actually the case: the most early alphabets being framed from the outlines of those figures in the real characters, which, by use, in their hieroglyphic state, had arrived at the facility of exciting, in the mind, the SOUND as well as THING IV. But this political alphabet, as at first it was, soon occasioned the invention of another called SACRED: for the priests having a share in the Government, must have an early communication of the secret; and being now inmerged in deep philosophy, they would naturally employ, in their hidden doctrines, a method so well adapted to convey abstract speculations with exactness and precision. But the various uses of an Alphabet in civil business not permitting it to continue long a secret, when it ceased to be so, they would as naturally invent another alphabetic character for their sacred use: which from that appropriation was called HIEROGRAMMA TICAL. ..That the Egyptian priests had such a sacred alphabetic character, we are informed by Herodotus:-"The "Greeks (says he) write their letters, and make their computations with counters, from the left to the " right; the Egyptians, on the contrary, from the right "to the left.They use two sorts of letters, one of "which they called sacred, the other popular t." Diodorus is yet more express; "the PRIESTS (say he) taught their sons two sorts of letters, the one called sacred, the other, the common and popular." Clemens Alexandrinus goes still farther, and describes the very books in which this sacred alphabet was principally employed: And as the place, where he explains this matter, is very curious, and contributes to the farther illustration of the subject, I shall consider it more at large. It hath been shewn that Clemens, in the passage quoted above, understood what he called the sacerdotal, IEPATIKHN, to be an alphabetic character. Now the * Plate VIII. † Γράμματα γράφεσι καὶ λογίζονται ψήφοισι, Ἕλληνες μὲν, ἀπὸ τῶν ἀριστερῶν ἐπὶ τὰ δεξιὰ φέροντες τὴν χεῖρα, Αἰγύπλιοι δὲν ἀπὸ τῶν δεξιῶν ἐπὶ τα αριστερά. - διφασίοισι δὲ γράμμασι χρέωνται. καὶ τὰ μὲν αὐτῶν, ἱρὰς τὰ δὲ, δημοτικὰ καλεεθάι. Lib. ii. cap. 36. † Παιδίνησι δὲ τὸς υἱός οἱ μὲν Ἱερεῖς γράμματα διπλὰ, τὰ τε ἱερὰ καλά. μενα, καὶ τὰ κοινοτέραν ἔχοντα τὴν μάθησιν. Ρ. 51. same 1 same writer speaking in another place of the forty-two But an ALPHABET for secrecy, and consequently different from the vulgar, was a thing in use amongst the priesthood of almost all nations. Philo Biblius, in Eusebius, speaking of Sanchoniatho's history, tells us, that the author composed it by the assistance of certain records which he found in the temples written in AMMONEAN LETTERS, not understood by the people: these Ammonean letters Bochart explains to be such as the * Strom. lib. vi. pp. 633, 634. Edit. Colon. 1688. + -περί τε τῆς κοσμογραφίας, και γεωγραφίας, τῆς τάξεως τα ηλία κα τῆς σελήνης, καὶ περὶ τῶν ὁ πλανωμένων χωρογραφίαν τε τῆς Αἰγύπλιο, τῆς τὸ Νείλε διαγραφῆς. Ibid. † ὁ δὲ συμβαλὼν τοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν ἀδύτων εὑρεθεῖσιν ἀποκρύφοις "Αμμενέων γράμμασι συγκειμένοις, ἃ δὲ ἐκ ἦν πᾶσι γνώριμα.-Præp. Evang lib. i. cap. 9. priests priests used in sacred matters *. Diogenes Laertius informs us, from Thrasyllus, that Democritus wrote two books, the one of the sacred letters of the Babylonians, the other of the sacred letters of the city Meroët: and concerning these last, Heliodorus saith, that the Ethiopians had two sorts of letters, the one called regal, the other vulgar; and that the regal resembled the sacerdotal characters of the Egyptians. Theodoret, speaking of the Grecian temples in general, says that they had certain forms of letters for their own use, called sacerdotal; and Fourmont, and others, suppose that this general custom prevailed among the Hebrews also¶. Which opinion, a passage in Irenæus seems to support** And now we shall know how to deal with a strange passage of Manetho in Eusebius. This historian assures his reader," that he took his information from pillars in the land of Seriad, inscribed by Thoyth the "first Hermes, with hierographic letters in the sacred "dialect; and translated, after the flood, out of the "sacred dialect, into the Greek tongue, with HIEROGLYPHIC letters, and deposited in volumes by Agathodæmon, the second Hermes, father of Tat, in the Ammoneorum, i. e. Ammanim-Abenezra in Levit. xxvi. 30. Templa facta ad cultum Solis. Quod verissimum; Sof enim Hebræis est amma, unde amman templum Solis, quem solum Cœli Dominum crediderunt prisci Phoenices. Sanchoniathon, το τον γὰρ (τὸν ἥλιον) θεὸν ἐνόμιζον μόνον ἐραν κύριον. Itaque hic præcipue cultus. Tamen, crescente superstitione, crediderim nomen Ammanim etiam ad alia delubra pertinuisse. Itaque litera Ammoneorum seu Ammanim sunt literæ templorum, literæ in sacris receptæ. Geogr. Sacr. par. ii. lib. ii. cap. 17. + See note [SS] at the end of this Book. † Ἐπελεγόμην τὴν ταινίαν γράμμασιν Αιθιοπικοῖς, ο δεμαλικοῖς, ἀλλὰ βασιλικοῖς ἐπιμένην, ἃ δὴ τοῖς Αἰγυπτίων ΙΕΡΑΤΙΚΟΙΣ ΚΑΛΟΥΜΕΝΟΙΣ quela. Lib. iv. | Ἐκ τοῖς Ελληνικοῖς ναοῖς ἴδιοι τινὲς ἦσαν χαρακτήρες γραμμάτων, ὃς ΙΕΡΑΤΙΚΟΥΣ προσηγόρευον. In Genes. Qu. 61. ¶ Cette coûtume de la plupart des nations Orientales, d'avoir des Characteres Sacres, & des Caracteres Profanes ou d'un usage plus vulgaire, étoit aussi chez les HEBREUX. Reflex. Crit. vol. i. p. 36. Antiquæ et primæ Hebræorum literæ, quæ SACERDOTALES nuncupatæ, decem quidem fuere numero. Adver. Hær. 1. ii. c. 41. + See Stillingfleet's Orig. Sacr. book i. chap. ii. § 11. and Mr. Shuckford's Connections, vol. i. ed. 2. p. 247. Adyta Adyta of the Egyptian temples." The original is in these words: Ἐκ τῶν Μανεθῶ τῇ Σεβεννύτα, ὃς ἐπὶ Πτολε μαίς τῇ Φιλαδέλφε ἀρχιερεὺς τῶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ εἰδώλων, χρημα Πίσας ἐκ τῶν τῇ Σηριαδικῇ γῇ κειμένων τηλῶν ἱερᾷ, φησι, διαλέκτῳ καὶ ἱερογραφικοῖς γράμμασι κεχαρακτηρισμένων ὑπὸ Θωθ τα πρώτα Ερμᾶ καὶ ἑρμηνευθεισῶν μετὰ τὸν κατακλυσμὸν ἐκ τῆς ἱερᾶς διαλέκτε εἰς τὴν ἑλληνίδα φωνὴν γράμμασιν ΙΕΡΟΓΛΥΦΙΚΟΙΣ καὶ ἀπο]εθεισῶν ἐν βίβλοις ὑπὸ τὸ ̓Αγαθοδαίμονο τε δευτέρες Ερμα, παρὸς δὲ τῇ Τατ ἐν τοῖς ἀδύτοις τῶν ἱερῶν Αἰγυπτίων*. Stillingfeet objects, with reason, to the absurdity of translating into the Greek tongue with hieroglyphic characters: and the author of the Connections well seeing that by γράμμασιν ἱερογλυφικοῖς must be understood an alphabetic character, says the words should not be translated hieroglyphics, but sacred letters †: he might as well have said Gothic letters, Ιερογλυφικά being always used by the Ancients to denote characters for things, in opposition to alphabetic letters, or characters, composing words. It is certain the text is corrupt; as may be seen, 1. From the word γράμμασιν (which in strict propriety signifies the letters of an alphabet) its being joined to ἱερογλυφικοῖς, which denotes a species of marks for things. 2. From the mention of a sacred dialect, ἱερὰ διάλεκτο (of which more hereafter) ; for if these records were written in a sacred dialect, it is plain the character employed must be alphabetic; and so indeed it is expressed to be in the words ιεροΓραφικοῖς γράμμασι, which immediately follow; and if, out of this dialect, it were translated into another, must not alphabetic characters be still employed? And now we see not only that the present reading is wrong, but are led, by this last observation, to the right; the passage being without all question to be read thus: μετὰ τὸν κατακλυσμὸν ἐκ τῆς ἱερᾶς διαλέκτε εἰς τὴν ἑλληνίδα φωνὴν γράμ μασιν ΙΕΡΟΓΡΑΦΙΚΟΙΣ και αποτεθεισῶν ἐν βίβλοις, &c.---γράμ μασιν ΙΕΡΟΓΡΑΦΙΚΟΙΣ, in speaking of the translation, being the very words just before employed in speaking of the original; and with great propriety: for ἱεροΓραφικά was used by the ancients as a generic term, to signify as * Euseb. Chron. ed. Scal. Amst. 1658. Ρ. 6. + Connection of the Sacred and Profane History, vol. i. p. 274, and vol. ii. p. 294. well well sacred letters composing words, as sacred marks standing for things; iepolupina not so, but denoting only marks for things: so that the plain and sensible meaning of the passage is, that a work, written by the first Hermes, in the sacred dialect, and sacred letters, was translated, by the second Hermes, into the Greek dialect; the original sacred letters being still employed. And the reason is evident; the Greek translation was for the use of the Egyptians: but such would be soonest invited to the study of a foreign dialect when written in their own letters: a common inducement for translators into a foreign language, to preserve the original character. Besides, this version was not for the Egyptians in general, but for the priests only; and therefore their peculiar character was preserved. : We now begin to see that the whole extravagance in this account, which made it rejected by the Critics with so much contempt, is only in the high antiquity given to the fact; and this, the very circumstance of the fact refutes for it not only tells us of sacred alphabetic letters, which we have shewn to be of late use amongst the Egyptians, but likewise of a sacred dialect, which certainly was still later: And, if I be not much mistaken, a passage in Herodotus will lead us to the time when this translation was made. The historian tells us, that when Psammitichus, by the assistance of the Iónians and Carians, had subdued all Egypt, he placed these Greek adventurers on both sides the Nile; where he assigned them lands and habitations, and sent among them Egyptian youths to be instructed in the Greek language; from whence sprung the State-interpreters for that tongue Thus far the historian; from whose account of Psammitichus's project it appears, that his purpose was to * Τοῖσι δὲ Ἴωσι καὶ τοῖσι Καρσί, τοῖσι συΓκαλερ[ασαμένοισι αὐτῷ, ὁ Ψαμμίτιχα δίδωσι χώρες ἐνοικῆσαι ἀντίες ἀλλήλων, το Νείλο τὸ μέσον ἔχοντα καὶ δὴ παῖδας παρέβαλε αὐτοῖσι Αἰγυπτίας, τὴν Ἑλλάδα γλῶσσαν ἐκδιδάσκεσθαι· ἀπὸ δὲ τέτων ἐκμαθόνιων τὴν Ἑλλάδα γλῶσσαν, οἱ νῦν "Epμnnées ir Aiyunla yeyóraos. Euterp. 1. ii. c. 154. Hence it appears that the learned Dr. Prideaux was mistaken when he said-But the worst of it is, the ancient Egyptians did not speak Greek; the Ptolemys first brought that language amongst them-Connection, part ii. lib. i. P. 12. VOL. IV. Μ establish |