language, that I brought with me, appears to be a mixture of the Christian and Mahometan; the Gospels and the Koran being equally received as books of divine authority and inspiration. For to omit, what is commonly reported by the other inhabitants of this country, of their being circumcised; of their worshipping the rising and setting sun; of their intermarrying with their nearest relations, and making their children pass through the fire; we may well conclude, from their indulging themselves in wine and swines flesh, that they are not strict Mahometans; as the Christian names of Hanna, Youseph, Meriam, &c. (i. e. John, Joseph, Mary, &c.) which they are usually called by, will not be sufficient proof of their being true Christians. The Druses are probably the same with the XAEYEIOI of Phocas, whom he places in this situation, and describes to be neither Christians nor Mahometans, but a mixture of both.

*

CHAP

*Vid. Phocæ Descript. Syriæ, apud L. Allatii Zvjuinta.

FROM

ROM Syria and Palestine, let us now carry on our physical and miscellaneous inquiries into Egypt. Here we have a large and inexhaustible fund of matter, which has engaged the studies and attention of the curious, from the most early records of history. For besides the great variety of arts and sciences that were known to the Egyptians, we read of no other nation that could boast of the like number, either of natural or artificial curiosities. It was the fame and reputation which Egypt had acquired, of being the school and repository of these several branches of knowledge and ingenuity that engaged Orpheus, Pythagoras, and other persons of the first rank in antiquity*, to leave their own countries

to

* Such were Musæus, Melampus, Dædalus, Homer, Lycurgys, Solon, Plato, Democritus, &c. Vid. Diod. Sic. 1. i. p. 53.

to be acquainted with this. These philosophers likewise were so artful in the first introducing of themselves*, they complied so readily afterwards with the customs of the country †, and were so happy in addressing themselves to the persons who were to instruct them, that, notwithstanding the hatred, jealousy, and reservedness ||, which the Egyptians entertained towards strangers, they generally returned home with success, and brought along with them either some new religious rites, or some useful discoveries.

Thus Herodotus acquaints us, that the Greeks borrowed all the names of their gods from Egypt; and Diodorus, that they not only derived from thence their theology, but their arts and sciences likewise. For, among other instances, he tells us, that the ceremonies of Bacchus and Ceres, who were the same with Osiris and Isis, had been introduced very early among them by Orpheus; that from the same source, Pythagoras received the doctrine of the transmigration of souls ; Euxodus and Thales ** received mathematics;

and

* It might be for this reason, that Plato, &c. took upon him the character of an oil-merchant; oil being always a welcome commodity to Egypt. Plut. Solon. p. 79. edit. Par.

+ Clemens Alexandrinus acquaints us, that Pythagoras was circumcised, in order to be admitted into their Adyta. Vid. Strom. edit. Pott. 1. i. P. 354.

Id. ibid. p. 356.

Id. 1. v. p. 670. Just. Mart. Quæst. 25. ad Orthod.

§ Herod. Eut. p. 50.

**

P. 221.

¶ Diod. Sic. Bib. 1. i. p. 96.

Diog. Laert. 1. i. in Vita Thal. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1.i.

and Dædalus architecture, sculpture, and other ingenious arts. According to the same author *, Greece was further obliged to Egypt, not only for physic and medicines †, but for a great many laws, maxims, and constitutions of polity, which had been introduced among them by Plato, Solon, and Lycurgus. Even their more abstracted learning, such as related to the essence of the Deity, to the power and combination of numbers, to their ΜΟΝΑΣ † and ΤΡΙΑΣ, with other disquisitions of the like abstracted nature, seem to have been transcribed from thence into the works of Plato and Pythagoras.

Their symbolical learning alone, either as it was conveyed in sculpture upon their obelisks, &c. or in colours and painting upon the walls of their cryptæ, mummy-chests, boxes for the sacred animals, &c. appears not to have been known in Greece, though among the antiquities of Hetrurias, we meet with some faint imitations of it; enough perhaps to prove, either that this nation was originally related to Egypt, or that Pythagoras,

*Diod. Sic. ut supra.

+ Homer. Odyss. A. ver. 227.

Zoroast. apud Kirch. Oedip. Ægypt. Synt. i. p. 100.

Several of these cryptæ, painted with symbolical figures, are seen near the pyramids. Chrysippus's antrum Mithre seems to have been of the same kind. Τα τειχία τα σπηλαις παντα ποικιλοις εικοσι κοσμεμένα, και τα των θεων, ες μεσιτας καλέσι, αγαλματα περιςαμένα.

f. Vid. Tabb. Dempst. Hetruriæ Regalis, 19. 26. 35. 39. 47. 63. 66. 77. 78. 88.---Symbolicum appello, cum quid colitur, non quia creditur Deus, sed quia Deum significat.---Quomodo sol cultus in igne Vestali, Hercules in statua, &c. G. J. Voss. de Idolol. 1. i. c. 5.

goras, or some of his school, introduced it among them. However, though none of the Grecian travellers have carried into their own country the figures and symbols themselves; yet Diodorus in particular, in conjunction with Porphyry, Clemens Alexandrinus, and other authors, has obliged us with the description and interpretation of some of the most remarkable of them. Yet, as a proper and faithful key is wanting to the whole science, the purport and design of any single specimen of it must still remain a secret; it must at least be exceedingly dubious, uncertain, and obscure.

Now, from what is presumed to be already known of this symbolical learning, it is supposed that the Egyptians chiefly committed to it such things as regarded the being and attributes of their gods; the sacrifices and adorations that were to be offered to them; the concatenation of the different classes of beings; rerum naturæ interpretatio, according to Pliny t; the doctrine of the elements, and of the good and bad demons, that were imagined to influence and direct them. These again were represented by such particular animals,

* Hieroglyphica Ægyptiorum sapientia, testantibus omnibus. veterum scriptorum monumentis, nihil aliud erat, quam scientia de Deo, divinisque virtutibus, scientia ordinis universi, scientia intelligentiarum mundi præsidum, quam Pythagoras et Plato, notante Plutarcho, ex Mercurii columnis, i. e. ex obeliscis, didicerunt. Kirch. Oed. Ægypt. tom. iii. p. 567. Ægyptii per nomina Deorum universam rerum naturam, juxta theologiam naturalem, intelligebant. Macrob. Sat. 1. i. c. 20.

Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. xxxvi. c. 9.