then Osiris was said to leave his garlands of Melilotus in the bed of Nephthys. Horus like Osiris had the emblems of generation. The attributes of the three persons in the triad, were more naturally arranged by the Egyptians than by the Hindoos, who combined the generative and destructive powers in one personification, although in detail, Maha-Hala, the destroyer, is distinguished from Iswara, when he assumes the attributes of generation.

In the remaining chapters of the first book, all that can be collected from the ancients respecting the inferior Egyptian gods and goddesses, has been brought together; we have reason to regret the want of sufficient data for certain conclusions, but in general it seems that the gods resolve themselves into various forms of Osiris and Typhon, and the goddesses into forms of Isis and Nephthys. Serapis is Osiris as god of the nether world, and bears a relation to the sun, after his descent into the southern hemisphere.

The 2d book commences with an inquiry into the esoteric philosophy of the Egyptians; their notions respecting the Supreme Deity and the origin of the world. We learn chiefly from Jamblicus and Eusebius, that the Egyptians asserted the existence of an eternal immutable Spirit, whom they term Cniph or Chuphis, and represented under the form of a serpent. According to Porphyry this god was worshipped in a statue of human form and dark azure complexion, holding in his hand a girdle and a sceptre, wearing upon his head a royal plume, and thrusting an egg out of his mouth.' By the egg, as we learn in a passage in the Evangelical Preparation, was meant the world, and with it was produced a secondary or generated god, who was both masculine and feminine. In the masculine character he is termed Phtha, or Vulcan the Demiurgus; and in the feminine Neith, or Minerva; and by this divinity the visible universe was formed out of the chaotic egg. Phtha is identified with Osiris. We have here an exact counterpart of the generation of the Hindoo Brahma, from the substance of the eternal Brahm.

In chapter the 2d the doctrine of the alternate destructions and renovations of the world, which was held by several of the Grecian schools, is analysed, and nearly all the passages of the ancient writers in which it is contained, are cited. This doctrine is ascribed to the Egyptians chiefly on the evidence of the fact, that Egypt appears to have been the source whence the Grecian philosophers who taught it, derived their instructions. It is expressly ascribed to the Egyptians by the author of the

Asclepian dialogue, and by inference in some passages of Syncellus. In a supplement to the same chapter, the ideas of the Hindoos, and some other nations on this subject, are compared with those of the Greeks and Egyptians.

The opinion that at stated periods of whatever duration, the whole universe was destined to be destroyed, and all finite beings to be resolved into the essence of the Deity, has an obvious connexion with the future state of the soul. It is asserted in the old Hermaic books cited by Eusebius, but now lost, that all individual souls are emanations from the one soul of the uni verse, and it seems to have been the general opinion of antiquity, that after a limited period of separate existence, they are re-fused into the source from whence they originated. It is not certain, though very probable, that the Egyptians held this opinion; their doctrines respecting the fate of the soul are considered by the author in the 3d chapter of the second book. He adheres to the testimony of Herodotus, which represents them as believing in the Metempsychosis, and rejects the opinion of the President de Goguet and Schlegel, who have ascribed to them a doctrine analogous to that of the resurrection of the body. The testimony of the Pseudo Hermes is again adverted to on this subject, who in the book intitled Clavis, speaks of the transmigration of souls into animals.

Book the third is an attempt to trace an outline of the history of this mythology, and to illustrate it by reference to the sacred books of the Hindoos. The author begins with a sketch taken from the writings of Schlegel and Colebrooke, of the history of Hindoo Mythology; the religion of the Hindoos is traced through four successive eras. In the oldest representations which are found in their sacred books, it appears comparatively but little corrupted from the faith of the Patriarchs; the doctrine, however, of the transmigration and emanation of souls, is referred to this period; the age of Pantheism succeeds. The introduction of Astrolatry and the worship of Nature in its various parts, follows in the natural progress of corruption. The doctrine of two principles, or the eternal warfare of light and darkness, Vice and Virtue, established by the elder Zoroaster, seems to have been a partial attempt at reformation, and to revive the ideas of antiquity. This was a Persian and not an Indian school; but with what propriety it is introduced into the succession of Indian doctrines, we shall leave to the reader to inquire. In the 3d chapter of this book the author compares at length the several parts of Hindoo and Egyptian Mythology; he points out a similar progress in the history of the latter; the observations

on this subject we have not room to analyse; he concludes with general inferences respecting the origin and history of mythology; he thinks he has proved analytically, that the first mythology was a corruption of revealed religion; the first step,' he observes, towards the corruption of this simple form of theology, seems to have been the attempt to adorn it with the fragments of philosophy, according to that style of philosophising that was suited to the genius of the old age. It is to this period that we must refer most of the pagan cosmogonies. Many of them contain the doctrine, that the world was created by the voluntary agency of the Supreme; but this idea was not enough to satisfy curiosity, and we find it often blended with some fanciful analogies derived from natural processes that are daily observed. The production of an organised world was compared by some to the germination of seeds; an idea which occurs in the institutes of Menu, and in some of the representations of the Grecian schools. Hence also the celebrated fiction of the mundane egg, or the egg produced spontaneously in the womb of Erebus, containing in itself the elements which were afterwards distributed into the various departments of the world.

To the same childish fondness for analogies and illustra tions, we must attribute that description of the demiurgus, or creative power, which represents him as comprising in himself two sexes, and producing all subordinate creatures by the way of generation. On this subject enough has been said in the foregoing pages. Another important step in the progress of superstition, and one which seems to have led the way to the establishment of the first pagan worship, was the habit of resolving the doctrine of emanation into those descriptions of the Deity which verge towards pantheism. These two theories are so nearly allied, that the former naturally degenerates into the latter, while the pantheistic representation of the divinity involves or leads inevitably to the deification of material beings, as particularly of the more striking and conspicuous objects in the visible universe. To the same style of philosophy belong the personification of the most remarkable powers of nature, the consecration of emblems, some of them the most obscene, as types or symbols of those powers, the decorated pomps and gorgeous superstitions of the pagan world, and all the prodigious abominations in which a corrupt religion emulated and exceeded the actual depravity of men. All these innovations produced a mist, which darkened the eyes of the victims of superstition, and concealed from them those principles which

were still recognised by the learned as the basis of their religious system.'

The 4th book commences with the ceremonies connected with the worship of animals in Egypt, which forms a remarkable feature in the superstition of that country. It was remarked by Clemens and Origen, that those who visited Egypt approached with delight its sacred groves and splendid temples, adorned with superb vestibules and lofty porticos, the scene of many solemn and mysterious rites. The walls, says Clemens, shine with gold and silver, and with amber, and sparkle with the various gems of India and Ethiopia; and the recesses are concealed by splendid curtains. But if you enter the penetralia, and inquire for the image of the god, for whose sake the fane was built; one of the Pastaphori, or some other attendant on the temple, approaches with a solemn and mysterious aspect, and putting aside the veil, suffers you to peep in, and obtain a glimpse of the divinity. There you behold a snake, a crocodile, or a cat, or some other beast, a fitter inhabitant of a cavern or bog, than of a temple.'

After some general observations on the worship of animals, the author proceeds under each head to collect the accounts which the ancients have left.-Section 3d, on the worship of quadrupeds of the ox-kind; including the rites of Apis, Mnevis, and other sacred bulls, and of the cow dedicated to Isis-2dly, the worship of dogs-3dly, of cats-4th of the wolf-5th of the ram-6th of the goat-7th of the worship of the deer-8th of monkeys and apes-9th of the ichneumon10th of the shrew mouse-11th of the lion-12th of the hippopotamus 13th of impure animals.

Section 4th-of the worship of birds: 1st, of the hawk2d, of the crow-3dly, of the vulture-4th of the eagle-5th, of the ibis-6th, of the goose.

Section 5th, on fabulous birds, which are traced in the Egyptian Mythology, contains remarks on the phoenix, aud in a note, a citation from Bede, which proves that that author understood the phoenix, in a passage of Job, which has often been referred to of late, fieri ergo potest ut Beatus Job in similitudinem avis illius dicat, se post mortem in carnis cinere velut in nido pro tempore futurum et inde resurrecturum in gloriam, atque hos æternos esse dies quos multiplicandos sibi fidelis Dei cultor expectet. Ita enim et superius locutus est dicens. Et rursum circumdabor pelle mea, et in carne mea videbo Deum !"

Section 6th includes the worship of fishes, reptiles, insects,

plants and stones. From the latter superstition is derived the doctrine of talismans. In section 7th, the motives which gave rise to the worship of animals are investigated: the conjectures of Plutarch and Diodorus, who fancied that animals were worshipped out of gratitude for the benefits which men derive from their use, and that of Lucian, who connected the veneration paid to animals with astrolatry, are considered, but the author endeavours to prove from some passages of Porphyry and other writers, that this practice was derived from the doctrine of emanation, and the incarnation of the superior beings in the forms of animals. He concludes with notices of several Egyptian Avatans very much according to the style of the celebrated fictions of the Hindoos. Section 8th, on the worship of men who received at Anabis divine honors, analagous to those paid to brutes, concludes with some remarks on the deification of the Egyptian kings, a practice derived from the same superstition. Section 9th, on the antiquity of the worship of animals in Egypt. The chapter concludes with a note, comparing the above-mentioned rites with the customs of the Hindoos, as connected with metaphysical ideas of a similar kind.

In the following chapter, the author describes the sacrifices and festivals of the Egyptians-the sacrifices of human victims -of swine-sheep-goats-the ceremonies relating to Typhon; the annual festivals: under each topic the statements left by the ancient writers are collected.

In the 3d chapter the civil institutions of this nation are analysed: the different classes into which the community was divided are described, and an account is given of the subdivisions of the sacerdotal class, and the religious duties, abstinences, &c. enjoined to them. These customs are in a note compared, and found remarkably to coincide with those of the Hindoos.

The last book concludes with a minute comparison of the ordinances of Moses, with the rites of his Egyptian instructors of the mode in which this important subject is treated, we have not room to give our readers an adequate idea. Each topic is discussed singly: first, the theological doctrine of Moses is compared with that of the Egyptians-secondly, the political and civil institutions-thirdly, the ceremonies and ritual laws. The last section is on the origin of circumcision, and in this instance the opinion of Michaelis is adopted.

The critical examination of the remains of Egyptian chronology which is appended to the work on mythology, cannot at present be fully analysed. The object of the author is to determine whether the records of Egyptian chronology really assert VOL. XXVI.

Cl. JI.

NO. LI.

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