive the commandments, they forced Aaron to caft them a golden calf for a god. So true is it that fenfible objects have more power over the multitude than all the precepts of wifdom. Reasoning impartially, we must perceive it is equally difficult and dangerous to fhew mankind the truth. The greatest philofophers |