profound system, whose errors conduct us to truth, would far exceed my prescribed limits: I must therefore resume them on another occasion. Suffice it to say, that they are by no means confined to Egyptian history and science; but, together with other interesting facts, prove that, among the many obligations which Grecian science owed to Egypt, the sphere described by Eudoxus, Aratus, and Hipparchus, was not the least. Note (A). Since the present essay was written, I have ascertained that the hieroglyphic numerical characters of the Egyptian months limit the antiquity of every inscription in which these characters appear to within the 18th century before the Christian æra. They suppose the year to have set out from the subsidence of the Nile at the autumnal equinox, or within one month after that point of time; and as it is the erratic year of 365 days which is used throughout Egyptian history, whether written or monumental, we are directed to the interval between B. c. 1769 (when that year set out 30 days after the autumnal equinox) and B. C. 1645 (when its commencement had receded to the equinox Oct. 8th) for the invention of the hieroglyphic calendar;;-a result which will be found in strict harmony with the subsequent astronomical improvements developed in the present paper. The characters in question appear on inscriptions of every age of hieroglyphic history-under the Pharaohs, the Ethiopians, the Persians, the Ptolemies, and the Cæsars ;-and as the earliest of these are of the reign of Osirtesen the First, the seventh predecessor of Amos, the founder of the great eighteenth dynasty, a monumental test is thus obtained for estimating the validity of the protracted and contemporary systems of the dynasties, respectively; the age of the seventh predecessor of Amos being by this test limited to the 18th century B. C.; to which the systems of Champollion and the majority of hierologists and chronologists have raised the reign of Thothmos the Third, the Moris of the Greeks, who was the fourth successor of Amos. Independently of this historical adjustment, so important to history both sacred and profane, we find, in the hieroglyphic data above mentioned, the patriarchal year, the seventh month whereof became the first under the Mosaic dispensation; and, moreover, the Egyptian prototype of the numerical months of the Jewish legislator, which now, for the first time, are proved to have been brought out of Egypt, as the present names of the Jewish months were, in a subsequent age, brought from Babylon. Note (B). Learned men differ much as regards the import of the Cyrannic Books (ταις κυραννισι [vel κυράννησι] βιβλοις) of the old Egyptian chronicle (Syncel. p. 51). If I may hazard a conjecture, "the solar canicular books," or "the royal canicular The books," is to be understood; it being in these books, or ephemerides, that the Hermaic system of solar canicular cycles (Syncel. ubi sup.; Censorin. c. 18) was developed; and the word "Cyrannic" being apparently compounded of KUVIкos, cynic or canicular, and the Coptic Ra or Phra," the sun :" whence the Scriptural title “Pharaoh," and the monumental title "Son of Ra or Phra," i. e. "Son of the Sun," applied to every Egyptian monarch. The compound seems in some respects an awkward, although a highly expressive, one. books in question, as ephemerides, were "solar canicular," and, as registers of the kings of Egypt, "royal canicular." Let it be remembered, that the zodiacal system of 25 solar canicular cycles, by which the chronicles and almanacks of Egypt were regulated, sets out with the proleptical reign of Ra, Phra, or Helius (the sun), the honorary predecessor and progenitor of the Pharaohs, according to both the written and the monumental history of Egypt. Note (C). The erratic Egyptian year of 365 days necessarily receded a quarter of a day each year, or a full day every quadriennium, for want of intercalation. This recession amounted to 365 days in 1461 erratic years, or 3651 × 4 [= 1460 fixed years]. Hence the solar canicular cycle, during which the erratic made the tour of the fixed year; its Thoth or first day returning to the Heliacal rising of the Dog-star (assumed, for convenience, always to occur on the same day-July 20 in the Julian calendar) at the commencement of each cycle. In 25 erratic years, the solar and lunar phenomena nearly coincided (see Essay on Chaldean and Egyptian Astronomy and Chronology, ubi supra), as is the case in 19 fixed years; and hence the Egyptian lunar cycle, which, as it will not divide into the solar canicular cycle of 1461 years, could not otherwise be reconciled with the latter than by multiplying the one into the other: and hence, again, the great Hermaic period of 36,525 erratic years, also applied to the measurement of the equinoctial revolution. This was obviously the least cycle which could be used for the adjustment of Egyptian chronology, because the times of the Pharaohs far outstripped the limits of the solar canicular period of 1461 years. Note (D). "To Hephæstus," says the author of the old chronicle, "no time is assigned, because he is apparent (or shines) both by night and by day." This passage will be found beautifully illustrated by Ps. cxxxix. 12: "Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee." Although the astronomical reign of Hephaestus is excluded from the chronological cycle whereby the chronicles of Egypt were regulated, it is nevertheless to be found in the general system, of which that cycle formed but a part; for Hermes and his disciples imagined proleptical zodiacal periods, as modern writers do proleptical Julian periods-with this difference, however, that the former resolve themselves into a single harmonious system, whereas the latter are without necessity or connection, Four such periods (of which that adopted in the old Egyptian chronicle was the last), or 36,525 × 4 = 146,100 erratic years, were included in the astronomical system of the Egyptians, as we learn on the authority of Pomponius Mela. This great sidereal period, containing 100 canicular cycles (1461 × 100=146,100), or four astronomical revolutions of the equinoxes, consisted likewise of three tropical periods of civil precession, or the revolution of the tropical through the Sothoic years, i. e. 146,100÷3=48,700 years, the cycle of the civil precession of the equinoxes. This last mentioned period is stated at 48,863 years by Diogenes Laertius, and has been already explained in my Essay on the Observations and Chronology of the Chaldeans and Egyptians. The difference of 163 years, being both part of the whole, is so small as not to affect the general system; but even this can be clearly accounted for. It will be found, from the above-mentioned combination, that the great period of 146,100 years was necessary to reconcile the solar canicular year, both erratic and fixed, the lunar, the sidereal, and the tropical years of Hermes with each other; and that by its adoption this object was effectually accomplished. It would far exceed the compass of a note fully to explain the principles and uses of this system, which must be reserved for a future opportunity. It is enough for the present purpose to have demonstrated its existence. It will be found that the last of the three tropical periods of 48,700 years anticipated the commencement of the last of the four zodiacal periods of 36,525 years, by 12,175 years, which form the astronomical reign of Hephæstes, the father and predecessor of Helius, with whose time the fourth and last zodiacal period sets out; for we learn from Diogenes Laertius, that with the reign of Hephæstus, the inventor of philosophy (the Demiurgus), the last tropical period, which was supposed, like the former, to have ended with the monarchy, originated. As the author of the old chronicle excludes Hephæstus, the father of Helius, from his chronological cycle, so Diogenes excludes Nilus, the father of Hephæstus, from his. It follows, that the astronomical reign of Nilus can only be referred to the preceding portion of the great compound sidereal period of 146,100 years, amounting to two tropical revolutions, or 97,400 years. Hence the whole system chronologically distributes itself as follows. The reign of Nilus ....... The reign of Cronus. The reign of the Gods or Antediluvians The reign of the Demigods or post-diluvian Patriarchs The reign of the Pharoahs and their successors. The great compound period 97,400 Err. years. 12,175 30,000 3,000 984 217 2,324 146,100 This grand revolution may be termed the cycle of Nilus. It is a year of tetracosiaëterids, or periods of four centuries (for 400 × 3651=146,100), as the solar canicular period of 1461 years was a year (o Eviavros: Censorin. ch. xviii.) of tetraëterids or quadrienniums (for 4 x 365 1461). Hence the Græco-Egyptian name Netlog is adapted to express the measure of the year: (N 50+5+10+λ30 + •70+ $200 = 365.) (Enstathius). So the civil revolution of the equinox, 48,700 years, is the cycle of Hephaestus, to whom night and day were supposed to be alike (see commencement of this note), and whose reign sets out with this period. Lastly, the zodiacal revolution of the old Egyptian chronicle is the cycle of Helius. These three imaginary personages, or rather attributes of the Divinity, Nilus, Hephaestus, and Helius, are mentioned by Cicero (de Nat. Deor.) as father, son, and grandson. They are very plainly the Egyptian trinity, incorporated into the astro-chronological system of the Hermaic books, according to which they are denominated Emeph, Phtha or Hephæstus, and Helius, and were coeval in existence with the present universe, having come after Eicton, the self-existent eternal Monad (Jamblichus). They are denominated Kamephis I., Kamephis II., and Kamephis III. or Helius, by Asclepiades and Heraiscus, cited by Damascins; and Kneph or Agathodæmon "the serpent of the water," Phtha, and Khem, by Eusebius and other writers; and always appear as father, son, and grandson. In the monuments they appear as Kneph or Hapimoun, "the spirit of the waters,' ‚"" the anima mundi ;" Phtha, the demiurgus, and Khem or Amon Ra, the generative and vivifying principle of the sun. Their history may be thus stated :-Kneph, Emeph, Kamephis I., Hapimoun, or Nilus (Ilus, with the Coptic article prefixed?), separated the primeval essence (the planetary and stellar matter, the darkness and light of Gen. i. 2, 5 ?)—as the Chaldean Belus separated Thalath, or the primeval waters, into the earth and the heavens. Phtha, or Kamephis II., took the matter thus separated, and formed the spheres; and Khem, Kamephis III., Amon Ra, or Helius generator, gave vegetable and animal life to the spheres thus formed. These were followed by Cronus, Chronus, Ilus or Belus II., or Helius chronometer-named Ra or Phra, i. e. the visible solar orb, in the monumental inscriptions; and it is these I think who are primarily called by Sanchoniatho, from the Hermaic books, the Elohim, or companions of Cronus or Ilus. It would hence appear, that, in the operations of the Hermaic trinity, the Divine works of the first three days or periods of the hexaëmeron are plainly had in view, and that in this trinity is unfolded a clear material type of the Persons of the Sacred Elohim in the right order. Indeed, the demiurgic portion of this system may, I conceive, be viewed as a very ancient, and by no means useless, gloss on the Inspired record of creation. Lastly, it is evident, that the reign of Chronus (time), Ilus or Belus II. or Ra (the visible solar orb), and therefore Helius chronometer (Gen. i. 9-14), who succeeded in the system of Hermes, represents the epoch of solar time, of the Divine operations of the fourth day, and of the present order of the universe. In concluding this long note, it remains to say something of the consonance between the Hermaic account of the demiurgic operations of the second period of creation, and the parallel record of the Inspired historian-for I conceive that no difficulty can exist regarding the first, third, and fourth periods. I. Nilus, N'Ilus, Belus, Kneph, Kamephis I., Agathodæmon, Hapimoun, the serpent or spirit of the waters, separates the primeval fluid into earth and heaven, planetary and stellar matter, darkness and light. (Gen. i. 2-5.) II. Ptha, Hephæstus, or Kamephis II., forms the spheres out of the separated matter. III. Helius, Khem, Kamephis III., Amon Ra, or Sol generator, vivifies the spheres thus formed. (Gen. i. 11, 12.) IV. Cronus or Time, Ilus or Belus II., Ra, or the visible solar orb, starts into existence, and solar time and seasons commence. (Gen. i. 14—19.) The Divine operations of the second period produced the separation of the planetary waters and the interposition of the firmament (Gen. i. 6-8.) According to the Rabbinical acceptation, universally adopted by Jewish and Christian writers, "the waters under and above the firmament" mean no more than the waters on the surface of the earth, and those suspended in and above the atmosphere;a limited view truly of the second stage of the works of Omnipotence, embracing the creation of a universe. (Gen. ii. 1; Exod. xx. 11.) The primitive Hermaic acceptation is more magnificent. It refers the formation of the planetary spheres to this stage, and therefore supposes a plurality of worlds; and that such is the right meaning of the Mosiac narrative appears from the following. First. The waters which were on the second Demiurgic period separated by the firmament, were the same dark chaotic planetary waters, involving the embryos of incipient worlds, on the face of which the Divine Spirit moved at the beginning of creation. Secondly. The separated waters of the second period were therefore alike in quality;-those under the firmament being the substance of our incipient planet, for the enlightening of whose inhabitants the revelation was vouchsafed; and those above the firmament, in reference to our particular sphere, involving the substance of the rest of the countless spheres of the universe. Thirdly. The interposing firmament was named the "heavens," and in that firmament were placed the sun, moon, and stars (Gen. i. 8, 14-19), facts altogether irreconcileable with the received limited acceptation; but in complete harmony with that here proposed, and with the obvious import of the planetary waters. Fourthly. The magnificent climax of the Psalmist is conclusive; because it places a portion of the separated waters beyond the remotest stars, and assigns to them permanent duration. Praise ye Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens, Psalm cxlviii. 3—6. |