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Many other passages might be cited to the same effect, but this climax, compared with the context of the demiurgic record, is surely enough to explode the received limited acceptation of the division of the waters; and to establish the Hermaic, which, probably derived from the Inspired historian himself (see Criteria, M. W. No. IX. and the present essay), supposes the formation not only of our own, but of all other planetary spheres, on this day of the hexaëmeron, and thus assists us to deduce the Copernican doctrine of a plurality of worlds directly from the sacred text.

It ought to have been mentioned above, that the tetracosiaëterid, or period of 400 years, equivalent to a day of the great year of Nilus, is the interval in which the system supposes the fixed Sothoic year to have receded one day in its revolution through the sidereal year. 365 such intervals, or 146,100 erratic years, therefore, completed the revolution, and composed the great sidereal year of Nilus. In like manner the erratic year of 365 days receded a day in the space of four years, in its revolution through the fixed Sothoic year; and hence 365 such intervals, or 1461 erratic years, formed the solar Sothoic or canicular period, or great canicular year of Censorinus.

In harmony with the numerical expression of the name Neλog (365), it should be noted, that Kneph, the serpent of the water, who is identical with Nilus, was, according to the Greek writers, the Egyptian symbol of the grand conversion of the stars. This adds force to my former remarks on the great year of Nilus.

Hapimoun, the monumental name of this divinity, is likewise the hieroglyphic name of the river Nile. This suggests an important affinity in the Hindu antiquities, in which that river is known as the Cali; and so is the present great Hindu age, or cycle, of 432,000 years, known as the Cali age. It supposes the return of all the celestial bodies to their original places and relations, and takes its date from the vernal equinox of the year B. C. 3102, which epoch is still the root of computation with Hindu astronomers. These facts strikingly illustrate and confirm what I have said of Nilus and his great year, or period (146,100 erratic years); three of which, or 438,300 years, were necessary to involve the return of the Hermaic nodes and apsides; a phænomenon supposed by the Hindu cycle of 432,000 years. It follows, that in the Hindu system something very like the system of Hermes has descended to our times. But this subject I must reserve for a future opportunity.

Note (E).

A most forcible example of the fallacy of the principle here adverted to has occurred since the present essay was laid before the Royal Society of Literature*. It is to be found in a very learned disquisition on Egyptian chronology by the Rev. Dr. Nolan, which has been read before that Society. This learned writer likewise adopts the great cycle of 36,525 erratic years of the old Egyptian chronicle for the basis of calculation; denying

* See Annual Report of the Society for 1831.

its equinoctial characters, but admitting that its commencement and termination suppose conjunctions of the luminaries, as the combination from the solar and lunar cycles renders self-evident. The termination of the period he refers to the year B. C. 350, being the date of the last conquest of Egypt by the Persians, and of the end of the 30th dynasty, according to Archbishop Ussher. The Thoth, or first day of the erratic year, at that time fell on November 19; which is therefore the point of time at which the cycle of the old chronicle terminated, according to Dr. Nolan's system. But, if his principles be right, it is manifest that a conjunction of the sun and moon ought also to have occurred on November 19, or have anticipated that day no more than the amount of error produced by the Hermaic system between the æra of its invention and the conclusion of the great period of 36,525 years.

Calculation, however, proves that the conjunction anticipated the Thoth, November 19, by full fourteen days in the year B. c. 350. But 14 days × 525 years (the period in which the Hermaic error amounts to a day)=7350 years; and, ascending 7350 years from B. c. 350, we arrive at the year B. C. 7700 for the æra of construction! being 3,700 years above the Hebrew date of creation adopted by Dr. Nolan; who, nevertheless, from data peculiar to himself, dates the system in the year B. C. 1711,-a discrepancy of 6000 years in the age of Hermes Trismegistus! The last mentioned date, however, presents a coincidence with the results of the present inquiry, which has afforded me no little satisfaction, although I cannot subscribe to the data from which it has been obtained.

I should acquaint the reader that the preceding observations on the chronological trinity of the Egyptians result from a comparison of Mr. Wilkinson's admirable Pantheon (Materia Hieroglyphica, No. 1, Malta, 1828) with the Hermaic fragments preserved by the Greek writers, which are, for the most part, to be found in Mr. Cory's "Ancient Fragments," 8vo. second edition, 1832.

CORRIGENDA.

Page 392, line 12: for day-star, read dog-star.

393,

394,

395,

396,

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20: for at, read about four hours after.

:

25 for the first star of Aries to have been the origin of, read the star y or PRIMA ARIETIS

to have marked the origin of the constellation Aries in.

28 for 373, read 374.

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(a) 10 dys. per M. × 12= 120d. per embol. yr. ÷ 5 = 24 yrs. cyc.

MORN. WATCH No. XVI. DEC. 1832.

(c) 3 dys. per M. ›

405

RECORDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT.

NEXT to the investigation of the Word of God, we know of no literary pursuit equal in importance to that of elucidating Chaldæan antiquity; and, if reverently taken up and cautiously followed, it will throw no inconsiderable light even on the investigation of the Sacred Scriptures themselves. Our object is in substance the same with that of Jacob Bryant and Mr. Faber, -to deduce all religion, science, and learning from the one only fountain of truth, Divine revelation; and, while endeavouring to profit from their discoveries, we would more rigidly and continually apply the standard of truth in the word of God as the guide by which to adjust every other record, and the corrective of all error. By the brilliant discoveries in Egyptian hieroglyphics, recently made, we possess advantages beyond our predecessors; for, being able to prove the exact age of every Egyptian monument which has a name inscribed, we are enabled to fix thereby the principal epochs of the other great nations of antiquity, who all called the Egyptians their masters, either as subjects or pupils.

The stupendous, and hitherto mysterious, edifices of Nubia and the Thebaïd, now teach us by their inscriptions that the mighty monarchs who built those temples and reposed in those tombs had once borne sway over a wider tract of country than the empires of Darius or Alexander; and throughout those extensive regions traces are still to be found, which our unlocking the mysteries of the primitive heathen records now enables us to recognise as having originated either in Babylon or in Egypt, and to refer all pagan mythology, learning, and science to one of

these sources.

Still more important and interesting are the numerous illustrations of Scripture which the deciphering of the inscriptions of Babylon and Egypt have brought forth. The Pharaoh who advanced Joseph and invited the children of Israel into Egypt, is proved to have been Osortesen the First, the founder of a mighty dynasty, the seventeenth of Manetho; none of whom he names, but who were all recorded in order on the monumental tablet of Raamses the Great at Abydos; the lost names of which have all been supplied by Mr. Cullimore, from other monuments. The name of Zaphnath-paaneah, given to Joseph by Pharaoh, has been found coupled with that of Osortesen, and seems to have been the ring which Pharaoh took from his own hand and put upon the hand of Joseph. The seventeenth dynasty ends in a queen, called Nitocris, Trmuthisa, and Damris, the "Pharaoh's daughter" who saved the infant Moses when exposed, and who would have adopted him and given him the throne of Egypt.

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