and this, or OnCawvos, should be read here, instead of ea¤ivos: and he inventing the symbols and hieroglyphics, the succeeding Cabiri purposely increased their obscurity, by multiplying and involving their forms, till the second Hermes transferred them from the hieroglyphics into the Phoenician alphabetic character, which he had learnt from Moses, and which, in the name and order of the letters, perfectly resembles the Hebrew, while the form of the character is as near an approximation as might be expected from one not a Hebrew, and wholly unaccustomed to alphabetic writing of any kind. The three kinds of writing invented by Isiris were clearly those three which we still find on the monuments and papyri of Egypt: first, linear hieroglyphics; secondly, sacred characters, which, though derived from hieroglyphics, were truly alphabetic; thirdly, epistolary characters, for common use.

It is a remarkable confirmation of the truth to which we have been led by so very different a path, that the earliest of the Pharaohs, whose hieroglyphic has been deciphered by Champollion, is Amenof I., the third king of the eighteenth dynasty; and in the time of Amos, the first king of that same dynasty, Manetho says that Moses went out of Egypt, and that Chebros, who intervened between the Exode and Amenof, whose hieroglyphic has been deciphered, reigned only thirteen years: so that Champollion's researches have led him to within thirteen years of the period when we believe Hermes learned writing from Moses, and when, in imitation of the Phoenicians, Isiris deduced from the hieroglyphics in common use among his countrymen, three kinds of alphabetic character, for the three purposes required in Egypt.

But if the names of earlier kings should be deciphered, unless it can be proved that the monuments on which they exist were engraven before the time of Moses, it would not invalidate our argument; for in a register made after the introduction of a new style of writing, the ancestors' names might be, for uniformity sake, registered in the manner then in use. Nor is it important to our argument to fix with accuracy who Isiris was, or when he lived: it is sufficient to know that he acquired his knowledge from the sons of Sydyc, the guardians and recorders of the Phoenician mysteries, the chiefest of whom were the two Thoths; and that the learning of Egypt, like that of Greece, came from Phoenicia; and that all the learning of Phoenicia came from the family of Eber, in two great streams-by the first Hermes, derived from Melchizedek; by the second Hermes, from Moses.

Castor says that Anubes Amusim, the first of the demigods, composed the Egyptian writings; Cicero (Nat. Deor. iii.) says the same of Thoth; and Pliny says that the Assyrians had letters

from the beginning. (Hist. vii.) But those who make this assertion either confound letters with symbols, or apply to heathen writings that which is true only of the Hebrew. The Hebrew character we believe to have been from the beginning, and to have been no human invention, but revealed by God to man; and we think that our familiarity with it, and the difficulty of really putting ourselves in a condition of ignorance of alphabetic writing, could alone have induced the supposition of its being an invention of man. It is related, by one of our recent voyagers, that, coming to a country where letters had never been heard of, he had an interview with the king, who was lost in astonishment at beholding what writing could do; that scratches which bore no resemblance to known objects could enable men to hold perfect intercourse; not only to speak the same words, but to maintain silent interchange of thought. He tried all means to ascertain whether deception was practised, by separating the parties to a distance, and, dictating to one of them what he should write, carried it to the other, who had been out of hearing; and finding that this last could by reading express exactly all that had been dictated, he turned the paper in all directions, endeavouring to discover some resemblance in the letters to the forms of the things signified. This pictorial resemblance he could not find, and therefore ascribed the art to some unknown or superior power, as many of the ancients attributed the invention to the gods, and only communicated by Hermes. And we think that philologists, if they reasoned correctly, would not seek for the origin of an alphabetic character in hieroglyphics. After the letters were known, hieroglyphics might clumsily answer some of the purposes of an alphabet, or might be used as a cipher, for concealment and ambiguity: but hieroglyphics can never be applied to all the purposes of an alphabet, nor attain the same degree of precision; and the whole process and end of hieroglyphic writing is so alien from alphabetic writing, and this last is so surpassingly wonderful an art, that the heedlessness of ignorance must first have broached the idea that an alphabet is a string of hieroglyphics, and the blindness of infatuation, approaching to folly, can alone account for deliberately maintaining such an opinion.

Literature among the heathen began with Hermes Trismegis tus; and his first book was on creation, and called Genesis, after the First Book of Moses. Clemens Alex. (Strom. vi.) declares that Hermes left forty-two books, laid up in the temples, on creation, astronomy, hieroglyphics, geography, sacrifice, and medicine. Jamblicus and Manetho carry the number of the Hermaic books as high as 20,000, and 36,525; but these are evidently astronomical periods, or records of daily observations; and the first, reduced to real time, would be fifty-five years and a

half; the second only expressing the true length of the year, which Hermes fixed with accuracy.

Hermes wrote in the Phoenician language, as Sanchoniatho expressly declares, and as the names, which may all be traced to Hebrew origin, prove by internal evidence. Of his original writings no part remains, and of the Greek translations only fragments, excepting two dialogues-one entitled Pimander, in fourteen chapters, on the wisdom and power of God; the other Esculapius, in fifteen chapters, on the Divine Will. These dialogues have been, by Causabon, Sir T. Marsham, and many others, rejected as spurious, chiefly for the very reasons which incline us to think them genuine, namely, from the indisputable truths which they contain: which truths, say they, are imitations of Plato and Moses, by one who had access to their writings. If the truths contained in the fragments of Hermes were called his own discoveries, the argument were good. But whence did Plato and the Greeks get their wisdom? they themselves unanimously reply, from Egypt; and it being argued, first, that Hermes was contemporary with Moses, and learned wisdom from Divine Revelation, the stream he drank was pure and unpolluted, though defiled by him, and still more by the Egyptians, before it reached the Greeks. And these fragments of Hermes do what no imitation could possibly effect; they explain and reconcile obscurities and contradictions in the mythology of Plato and Orpheus. An imitator would generally avoid that which is obscure in his model, or, if he touched it, would involve it in greater obscurity, like the Ossian of Macpherson, or the Rowley poems of Chatterton; but the Pimander and Asclepius throw light on some of the darkest and most mysterious passages of Plato and Pythagoras; while the thoughts concerning God and man are so true, and so majestically expressed, that scarcely any thing in the whole compass of human literature will bear comparison with some of these passages: nothing exceeds them but the word of God.

It is proper that we should give some proof of this, by an extract or two from these dialogues; which, however, we will make very short; and beg our readers to remember that we are only giving a bald literal translation from Philo Byblius's translation, and that the words of Hermes himself would be, of course, far superior. Hermes professes to receive all his illumination from a superior being entitled Pimander, and described as the Divine power or energy, and the derivation of the name in Greek should probably be πιμπραω ανδρον, not ποιμαινω. This being, we suppose, stands for Moses, through whom Hermes received his knowledge of God; and, however much debased by the superstitions and abominations prevailing among the heathen for whom he wrote, much sublime truth is to be still discovered,

which could have had no other source than Revelation. Hermes begins with contemplating the order and beauty of creation, and the source from whence it sprang; declaring the source to be another Being, no part of creation, but the Cause of all; incorporeal, and yet real; comprehending all reason, and yet above reason; the Mind of all things, and yet not an abstraction; not merely mind, but the cause of it; not merely spirit, but the Lord of spirit; not merely light, but the Fountain of light and existence. The God thus defined, Hermes calls the Father of all things, and the only and alone Good; declaring it profanity and error to speak of any thing good out of God, or to call any good but God alone. The order of creation he thus declares in the fourth chapter:-"The Creator framed the universe by his word, not by hands. But of the Creator himself think thus: Think him for ever present, effecting all things; the one God constituting all things according to his own will. This is his only form; it is not tangible, it is not visible; not diffusion, not distance, not the resemblance of any other thing; for he is neither fire, nor water, nor air, nor even spirit, but from him all these things proceed; and he is so specially good, that to him alone may goodness be applied. He also chose to adorn the earth with some display of the Divine operation: he therefore constituted man, body and soul, a mortal intelligence; a living world in himself, by understanding and reason interpreting the external world: so man became the contemplator of the Divine operation, inasmuch as while he admired the workmanship he also acknowledged its Author." He afterwards treats of the body and soul of man, and shews how these are fitted to manifest the Divine operations; illustrating, by the rapidity, extent, and power of thought in the mind of man, what the nature of God is, who bears somewhat of the same kind of relation to the whole universe which the soul does to the body of a man. " All things are in God; yet not like things in a place, for place is an immovable thing, and what is placed there has no motion; place in matter is one thing, place in idea is different. Think of God as containing all things; and think of an incorporeal nature, that nothing is more capacious, nothing more swift, nothing more strong; and that God himself is the most capacious, the most swift, and the most powerful of all. Then again, turning to meditate on thyself, send forth thy thoughts, and quicker than thou canst send them they fly. Bid them cross the ocean, and there before thy bidding is uttered they shall be, thou thyself never changing place. Bid them again ascend to heaven: they need no wings; nothing shall stay their course; not the heat of the sun, not the outspreading æther, not the turning of the spheres and the starry bodies; but they penetrate all things, they pass to the limits of space. If, moreover, thou wouldest pass

beyond space, and investigate that which is higher, this also thou mayest do. Think how great is the power of thy soul, how great its swiftness. Canst thou do all this, and cannot God do it? After this manner then contemplate God, As having in himself every kind of intelligence, and having also himself the universe, as if for a body. Unless you learn from yourself what God is, you shall never understand God, for like is to be understood by its likeness. Stretch out thyself, then, into space without bounds, escape from the body, pass beyond time-be eternity: thus mayest thou know God, without supposing any impossibility in thyself. Imagine thyself immortal; include in thyself all power, all knowledge, and all art; be higher than all height, be deeper than all depth; gather into thyself every sense and every act, fire and water, dry and moist; unite together from every region of the universe, from heaven and earth and sea; from every age; include all other bodies, think nothing gone to death: comprehend at once all these things, places, times, substances, qualities, and quantities; thus shalt thou understand God." And after much more of the same kind, Hermes breaks forth in a song of praise: "Hear, O earth; listen, ye stormy tempests; be silent, ye forests: I sing the Creator of all things, the All and the One. Hear, ye heavens; be still, ye winds; and let those who surround the immortal God hear this hymn. Now sing I the Creator of all things, who spanned the earth, who balanced the heavens; who bade from the ocean sweet waters to flow forth for the refreshment of man, and appointed the flashing thunders above for the crimes of men and of angels : let us all with one voice praise Him. Praise Him that spread forth the heavens; praise Him that created the earth. He is the eye of the mind; he will graciously receive the praises of our powers." "O all my strength, praise Him, the One and the All! be attuned to joy, all ye powers of my mind! O God of knowledge, which shineth by thy light, while I sing through thee the intelligible light, I exult in the joy of my mind. O all ye powers, sing together with me! O Constancy, sing with me. Justice within me, by me sings the Just One. Harmony in me, praises him, the Perfect One. Truth in me sings the Truth. All that is good in me sings the Good One. O our Life, O our Light, from thee to us all blessing flows. I give thee thanks, O Father, the expression of all power! I give thee thanks, O God, the power of all expression! Thy words in me, by me utter thy praise by me the world offers this sacrifice of words: all my powers shout for joy; my whole being sings; they all do thy will. Thy will, though wholly beneath thee-this sacrifice of words-receive from all thy creatures. O thou that art the Life, save me wholly ! O thou that art the Light, enlighten me wholly! thou God who art spirit. O thou spirit-giving Helper, let thy