philofophers of Greece and Rome, as well as the Egyptian priests, acknowledged only one God. Mythology to them was a chain of allegories, veiling phyfical effects, and natural caufes; yet they bowed before the statues of Jupiter, Pallas, and Venus. Socrates, alone, had the fortitude to exclaim against these fabulous deities, and Socrates was obliged to swallow poifon. If you wish to recollect a more recent example of the danger of enlightening the world, remember Galileo, who, after having been obliged to afk pardon on his knees for daring to speak the truth, and announce a most important discovery, was perfecuted the remainder of his life, and died in exile. Heroic as it is to die a martyr in such a cafe, there are few minds capable of this heroifm.

These facts, and many others I might cite, prove that, though the Egyptian priefs were culpable for concealing the light from the people they fhould have inftructed, we must not condemn them with too much rigour; for, in these diftant ages, when they spoke but by types, idolatry took rapid ftrides, and it was fcarcely poffible in deftroying it

not

not to destroy religion. The gods of Laban, which Rebecca ftole, were hieroglyphics, the fignification of which was probably loft to Laban, and he adored these images because they defcended to him from his forefathers. The fame thing happened in Egypt, where hieroglyphics became the divinities of the people, when they could no longer comprehend their meaning. There was but one way to extinguish fuperftition, and this must have been by the deftruction of thefe hieroglyphics; but this facrifice would have robbed the pricfts of their knowledge, and of the abfolute empire they exercifed over the mind. There are individuals fufficiently generous to renounce the feductive charms of power, from pure motives of benevolence, but no body of men was ever capable of an effort fo fublime.

I have the honour to be, &c.

LETTER

LETTER XL.

REMARKS ON THE HIEROGLYPHICS.

Hieroglyphics the first written language; more ancient than the deluge; their meaning loft, under the monarchs of the lower empire; and might, perhaps, be recovered by a perfect knowledge of the Coptic, or by a journey to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, where an Egyptian colony fettled, and where, it is probable, the ancient language, books, and interpretation of the hieroglyphics, are preferred.

To M. L. M.

Grand Cairo.

HIEROGLYPHICS, Sir, formed the first written language of men, and are imitative and allegorical characters, differing from letters, because, one paints the thoughts by marks and founds, and the other by figures only. Their antiquity approaches the time of the deluge; and, perhaps, precedes it;

for

for before that event men poffeffed arts and sciences, and, as they engraved on stone, fome of those monuments might have efcaped the general deftruction.

Clemens Alexandrinus enumerates a great number of books attributed to Thoth, that is to fay, approved by the academies, and published under this name; and even cites feveral of them. The firft, faid he, contained facred hymns, the fecond rules for kings; the four following treated of aftronomy, and the obfervations of the Egyptians. Ten others contained the fcience of hieroglyphics, geography, and cofinography. A like number included the code of laws, religion, and holy difcipline; and the fix laft were a compleat treatise on phyfic. These works have undergone the fate of fo many others. A Barbarian, whofe name pofterity must deteft, ufed them, for fix months, to heat the baths of Alexandria. But most of thefe Egyptian books were only copies; the originals remain fculptured in a thousand places, on obelifks, and the walls of temples and caverns, and these are what the learned of all nations ought to endeavour to read. Manetho, high prieft, and facred writer, among the Egyptians,

3

tians, thence collected the hiftory he wrote, under the Ptolomies. About three centuries

after, Hermapion interpreted the obelisk of Heliopolis, tranfported to Rome by Auguf

tus;

fince whom no author has understood the hieroglyphics, or none whofe works have defcended to us. Ammianus Marcellinus, who lived in the reign of Julian, affirms thefe characters were then unintelligible to the Latins.

Are any means left of rending

away the veil with which time has covered them, and explaining the facts they contain? He who fhould effect this would ac quire immortal glory, by reftoring to arts, fciences, and history, fo many discoveries, loft to the world. Though I make no pretenfions to this most arduous task, I will recapitulate fome ideas, to which the study of the ancients, and a reiterated view of the monuments of Egypt, gave birth.

The priests are known to be the inventors of the letters called facerdotal, with which they tranflated the hieroglyphics. These were univerfally used in the temples, and with them all that related to religion and fçience was written. This was an interme

VOL. II.

I i

diate