NOTES.

[pg 309]NOTES.Page 17.—For the importance attached to dreams by the ancients, seeJortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1. p. 90.Page 22.—“The Pillar of Pillars”—more properly, perhaps,“the column of the pillars.”v.Abdallatif, Relation de l’Egypte, and the notes ofM. de Sacy. The great portico round this column (formerly designated Pompey’s, but now known to have been erected in honour of Dioclesian) was still standing, M. de Sacy says, in the time of Saladin. v.Lord Valentia’s Travels.Page 23.—Ammianus thus speaks of the state of Alexandria in his time, which was, I believe, as late as the end of the fourth century:—“Ne nunc quidem in eadem urbe Doctrinæ variæ silent, non apud nos exaruit Musica nec Harmonia conticuit.”Lib. 22.Page 25.—From the character of the features of the Sphinx, and a passage in Herodotus, describing the Egyptians asμελαγχροες και ουλοτρικες, Volney, Bruce, and a few others, have concluded that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt were negroes. But this opinion is contradicted by a host of authorities. SeeCastera’s notes upon[pg 310]Browne’s Travels, for the result of Blumenbach’s dissection of a variety of mummies. Denon, speaking of the character of the heads represented in the ancient sculpture and painting of Egypt, says,“Celle des femmes ressemble encore à la figure des jolies femmes d’aujourd’hui: de la rondeur, de la volupté, le nez petit, les yeux longs, peu ouverts,”&c. &c. He could judge, too, he says, from the female mummies,“que leurs cheveux étoient longs et lisses, que le caractère de tête de la plupart tenoit du beau style”—“Je raportai,”he adds,“une tête de vieille femme qui étoit aussi belle que celles de Michel Ange, et leur ressembloit beaucoup.”In a“Description générale de Thèbes”byMessrs. Jollois et Desvilliers, they say,“Toutes les sculptures Egyptiennes, depuis les plus grands colosses de Thèbes jusqu’aux plus petites idoles, ne rappellent en aucune manière les traits de la figure des nègres; outre que les têtes des momies des catacombs de Thèbes presentent des profils droits.”See alsoM. Jomard’s“Description of Syene and the Cataracts,”Baron Larrey, on the“conformation physique”of the Egyptians, &c.De Pauw, the great depreciator of every thing Egyptian, has, on the authority of a passage in Ælian, presumed to affix to the countrywomen of Cleopatra the stigma of complete and unredeemed ugliness. The following line of Euripides, however, is an answer to such charges:—Νειλου μεν αἱδε καλλιπαρθενοι ροαι.In addition to the celebrated instances of Cleopatra, Rhodope, &c. we are told, on the authority of Manetho (as given by Zoega from Georgius Syncellus), of a beautiful queen of Memphis, Nitocris, of the sixth dynasty, who, in addition to other charms and perfections, was (rather inconsistently with the negro hypothesis)ξανθη την χροιαν.[pg 311]See, for a tribute to the beauty of the Egyptian women, Montesquieu’s Temple de Gnide.Page 35.—“Among beds of lotus flowers.”—v.Strabo.Page 36.—“Isle of the golden Venus.”—“On trouve une île appelée Venus-Dorée, ou le champ d’or, avant de remonter jusqu’à Memphis.”Voyages de Pythagore.Page 39.—For an account of the Table of Emerald, v.Lettres sur l’Origine des Dieux d’Egypte.De Pauwsupposes it to be a modern fiction of the Arabs. Many writers have fancied that the art of making gold was the great secret that lay hid under the forms of Egyptian theology.“La science Hermétique,”says the Benedictine, Pernetz,“l’art sacerdotal étoit la source de toutes les richesses des Rois d’Egypte, et l’objet de ces mystères si cachés sous le voile du leur pretendu Religion.”Fables Egyptiennes.The hieroglyphs, that formerly covered the Pyramids, are supposed by some of these writers to relate to the same art. SeeMutus liber, Rupellæ.Page 40.—“By reflecting the sun’s rays,”saysClarke, speaking of the Pyramids,“they appeared white as snow.”Page 41.—For Bubastis, the Diana of the Egyptians, v.Jablonski, lib. 3. c. 4.Page 43.—“The light coracle,”&c.—v.Amuilhon,“Histoire de la Navigation et du Commerce des Egyptiens sous les Ptolemées.”See also, for a description of the various kinds of boats used on the Nile,Maillet, tom. i. p. 98.Page 44.—v.Maurice, Appendix to“Ruins of Ba[pg 312]bylon.”Another reason, he says, for their worship of the Ibis,“founded on their love of geometry, was (according to Plutarch) that the space between its legs, when parted asunder, as it walks, together with its beak, forms a complete equilateral triangle.”From the examination of the embalmed birds, found in the Catacombs of Saccara, there seems to be no doubt that the Ibis was the same kind of bird as that described by Bruce, under the Arabian name of Abou Hannes.Ib.—“The sistrum,”&c.—“Isis est genius,”saysServius,“Ægypti, qui per sistri motum, quod gerit in dextra, Nili accessus recessusque significat.”Page 48.—“The ivy encircled it,”&c.—The ivy was consecrated to Osiris. v.Diodor. Sic.1. 10.Ib.—“The small mirror.”—“Quelques unes,”saysDupuis, describing the processions of Isis,“portoient des miroirs attachés à leurs épaules, afin de multiplier et de porter dans tous les sens les images de la Déesse.”Origine des Cultes, tom. 8. p. 847. A mirror, it appears, was also one of the emblems in the mysteries of Bacchus.Page 49.—“Thereis, to the north of Memphis,”&c.—“Tout prouve que la territoire de Sakkarah étoit la Necropolis au sud de Memphis, et le faubourg opposé à celui-ci, où sont les pyramides de Gizeh, une autre Ville des Morts, qui terminoit Memphis au nord.”Denon.There is nothing known with certainty as to the site of Memphis, but it will be perceived that the description of its position given by the Epicurean corresponds, in almost every particular, with that which M. Maillet (the French consul, for many years, at Cairo) has left us. It must be always borne in mind, too, that of the dis[pg 313]tances between the respective places here mentioned, we have no longer any accurate means of judging.Page 49.—“Pyramid beyond pyramid.”—“Multas olim pyramidas fuisse e ruinis arguitur.”Zoega.—Vansleb, who visited more than ten of the small pyramids, is of opinion that there must have originally been a hundred in this place.See, for the lake to the northward of Memphis,Shaw’s Travels, p. 302.Page 57.—“The Theban beetle.”—“On voit en Egypte, après la retraite du Nil et la fécondation des terres, le limon couvert d’une multitude de scarabées. Un pareil phénomène a dû sembler aux Egyptiens le plus propre à peindre une nouvelle existence.”M. Jomard.—Partly for the same reason, and partly for another, still more fanciful, the early Christians used to apply this emblem to Christ.“Bonus ille scarabæus meus,”says St. Augustine“non eâ tantum de causâ quod unigenitus, quod ipsemet sui auctor mortalium speciem induerit, sed quod in hac nostrâ fæce sese volutaverit et ex hac ipsa nasci voluerit.”Ib.—“Enshrined within a case of crystal.”—“Les Egyptiens ont fait aussi, pour conserver leurs morts, des caisses de verre.”De Pauw.—He mentions, in another place, a sort of transparent substance, which the Ethiopians used for the same purpose, and which was frequently mistaken by the Greeks for glass.Page 58.—“Among the emblems of death.”—“Un prêtre, qui brise la tige d’une fleur, des oiseaux qui[pg 314]s’envolent sont les emblemes de la morte et de l’âme qui se sépare du corps.”Denon.Theseus employs the same image in the Phædra:—Ορνις γαρ ὡς τις εκ χερων αφαντος ειΠηδημ’ ες ἁδου πικρον ὁρμησασα μοι.Page 59.—“The singular appearance of a Cross so frequently recurring among the hieroglyphics of Egypt, had excited the curiosity of the Christians at a very early period of ecclesiastical history; and as some of the Priests, who were acquainted with the meaning of the hieroglyphics, became converted to Christianity the secret transpired.‘The converted heathens,’says Socrates Scholasticus,‘explained the symbol, and declared that it signified Life to Come.’”Clarke.Lipsius, therefore, erroneously supposes the Cross to have been an emblem peculiar to the Christians. See, on this subject,L’Histoire des Juifs, liv. 9. c. 16.It is singular enough that while the Cross was held sacred among the Egyptians, not only the custom of marking the forehead with the sign of the Cross, but Baptism and the consecration of the bread in the Eucharist were imitated in the mysterious ceremonies of Mithra.Tertull. de Proscriptione Hereticorum.Zoega is of opinion that the Cross found (for the first time, it is said) on the destruction of the temple of Serapis, by the Christians, could have not been the crux ansata; as nothing is more common than this emblem on all the Egyptian monuments.Page 62.—“Stood shadowless.”—It was an idea entertained among the ancients that the Pyramids were so constructed (“mecanicâ constructione,”saysAmmianus Marcellinus) as never to cast any shadow.[pg 315]Page 64.—“Rhodope.”—From the story of Rhodope, Zoega thinks,“videntur Arabes ansam arripuisse ut in una ex pyramidibus, genii loco, habitare dicerent mulierem nudam insignis pulchritudinis quæ aspectu suo homines insanire faciat.”De Usu Obeliscorum.See alsoL’Egypte de Murtadi par Vattier.Page 66.—“The Gates of Oblivion.”—“Apud Memphim æneas quasdam portas, quæ Lethes et Cocyti (hoc est oblivionis et lamentationis) appellenter aperiri, gravem asperumque edentes sonum.”Zoega.Page 69.—“A pile of lifeless bodies.”—See, for the custom of burying the dead upright (“post funus stantia busto corpora,”as Statius describes it), Dr. Clarke’s preface to the 2d section of his fifth volume. They used to insert precious stones in the place of the eyes.“Les yeux étoient formés d’émeraudes, de turquoises,”&c.—v.Masoudy, quoted byQuatremere.Page 72.—“It seemed as if every echo.”—See, for the echoes in the pyramids,Plutarch, de Placitis Philosoph.Page 74.—“Pale phantom-like shapes.”—“Ce moment heureux (de l’Autopsie) étoit preparé par des scènes effrayantes, par des alternatives de crainte et de joie, de lumière et des ténèbres, par la lueur des éclairs, par le bruit terrible de la foudre, qu’on imitoit, et par des apparitions de spectres, des illusions magiques, qui frappoient les yeux et les oreilles tout ensemble.”Dupuis.Page 77.—“Serpents of fire.”—“Ces considérations me portent à penser que, dans les mystères, ces phéno[pg 316]mènes étoient beaucoup mieux exécutées et sans comparison plus terribles à l’aide de quelque composition pyrique, qui est restée cachée, comme celle du feu Grégeois.”De Pauw.Page 78.—“The burning of the reed-beds of Ethiopia.”—“Il n’y a point d’autre moyen que de porter le feu dans ces forêts de roseaux, qui répandent alors dans tout le païs une lumière aussi considérable que celle du jour même.”Maillet, tom. 1. p. 63.Page 79.—“The sound of torrents.”—The Nile,Plinytells us, was admitted into the Pyramid.Page 81.—“I had almost given myself up.”—“On exerçoit,”saysDupuis,“les recipiendaires, pendant plusieurs jours, à traverser, à la nage, une grande étendue d’eau. On les y jettoit et ce n’étoit que avec peine qu’ ils s’en retiroient. On appliquoit le fer et le feu sur leurs membres. On les faisoit passer à travers les flammes.”The aspirants were often in considerable danger, and Pythagoras, we are told, nearly lost his life in the trials. v.Recherches sur les Initiations, par Robin.Page 90.—For the two cups used in the mysteries, seeL’Histoire des Juifs, liv. 9. c. 16.Ib.—“Osiris.”—Osiris, under the name of Serapis, was supposed to rule over the subterranean world; and performed the office of Pluto, in the mythology of the Egyptians.“They believed,”says Dr. Pritchard,“that Serapis presided over the region of departed souls, during the period of their absence, when languishing without bodies, and that the dead were deposited in his palace.”Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology.[pg 317]Ib.—“To cool the lips of the dead.”—“Frigidam illam aquam post mortem, tanquam Hebes poculum, expetitam.”Zoega.—The Lethe of the Egyptians was called Ameles. SeeDupuis, tom. 8. p. 651.Page 90.—“A draught divine.”—Diodor. Sicul.Page 93.—“Grasshopper, symbol of initiation.”—Hor. Apoll.—The grasshopper was also consecrated to the sun as being musical.Page 94.—“Isle of gardens.”—The isle Antirrhodus near Alexandria.Maillet.Ib.—“Vineyard at Anthylla.”—SeeAthen. Deipnos.Page 97.—“We can see those stars.”—“On voyoit en plein jour par ces ouvertures les étoiles, et même quelques planètes en leur plus grande latitude septentrionale; et les prêtres avoient bientôt profité de ce phénomène pour observer à diverses heures la passage des étoiles.”Séthos.—Strabomentions certain caves or pits, constructed for the purpose of astronomical observations, which lay in the Zelopolitan prefecture, beyond Heliopolis.Page 98.—“A plantain.”—This tree was dedicated to the Genii of the Shades, from its being an emblem of repose and cooling airs.“Cui imminet musæ folium, quod ab Iside infera geniisque ei addictis manu geri solitum, umbram requiemque et auras frigidas subindigitare videtur.”Zoega.Page 107.—“He spoke of the preexistence of the soul,”&c.—For a full account of the doctrines which are here represented as having been taught to the initiated[pg 318]in the Egyptian mysteries, the reader may consultDupuis,Pritchard’s Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology, &c. &c.“L’on découvroit l’origine de l’ame, sa chute sur la terre, à travers les sphères et les élémens, et son retour au lieu de sa origine ... c’étoit ici la partie la plus métaphysique, et que ne pourroit guère entendre le commun des Initiés, mais dont on lui donnoit le spectacle par des figures et des spectres allégoriques.”Dupuis.Page 108.—“Those fields of radiance.”—SeeBeausobre, liv. 3. c. 4. for the“terre bienheureuse et lumineuse”which the Manicheans supposed God to inhabit. Plato, too, speaks (in Phæd.) of a“pure land lying in the pure sky (την γην καθαραν εν καθαρω κεισθαι ουρανω), the abode of divinity, of innocence, and of life.”Page 110.—“Tracing it from the first moment of earthward desire.”—In the original construction of this work, there was an episode introduced here, (which I have since published in another form,) illustrating the doctrine of the fall of the soul by the Oriental fable of the Loves of the Angels.Page 111.—“Restoring her lost wings.”—Damasciusin his Life of Isidorus, says,“Ex antiquissimis Philosophis Pythagoram et Platonem Isidorus ut Deos coluit, eteorum animas alatas essedixit quas in locum supercœlestem inque campum veritatis et pratum elevatas, divinis putavit ideis pasci.”Apud Phot. Bibliothec.Page 112.—“A pale, moonlike meteor.”—Apuleius, in describing the miraculous appearances exhibited in the mysteries, says,“Nocte mediâ vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine.”Metamorphos.lib. 11.[pg 319]Page 113.—“So entirely did the illusion of the scene,”&c.—In tracing the early connection of spectacles with the ceremonies of religion, Voltaire says,“Il y a bien plus; les véritables grandes tragédies, les representations imposantes et terribles, étoient les mystères sacrés, qu’on célébroit dans les plus vastes temples du monde, en présence des seuls Initiés; c’étoit là que les habits, les décorations, les machines étoient propres au sujet; et le sujet étoit la vie présente et la vie future.”Des divers changemens arrivés à l’art tragique.To these scenic representations in the Egyptian mysteries, there is evidently an allusion in the vision of Ezekiel, where the spirit shows him the abominations which the Israelites learned in Egypt:—“Then said he unto me,‘Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man inthe chambers of his imagery.’”Chap. 8.Page 118.—“The seven tables of stone.”—“Bernard, Comte de la Marche Trévisane, instruit par la lecture des livres anciens, dit qu’ Hermes trouva sept tables dans la vallée d’Hebron, sur lesquelles étoient gravés les principes des arts liberaux.”Fables Egyptiennes.SeeJablonski de stelis Herm.Page 119.—“Beside the goat of Mendes.”—For an account of the animal worship of the Egyptians, seeDe Pauw, tom. 2.Ib.—“The Isiac serpents.”—“On auguroit bien des serpens Isiaques, lorsqu’ils goutoient l’offrande et se trainoient lentement autour de l’autel.”De Pauw.Page 121.—“Hence the festivals and hymns,”&c.—For an account of the various festivals at the different periods[pg 320]of the sun’s progress, in the spring, and in the autumn, seeDupuisandPritchard.Ib.—“The mysteries of the night.”—v.Athenag. Leg. pro Christ.p. 133.Page 125.—“A peal like that of thunder.”—See, for some curious remarks on the mode of imitating thunder and lightning in the ancient mysteries,De Pauw, tom. 1. p. 323. The machine with which these effects were produced on the stage was called a ceraunoscope.Page 131.—“Windings, capriciously intricate.”—In addition to the accounts which the ancients have left us of the prodigious excavations in all parts of Egypt,—the fifteen hundred chambers under the Labyrinth—the subterranean stables of the Thebaïd, containing a thousand horses—the crypts of Upper Egypt passing under the bed of the Nile, &c. &c.—the stories and traditions current among the Arabs still preserve the memory of those wonderful substructions.“Un Arabe,”says Paul Lucas,“qui étoit avec nous, m’assura qu’étant entré autrefois dans le Labyrinthe, il avoit marché dans les chambres souterraines jusqu’en un lieu où il y avoit une grande place environnée de plusieurs niches qui ressembloit à de petites boutiques, d’où l’on entroit dans d’autres allées et dans des chambres, sans pouvoir en trouver la fin.”In speaking, too, of the arcades along the Nile, near Cosseir,“Ils me dirent même que ces souterrains étoient si profondes qu’il y en avoient qui alloient à trois journées de là, et qu’ils conduisoient dans un pays où l’on voyoit de beaux jardins, qu’on y trouvoit de belles maisons,”&c. &c.See also inM. Quatremere’s Memoires sur l’Egypte, tom. 1. p. 142., an account of a subterranean reservoir,[pg 321]said to have been discovered at Kaïs, and of the expedition undertaken by a party of persons, in a long narrow boat, for the purpose of exploring it.“Leur voyage avoit été de six jours, dont les quatre premiers furent employés à pénétrer les bords; les deux autres à revenir au lieu d’où ils étoient partis: Pendant tout cet intervalle ils ne purent atteindre l’extrémité du bassin. L’émir Ala-eddin-Tamboga, gouverneur de Behnesa, écrivit ces détails au sultan, qui en fut extrêmement surpris.”Page 136.—“A small island in the centre of Lake Mœris.”—The position here given to Lake Mœris, in making it the immediate boundary of the city of Memphis to the south, corresponds exactly with the site assigned to it by Maillet:—“Memphis avoit encore à son midi un vaste reservoir, par où tout ce qui peut servir à la commodité et à l’agrément de la vie lui étoit voituré abondamment de toutes les parties de l’Egypte. Ce lac qui la terminoit de ce côté-là,”&c. &c. Tom. 2. p. 7.Ib.—“Ruins rising blackly above the wave.”—“On voit sur la rive orientale des antiquités qui sont presque entièrement sous les eaux.”Belzoni.Page 137.—“Its thundering portals.”—“Quorundam autem domorum (in Labyrintho) talis est situs, ut adaperientibus foris tonitru intus terribile existat.”Pliny.Page 138.—“Leaves that serve as cups.”—Strabo.According to the French translator of Strabo, it was the fruit of thefaba Ægyptiaca, not the leaf, that was used for this purpose.“Leκιβωριον,”he says,“devoit s’entendre de la capsule ou fruit de cette plante, dont les Egyptiens[pg 322]se servoient comme d’un vase, imaginant que l’eau du Nil y devenoit delicieuse.”Page 142.—“The fish of these waters,”&c.—Ælian, lib. 6. 32.Ib.—“Pleasure boats or yachts.”—Called Thalamages, from the pavilion on the deck. v.Strabo.Page 144.—“Covered with beds of those pale, sweet roses.”—As April is the season for gathering these roses (SeeMalte-brun’s Economical Calendar), the Epicurean could not, of course, mean to say that he saw them actually in flower.Page 146.—“The lizards upon the bank.”—“L’or et l’azur brillent en bandes longitudinales sur leur corps entier, et leur queue est du plus beau bleu celeste.”Sonnini.Page 147.—“The canal through which we now sailed.”—“Un canal,”saysMaillet,“très profond et très large y voituroit les eaux du Nil.”Page 150.—“For a draught of whose flood,”&c.—“Anciennement on portoit les eaux du Nil jusqu’au des contrées fort éloignées, et surtout chez les princesses du sang des Ptolomées, mariées dans des families étrangères.”De Pauw.Page 154.—“Bearing each the name of its owner.”—“Le nom du maître y étoit écrit, pendant la nuit en lettres de feu.”Maillet.[pg 323]Page 155.—“Cups of that frail crystal”—called Alassontes. For their brittlenessMartialis an authority:—Tolle, puer, calices, tepidique toreumata Nili,Et mihi securâ pocula trade manu.Ib.—“Bracelets of the black beans of Abyssinia.”—The bean of the Glycyne, which is so beautiful as to be strung into necklaces and bracelets, is generally known by the name of the black bean of Abyssinia.Niebhur.Ib.—“Sweet lotus-wood flute.”—SeeM. Villoteau on the musical instruments of the Egyptians.Page 156.—“Shine like the brow of Mount Atlas at night.”—Solinusspeaks of the snowy summit of Mount Atlas glittering with flames at night. In the account of the Periplus of Hanno, as well as in that of Eudoxus, we read that as those navigators were coasting this part of Africa, torrents of light were seen to fall on the sea.Page 158.—“The tears of Isis.”—“Per lacrymas, vero, Isidis intelligo effluvia quædam Lunæ, quibus tantam vim videntur tribuisse Ægypti.”Jablonski.—He is of opinion that the superstition of theNucta, or miraculous drop, is of a relic of the veneration paid to the dews, as the tears of Isis.Page 158.—“The rustling of the acacias,”&c.—Travels of Captain Mangles.Ib.—“Supposed to rest in the valley of the moon.”—Plutarch.Dupuis, tom. 10. The Manicheans held the same belief. SeeBeausobre, p. 565.[pg 324]Page 160.—“Sothis, the fair star of the waters.”—ὑδραγωγονis the epithet applied to this star byPlutarch,de Isid.Ib.—“Was its birth-star.”—Ἡ Σωθεως ανατολη γενεσεως καταρχουσα της εις τον κοσμον.Porphyr. de Antro Nymph.Page 168.—“Golden Mountains.”—v.Wilford on Egypt and the Nile, Asiatic Researches.Ib.—“Sweet-smelling wood.”—“’A l’époque de la crue le Nil Vert charie les planches d’un bois qui a une odeur semblable à celle de l’encens.”Quatremere.Page 169.—“Barges full of bees.”—Maillet.Page 170.—“Such a profusion of the white flowers,”&c.—“On les voit comme jadis cueillir dans les champs des tiges du lotus, signes du débordement et présages de l’abondance; ils s’enveloppent les bras et le corps avec les longues tiges fleuries, et parcourent les rues,”&c.Description des Tombeaux des Rois, par M. Costaz.Page 173.—“While composing his commentary on the scriptures.”—It was during the composition of his great critical work, the Hexapla, that Origen employed these female scribes.Page 176.—“That rich tapestry,”&c.Non ego prætulerim Babylonica picta superbèTexta, Semiramiâ quæ variantur acu.Martial.[pg 325]Page 200.—“The Place of Weeping.”—v.Wilford,Asiatic Researches, vol. 3. p. 340.Page 210.—“We had long since left this mountain behind.”—The voyages on the Nile are, under favourable circumstances, performed with considerable rapidity.“En cinq ou six jours,”saysMaillet,“on pourroit aisément remonter de l’embouchure du Nil à ses cataractes, ou descendre des cataractes jusqu’à la mer.”The great uncertainty of the navigation is proved by whatBelzonitells us:—“Nous ne mîmes cette fois que deux jours et demi pour faire le trajet du Caire à Melawi, auquel, dans notre second voyage, nous avions employés dix-huit jours.”Page 212.—“Those mighty statues, that fling their shadows.”—“Elles out près de vingt mètres (61 pieds) d’élévation; et au lever du soleil, leurs ombres immenses s’étendent au loin sur la chaine Libyen.”Description générale de Thèbes, par Messrs. Jollois et Desvilliers.Ib.—“Those cool alcoves.”—Paul Lucas.Page 219.—“Whose waters are half sweet, half bitter.”—Paul Lucas.Page 224.—“The Mountain of the Birds.”—There has been much controversy among the Arabian writers, with respect to the site of this mountain, for which seeQuatremere, tom. 1. art.Amoun.Page 230.—“The hand of labour had succeeded,”&c.—The monks of Mount Sinai (Shawsays) have covered over near four acres of the naked rocks with fruitful gardens and orchards.[pg 326]Page 233.—“The image of a head.”—There was usually, Tertullian tells us, the image of Christ on the communion-cups.Ib.—“Kissed her forehead.”—“We are rather disposed to infer,”says the present Bishop of Lincoln, in his very sensible work on Tertullian,“that, at the conclusion of all their meetings for the purpose of devotion, the early Christians were accustomed to give the kiss of peace, in token of the brotherly love subsisting between them.”Page 237.—“In the middle of the seven valleys.”—See Macrizy’s account of these valleys, given by Quatremere, tom. 1. p. 450.Ib.—“Red lakes of Nitria.”—For a striking description of this region, see“Rameses,”—a work which, though, in general, too technical and elaborate, shows, in many passages, to what picturesque effects the scenery and mythology of Egypt may be made subservient.Page 238.—“In the neighbourhood of Antinoë.”—From the position assigned to Antinoë in this work, we should conclude that it extended much farther to the north, than these few ruins of it that remain would seem to indicate; so as to render the distance between the city and the Mountain of the Birds considerably less than what it appears to be at present.Page 243.—“When Isis, the pure star of lovers.”—v.Plutarch de Isid.Ib.—“Ere she again embrace her bridegroom sun.”—“Conjunctio solis cum luna, quod est veluti utriusque connubium.”Jablonski.[pg 327]Page 247.—“Of his walks a lion is the companion.”—M. Chateaubriand has introduced Paul and his lion into the“Martyrs,”liv. 11.Page 235.—“Come thus secretly before day-break.”—It was among the accusations of Celsus against the Christians, that they held their assemblies privately and contrary to law; and one of the speakers in the curious work of Minucius Felix calls the Christians“latebrosa et lucifugax natio.”Page 256.—“A swallow,”&c.—“Je vis dans le desert des hirondelles d’un gris clair comme le sable sur lequel elles volent.”—Denon.Page 257.—“The comet that once desolated this world.”—In alluding to Whiston’s idea of a comet having caused the deluge,M. Girard, having remarked that the word Typhon means a deluge, adds,“On ne peut entendre par le tems du règne de Typhon que celui pendant lequel le déluge inonda la terre, tems pendant lequel on dût observer la comète qui l’occasionna, et dont l’apparition fut, non seulement pour les peuples de l’Egypte, et de l’Ethiopie, mais encore pour tous les peuples le présage funeste de leur destruction presque totale.”Description de la Vallée de l’E’garement.Page 259.—“In which the spirit of my dream,”&c.—“Many people,”saidOrigen,“have been brought over to Christianity by the Spirit of God giving a sudden turn to their minds, and offering visions to them either by day or night.”On thisJortinremarks:—“Why should it be thought improbable that Pagans of good dispositions, but not free from prejudices, should have been[pg 328]called by divine admonitions, by dreams or visions, which might be a support to Christianity in those days of distress.”Page 263.—“One of those earthen cups.”—Palladius, who lived some time in Egypt, describes the monk Ptolemæus, who inhabited the desert of Scete, as collecting in earthen cups the abundant dew from the rocks.—Bibliothec. Pat.tom. 13.Page 264.—“It was to preserve, he said,”&c.—The brief sketch here given of the Jewish dispensation agrees very much with the view taken of it by Dr. Sumner, the present Bishop of Llandaff, in the first chapters of his eloquent and luminous work, the“Records of the Creation.”Page 266.—“In vain did I seek the promise of immortality.”—“It is impossible to deny,”says the Bishop of Llandaff,“that the sanctions of the Mosaic Law are altogether temporal.... It is, indeed, one of the facts that can only be explained by acknowledging that he really acted under a divine commission, promulgating a temporary law for a peculiar purpose,”—a much more candid and sensible way of treating this very difficult point, than by either endeavouring, like Warburton, to escape from it into a paradox, or still worse, contriving, like Dr. Graves, to increase its difficulty by explanation. v.“On the Pentateuch.”See alsoHorne’s Introduction,&c.vol. I. p. 226.Page 268.—“All are of the dust,”&c.—While Voltaire, Volney, &c. refer to the Ecclesiastes, as abounding with tenets of materialism and Epicurism, Mr. Des Voeux and others find in it strong proofs of belief in a future state. The chief difficulty lies in the chapter from[pg 329]which this text is quoted; and the mode of construction by which some writers attempt to get rid of it,—namely, by putting these texts into the mouth of a foolish reasoner,—appears forced and gratuitous. v.Dr. Hales’s Analysis.Page 270.—“The noblest and first-created,”&c.—This opinion of the Hermit may be supposed to have been derived from his master, Origen; but it is not easy to ascertain the exact doctrine of Origen on this subject. In the Treatise on Prayer attributed to him, he asserts that God the Father alone should be invoked,—which, says Bayle, is“encherir sur les Hérésies des Sociniens.”Notwithstanding this, however, and some other indications of, what was afterwards called, Arianism, (such as the opinion of the divinity being received bycommunication, whichMilnerasserts to have been held by this Father,) Origen was one of the authorities quoted by Athanasius in support of his high doctrines of co-eternity and co-essentiality. What Priestley says is, perhaps, the best solution of these inconsistencies;—“Origen, as well as Clemens Alexandrinus, has been thought to favour the Arian principle; but he did it only in words and not in ideas.”Early Opinions,&c.Whatever uncertainty, however, there may exist with respect to the opinion of Origen himself on this subject, there is no doubt that the doctrines of his immediate followers were, at least, Anti-Athanasian.“So many Bishops of Africa,”says Priestley,“were, at this period (between the years 255 and 258), Unitarians, that Athanasius says,‘The Son of God,’—meaning his divinity,—‘was scarcely any longer preached in the churches.’”Page 271.—“The restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness.”—This benevolent doc[pg 330]trine,—which not only goes far to solve the great problem of moral and physical evil, but which would, if received more generally, tend to soften the spirit of uncharitableness, so fatally prevalent among Christian sects,—was maintained by that great light of the early Church, Origen, and has not wanted supporters among more modern Theologians. That Tillotson was inclined to the opinion appears from his sermon preached before the queen. Paley is supposed to have held the same amiable doctrine; and Newton (the author of the work on the Prophecies) is also among the supporters of it. For a full account of the arguments in favour of this opinion, derived both from reason and the express language of Scripture, see Dr. Southwood Smith’s very interesting work,“On the Divine Government.”See alsoMagee on the Atonement, where the doctrine of the advocates of Universal Restoration is thus briefly and fairly explained:—“Beginning with the existence of an infinitely powerful, wise, and good Being, as the first and fundamental principle of rational religion, they pronounce the essence of this Being to belove, and from this infer, as a demonstrable consequence, that none of the creatures formed by such a Being will ever be made eternally miserable.... Since God (they say) would act unjustly in inflicting eternal misery for temporary crimes, the sufferings of the wicked can be but remedial, and will terminate in a complete purification from moral disorder, and in their ultimate restoration to virtue and happiness.”Page 273.—“Fruit of the desert shrub.”—v.Hamilton’s Ægyptiaca.Page 278.—“The white garment she wore, and the ring of gold on her finger.”—See, for the custom among the early Christians of wearing white for a few days after[pg 331]baptism,Ambros. de Myst.—With respect to the ring, the Bishop of Lincoln says, in his work on Tertullian,“The natural inference from these words (Tertull. de Pudicitiâ) appears to be that a ring used to be given in baptism; but I have found no other trace of such a custom.”Page 280.—“Pebbles of jasper.”—v.Clarke.Ib.—“Stunted marigold,”&c.—“LesMesembryanthemum nodiflorumetZygophyllum coccineum, plantes grasses des déserts, rejetées à cause de leur âcreté par les chameaux, les chèvres, et les gazelles.”M. Delile upon the plants of Egypt.Page 281.—“Antinoë.”—v.SavaryandQuatremere.Page 286.—“I have observed in my walks.”—“Je remarquai avec une réflexion triste, qu’un animal de proie accompagne presque toujours les pas de ce joli et frêle individu.”Page 272.—“Glistened over its silver letters.”—The Codex Cottonianus of the New Testament is written in silver letters on a purple ground. The Codex Cottonianus of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament is supposed to be the identical copy that belonged to Origen.Page 289.—“Some denier of Christ.”—Those Christians who sacrificed to idols to save themselves were called by various names,Thurificati,Sacrificati,Mittentes,Negatores, &c. Baronius mentions a bishop of this period (253), Marcellinus, who, yielding to the threats[pg 332]of the Gentiles, threw incense upon the altar. v.Arnob. contra Gent.lib. 7.Page 297.—“The clear voice with which,”&c.—The merit of the confession“Christianus sum,”or“Christiana sum,”was considerably enhanced by the clearness and distinctness with which it was pronounced.Eusebiusmentions the martyr Vetius as making itλαμπροτατη φωνη.Page 304.—“The band round the young Christian’s brow.”—We find poisonous crowns mentioned byPliny, under the designation of“coronæ ferales.”Paschalius, too, gives the following account of these“deadly garlands,”as he calls them:—“Sed mirum est tam salutare inventum humanam nequitiam reperisse, quomodo ad nefarios usus traducent. Nempe, repertæ sunt nefandæ coronæ harum, quas dixi, tam salubrium per nomen quidem et speciem imitatrices, at re et effectu ferales, atque adeo capitis, cui imponuntur, interfectrices.”De Coronis.THE END.London:Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,New-Street-Square.

[pg 309]NOTES.Page 17.—For the importance attached to dreams by the ancients, seeJortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1. p. 90.Page 22.—“The Pillar of Pillars”—more properly, perhaps,“the column of the pillars.”v.Abdallatif, Relation de l’Egypte, and the notes ofM. de Sacy. The great portico round this column (formerly designated Pompey’s, but now known to have been erected in honour of Dioclesian) was still standing, M. de Sacy says, in the time of Saladin. v.Lord Valentia’s Travels.Page 23.—Ammianus thus speaks of the state of Alexandria in his time, which was, I believe, as late as the end of the fourth century:—“Ne nunc quidem in eadem urbe Doctrinæ variæ silent, non apud nos exaruit Musica nec Harmonia conticuit.”Lib. 22.Page 25.—From the character of the features of the Sphinx, and a passage in Herodotus, describing the Egyptians asμελαγχροες και ουλοτρικες, Volney, Bruce, and a few others, have concluded that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt were negroes. But this opinion is contradicted by a host of authorities. SeeCastera’s notes upon[pg 310]Browne’s Travels, for the result of Blumenbach’s dissection of a variety of mummies. Denon, speaking of the character of the heads represented in the ancient sculpture and painting of Egypt, says,“Celle des femmes ressemble encore à la figure des jolies femmes d’aujourd’hui: de la rondeur, de la volupté, le nez petit, les yeux longs, peu ouverts,”&c. &c. He could judge, too, he says, from the female mummies,“que leurs cheveux étoient longs et lisses, que le caractère de tête de la plupart tenoit du beau style”—“Je raportai,”he adds,“une tête de vieille femme qui étoit aussi belle que celles de Michel Ange, et leur ressembloit beaucoup.”In a“Description générale de Thèbes”byMessrs. Jollois et Desvilliers, they say,“Toutes les sculptures Egyptiennes, depuis les plus grands colosses de Thèbes jusqu’aux plus petites idoles, ne rappellent en aucune manière les traits de la figure des nègres; outre que les têtes des momies des catacombs de Thèbes presentent des profils droits.”See alsoM. Jomard’s“Description of Syene and the Cataracts,”Baron Larrey, on the“conformation physique”of the Egyptians, &c.De Pauw, the great depreciator of every thing Egyptian, has, on the authority of a passage in Ælian, presumed to affix to the countrywomen of Cleopatra the stigma of complete and unredeemed ugliness. The following line of Euripides, however, is an answer to such charges:—Νειλου μεν αἱδε καλλιπαρθενοι ροαι.In addition to the celebrated instances of Cleopatra, Rhodope, &c. we are told, on the authority of Manetho (as given by Zoega from Georgius Syncellus), of a beautiful queen of Memphis, Nitocris, of the sixth dynasty, who, in addition to other charms and perfections, was (rather inconsistently with the negro hypothesis)ξανθη την χροιαν.[pg 311]See, for a tribute to the beauty of the Egyptian women, Montesquieu’s Temple de Gnide.Page 35.—“Among beds of lotus flowers.”—v.Strabo.Page 36.—“Isle of the golden Venus.”—“On trouve une île appelée Venus-Dorée, ou le champ d’or, avant de remonter jusqu’à Memphis.”Voyages de Pythagore.Page 39.—For an account of the Table of Emerald, v.Lettres sur l’Origine des Dieux d’Egypte.De Pauwsupposes it to be a modern fiction of the Arabs. Many writers have fancied that the art of making gold was the great secret that lay hid under the forms of Egyptian theology.“La science Hermétique,”says the Benedictine, Pernetz,“l’art sacerdotal étoit la source de toutes les richesses des Rois d’Egypte, et l’objet de ces mystères si cachés sous le voile du leur pretendu Religion.”Fables Egyptiennes.The hieroglyphs, that formerly covered the Pyramids, are supposed by some of these writers to relate to the same art. SeeMutus liber, Rupellæ.Page 40.—“By reflecting the sun’s rays,”saysClarke, speaking of the Pyramids,“they appeared white as snow.”Page 41.—For Bubastis, the Diana of the Egyptians, v.Jablonski, lib. 3. c. 4.Page 43.—“The light coracle,”&c.—v.Amuilhon,“Histoire de la Navigation et du Commerce des Egyptiens sous les Ptolemées.”See also, for a description of the various kinds of boats used on the Nile,Maillet, tom. i. p. 98.Page 44.—v.Maurice, Appendix to“Ruins of Ba[pg 312]bylon.”Another reason, he says, for their worship of the Ibis,“founded on their love of geometry, was (according to Plutarch) that the space between its legs, when parted asunder, as it walks, together with its beak, forms a complete equilateral triangle.”From the examination of the embalmed birds, found in the Catacombs of Saccara, there seems to be no doubt that the Ibis was the same kind of bird as that described by Bruce, under the Arabian name of Abou Hannes.Ib.—“The sistrum,”&c.—“Isis est genius,”saysServius,“Ægypti, qui per sistri motum, quod gerit in dextra, Nili accessus recessusque significat.”Page 48.—“The ivy encircled it,”&c.—The ivy was consecrated to Osiris. v.Diodor. Sic.1. 10.Ib.—“The small mirror.”—“Quelques unes,”saysDupuis, describing the processions of Isis,“portoient des miroirs attachés à leurs épaules, afin de multiplier et de porter dans tous les sens les images de la Déesse.”Origine des Cultes, tom. 8. p. 847. A mirror, it appears, was also one of the emblems in the mysteries of Bacchus.Page 49.—“Thereis, to the north of Memphis,”&c.—“Tout prouve que la territoire de Sakkarah étoit la Necropolis au sud de Memphis, et le faubourg opposé à celui-ci, où sont les pyramides de Gizeh, une autre Ville des Morts, qui terminoit Memphis au nord.”Denon.There is nothing known with certainty as to the site of Memphis, but it will be perceived that the description of its position given by the Epicurean corresponds, in almost every particular, with that which M. Maillet (the French consul, for many years, at Cairo) has left us. It must be always borne in mind, too, that of the dis[pg 313]tances between the respective places here mentioned, we have no longer any accurate means of judging.Page 49.—“Pyramid beyond pyramid.”—“Multas olim pyramidas fuisse e ruinis arguitur.”Zoega.—Vansleb, who visited more than ten of the small pyramids, is of opinion that there must have originally been a hundred in this place.See, for the lake to the northward of Memphis,Shaw’s Travels, p. 302.Page 57.—“The Theban beetle.”—“On voit en Egypte, après la retraite du Nil et la fécondation des terres, le limon couvert d’une multitude de scarabées. Un pareil phénomène a dû sembler aux Egyptiens le plus propre à peindre une nouvelle existence.”M. Jomard.—Partly for the same reason, and partly for another, still more fanciful, the early Christians used to apply this emblem to Christ.“Bonus ille scarabæus meus,”says St. Augustine“non eâ tantum de causâ quod unigenitus, quod ipsemet sui auctor mortalium speciem induerit, sed quod in hac nostrâ fæce sese volutaverit et ex hac ipsa nasci voluerit.”Ib.—“Enshrined within a case of crystal.”—“Les Egyptiens ont fait aussi, pour conserver leurs morts, des caisses de verre.”De Pauw.—He mentions, in another place, a sort of transparent substance, which the Ethiopians used for the same purpose, and which was frequently mistaken by the Greeks for glass.Page 58.—“Among the emblems of death.”—“Un prêtre, qui brise la tige d’une fleur, des oiseaux qui[pg 314]s’envolent sont les emblemes de la morte et de l’âme qui se sépare du corps.”Denon.Theseus employs the same image in the Phædra:—Ορνις γαρ ὡς τις εκ χερων αφαντος ειΠηδημ’ ες ἁδου πικρον ὁρμησασα μοι.Page 59.—“The singular appearance of a Cross so frequently recurring among the hieroglyphics of Egypt, had excited the curiosity of the Christians at a very early period of ecclesiastical history; and as some of the Priests, who were acquainted with the meaning of the hieroglyphics, became converted to Christianity the secret transpired.‘The converted heathens,’says Socrates Scholasticus,‘explained the symbol, and declared that it signified Life to Come.’”Clarke.Lipsius, therefore, erroneously supposes the Cross to have been an emblem peculiar to the Christians. See, on this subject,L’Histoire des Juifs, liv. 9. c. 16.It is singular enough that while the Cross was held sacred among the Egyptians, not only the custom of marking the forehead with the sign of the Cross, but Baptism and the consecration of the bread in the Eucharist were imitated in the mysterious ceremonies of Mithra.Tertull. de Proscriptione Hereticorum.Zoega is of opinion that the Cross found (for the first time, it is said) on the destruction of the temple of Serapis, by the Christians, could have not been the crux ansata; as nothing is more common than this emblem on all the Egyptian monuments.Page 62.—“Stood shadowless.”—It was an idea entertained among the ancients that the Pyramids were so constructed (“mecanicâ constructione,”saysAmmianus Marcellinus) as never to cast any shadow.[pg 315]Page 64.—“Rhodope.”—From the story of Rhodope, Zoega thinks,“videntur Arabes ansam arripuisse ut in una ex pyramidibus, genii loco, habitare dicerent mulierem nudam insignis pulchritudinis quæ aspectu suo homines insanire faciat.”De Usu Obeliscorum.See alsoL’Egypte de Murtadi par Vattier.Page 66.—“The Gates of Oblivion.”—“Apud Memphim æneas quasdam portas, quæ Lethes et Cocyti (hoc est oblivionis et lamentationis) appellenter aperiri, gravem asperumque edentes sonum.”Zoega.Page 69.—“A pile of lifeless bodies.”—See, for the custom of burying the dead upright (“post funus stantia busto corpora,”as Statius describes it), Dr. Clarke’s preface to the 2d section of his fifth volume. They used to insert precious stones in the place of the eyes.“Les yeux étoient formés d’émeraudes, de turquoises,”&c.—v.Masoudy, quoted byQuatremere.Page 72.—“It seemed as if every echo.”—See, for the echoes in the pyramids,Plutarch, de Placitis Philosoph.Page 74.—“Pale phantom-like shapes.”—“Ce moment heureux (de l’Autopsie) étoit preparé par des scènes effrayantes, par des alternatives de crainte et de joie, de lumière et des ténèbres, par la lueur des éclairs, par le bruit terrible de la foudre, qu’on imitoit, et par des apparitions de spectres, des illusions magiques, qui frappoient les yeux et les oreilles tout ensemble.”Dupuis.Page 77.—“Serpents of fire.”—“Ces considérations me portent à penser que, dans les mystères, ces phéno[pg 316]mènes étoient beaucoup mieux exécutées et sans comparison plus terribles à l’aide de quelque composition pyrique, qui est restée cachée, comme celle du feu Grégeois.”De Pauw.Page 78.—“The burning of the reed-beds of Ethiopia.”—“Il n’y a point d’autre moyen que de porter le feu dans ces forêts de roseaux, qui répandent alors dans tout le païs une lumière aussi considérable que celle du jour même.”Maillet, tom. 1. p. 63.Page 79.—“The sound of torrents.”—The Nile,Plinytells us, was admitted into the Pyramid.Page 81.—“I had almost given myself up.”—“On exerçoit,”saysDupuis,“les recipiendaires, pendant plusieurs jours, à traverser, à la nage, une grande étendue d’eau. On les y jettoit et ce n’étoit que avec peine qu’ ils s’en retiroient. On appliquoit le fer et le feu sur leurs membres. On les faisoit passer à travers les flammes.”The aspirants were often in considerable danger, and Pythagoras, we are told, nearly lost his life in the trials. v.Recherches sur les Initiations, par Robin.Page 90.—For the two cups used in the mysteries, seeL’Histoire des Juifs, liv. 9. c. 16.Ib.—“Osiris.”—Osiris, under the name of Serapis, was supposed to rule over the subterranean world; and performed the office of Pluto, in the mythology of the Egyptians.“They believed,”says Dr. Pritchard,“that Serapis presided over the region of departed souls, during the period of their absence, when languishing without bodies, and that the dead were deposited in his palace.”Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology.[pg 317]Ib.—“To cool the lips of the dead.”—“Frigidam illam aquam post mortem, tanquam Hebes poculum, expetitam.”Zoega.—The Lethe of the Egyptians was called Ameles. SeeDupuis, tom. 8. p. 651.Page 90.—“A draught divine.”—Diodor. Sicul.Page 93.—“Grasshopper, symbol of initiation.”—Hor. Apoll.—The grasshopper was also consecrated to the sun as being musical.Page 94.—“Isle of gardens.”—The isle Antirrhodus near Alexandria.Maillet.Ib.—“Vineyard at Anthylla.”—SeeAthen. Deipnos.Page 97.—“We can see those stars.”—“On voyoit en plein jour par ces ouvertures les étoiles, et même quelques planètes en leur plus grande latitude septentrionale; et les prêtres avoient bientôt profité de ce phénomène pour observer à diverses heures la passage des étoiles.”Séthos.—Strabomentions certain caves or pits, constructed for the purpose of astronomical observations, which lay in the Zelopolitan prefecture, beyond Heliopolis.Page 98.—“A plantain.”—This tree was dedicated to the Genii of the Shades, from its being an emblem of repose and cooling airs.“Cui imminet musæ folium, quod ab Iside infera geniisque ei addictis manu geri solitum, umbram requiemque et auras frigidas subindigitare videtur.”Zoega.Page 107.—“He spoke of the preexistence of the soul,”&c.—For a full account of the doctrines which are here represented as having been taught to the initiated[pg 318]in the Egyptian mysteries, the reader may consultDupuis,Pritchard’s Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology, &c. &c.“L’on découvroit l’origine de l’ame, sa chute sur la terre, à travers les sphères et les élémens, et son retour au lieu de sa origine ... c’étoit ici la partie la plus métaphysique, et que ne pourroit guère entendre le commun des Initiés, mais dont on lui donnoit le spectacle par des figures et des spectres allégoriques.”Dupuis.Page 108.—“Those fields of radiance.”—SeeBeausobre, liv. 3. c. 4. for the“terre bienheureuse et lumineuse”which the Manicheans supposed God to inhabit. Plato, too, speaks (in Phæd.) of a“pure land lying in the pure sky (την γην καθαραν εν καθαρω κεισθαι ουρανω), the abode of divinity, of innocence, and of life.”Page 110.—“Tracing it from the first moment of earthward desire.”—In the original construction of this work, there was an episode introduced here, (which I have since published in another form,) illustrating the doctrine of the fall of the soul by the Oriental fable of the Loves of the Angels.Page 111.—“Restoring her lost wings.”—Damasciusin his Life of Isidorus, says,“Ex antiquissimis Philosophis Pythagoram et Platonem Isidorus ut Deos coluit, eteorum animas alatas essedixit quas in locum supercœlestem inque campum veritatis et pratum elevatas, divinis putavit ideis pasci.”Apud Phot. Bibliothec.Page 112.—“A pale, moonlike meteor.”—Apuleius, in describing the miraculous appearances exhibited in the mysteries, says,“Nocte mediâ vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine.”Metamorphos.lib. 11.[pg 319]Page 113.—“So entirely did the illusion of the scene,”&c.—In tracing the early connection of spectacles with the ceremonies of religion, Voltaire says,“Il y a bien plus; les véritables grandes tragédies, les representations imposantes et terribles, étoient les mystères sacrés, qu’on célébroit dans les plus vastes temples du monde, en présence des seuls Initiés; c’étoit là que les habits, les décorations, les machines étoient propres au sujet; et le sujet étoit la vie présente et la vie future.”Des divers changemens arrivés à l’art tragique.To these scenic representations in the Egyptian mysteries, there is evidently an allusion in the vision of Ezekiel, where the spirit shows him the abominations which the Israelites learned in Egypt:—“Then said he unto me,‘Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man inthe chambers of his imagery.’”Chap. 8.Page 118.—“The seven tables of stone.”—“Bernard, Comte de la Marche Trévisane, instruit par la lecture des livres anciens, dit qu’ Hermes trouva sept tables dans la vallée d’Hebron, sur lesquelles étoient gravés les principes des arts liberaux.”Fables Egyptiennes.SeeJablonski de stelis Herm.Page 119.—“Beside the goat of Mendes.”—For an account of the animal worship of the Egyptians, seeDe Pauw, tom. 2.Ib.—“The Isiac serpents.”—“On auguroit bien des serpens Isiaques, lorsqu’ils goutoient l’offrande et se trainoient lentement autour de l’autel.”De Pauw.Page 121.—“Hence the festivals and hymns,”&c.—For an account of the various festivals at the different periods[pg 320]of the sun’s progress, in the spring, and in the autumn, seeDupuisandPritchard.Ib.—“The mysteries of the night.”—v.Athenag. Leg. pro Christ.p. 133.Page 125.—“A peal like that of thunder.”—See, for some curious remarks on the mode of imitating thunder and lightning in the ancient mysteries,De Pauw, tom. 1. p. 323. The machine with which these effects were produced on the stage was called a ceraunoscope.Page 131.—“Windings, capriciously intricate.”—In addition to the accounts which the ancients have left us of the prodigious excavations in all parts of Egypt,—the fifteen hundred chambers under the Labyrinth—the subterranean stables of the Thebaïd, containing a thousand horses—the crypts of Upper Egypt passing under the bed of the Nile, &c. &c.—the stories and traditions current among the Arabs still preserve the memory of those wonderful substructions.“Un Arabe,”says Paul Lucas,“qui étoit avec nous, m’assura qu’étant entré autrefois dans le Labyrinthe, il avoit marché dans les chambres souterraines jusqu’en un lieu où il y avoit une grande place environnée de plusieurs niches qui ressembloit à de petites boutiques, d’où l’on entroit dans d’autres allées et dans des chambres, sans pouvoir en trouver la fin.”In speaking, too, of the arcades along the Nile, near Cosseir,“Ils me dirent même que ces souterrains étoient si profondes qu’il y en avoient qui alloient à trois journées de là, et qu’ils conduisoient dans un pays où l’on voyoit de beaux jardins, qu’on y trouvoit de belles maisons,”&c. &c.See also inM. Quatremere’s Memoires sur l’Egypte, tom. 1. p. 142., an account of a subterranean reservoir,[pg 321]said to have been discovered at Kaïs, and of the expedition undertaken by a party of persons, in a long narrow boat, for the purpose of exploring it.“Leur voyage avoit été de six jours, dont les quatre premiers furent employés à pénétrer les bords; les deux autres à revenir au lieu d’où ils étoient partis: Pendant tout cet intervalle ils ne purent atteindre l’extrémité du bassin. L’émir Ala-eddin-Tamboga, gouverneur de Behnesa, écrivit ces détails au sultan, qui en fut extrêmement surpris.”Page 136.—“A small island in the centre of Lake Mœris.”—The position here given to Lake Mœris, in making it the immediate boundary of the city of Memphis to the south, corresponds exactly with the site assigned to it by Maillet:—“Memphis avoit encore à son midi un vaste reservoir, par où tout ce qui peut servir à la commodité et à l’agrément de la vie lui étoit voituré abondamment de toutes les parties de l’Egypte. Ce lac qui la terminoit de ce côté-là,”&c. &c. Tom. 2. p. 7.Ib.—“Ruins rising blackly above the wave.”—“On voit sur la rive orientale des antiquités qui sont presque entièrement sous les eaux.”Belzoni.Page 137.—“Its thundering portals.”—“Quorundam autem domorum (in Labyrintho) talis est situs, ut adaperientibus foris tonitru intus terribile existat.”Pliny.Page 138.—“Leaves that serve as cups.”—Strabo.According to the French translator of Strabo, it was the fruit of thefaba Ægyptiaca, not the leaf, that was used for this purpose.“Leκιβωριον,”he says,“devoit s’entendre de la capsule ou fruit de cette plante, dont les Egyptiens[pg 322]se servoient comme d’un vase, imaginant que l’eau du Nil y devenoit delicieuse.”Page 142.—“The fish of these waters,”&c.—Ælian, lib. 6. 32.Ib.—“Pleasure boats or yachts.”—Called Thalamages, from the pavilion on the deck. v.Strabo.Page 144.—“Covered with beds of those pale, sweet roses.”—As April is the season for gathering these roses (SeeMalte-brun’s Economical Calendar), the Epicurean could not, of course, mean to say that he saw them actually in flower.Page 146.—“The lizards upon the bank.”—“L’or et l’azur brillent en bandes longitudinales sur leur corps entier, et leur queue est du plus beau bleu celeste.”Sonnini.Page 147.—“The canal through which we now sailed.”—“Un canal,”saysMaillet,“très profond et très large y voituroit les eaux du Nil.”Page 150.—“For a draught of whose flood,”&c.—“Anciennement on portoit les eaux du Nil jusqu’au des contrées fort éloignées, et surtout chez les princesses du sang des Ptolomées, mariées dans des families étrangères.”De Pauw.Page 154.—“Bearing each the name of its owner.”—“Le nom du maître y étoit écrit, pendant la nuit en lettres de feu.”Maillet.[pg 323]Page 155.—“Cups of that frail crystal”—called Alassontes. For their brittlenessMartialis an authority:—Tolle, puer, calices, tepidique toreumata Nili,Et mihi securâ pocula trade manu.Ib.—“Bracelets of the black beans of Abyssinia.”—The bean of the Glycyne, which is so beautiful as to be strung into necklaces and bracelets, is generally known by the name of the black bean of Abyssinia.Niebhur.Ib.—“Sweet lotus-wood flute.”—SeeM. Villoteau on the musical instruments of the Egyptians.Page 156.—“Shine like the brow of Mount Atlas at night.”—Solinusspeaks of the snowy summit of Mount Atlas glittering with flames at night. In the account of the Periplus of Hanno, as well as in that of Eudoxus, we read that as those navigators were coasting this part of Africa, torrents of light were seen to fall on the sea.Page 158.—“The tears of Isis.”—“Per lacrymas, vero, Isidis intelligo effluvia quædam Lunæ, quibus tantam vim videntur tribuisse Ægypti.”Jablonski.—He is of opinion that the superstition of theNucta, or miraculous drop, is of a relic of the veneration paid to the dews, as the tears of Isis.Page 158.—“The rustling of the acacias,”&c.—Travels of Captain Mangles.Ib.—“Supposed to rest in the valley of the moon.”—Plutarch.Dupuis, tom. 10. The Manicheans held the same belief. SeeBeausobre, p. 565.[pg 324]Page 160.—“Sothis, the fair star of the waters.”—ὑδραγωγονis the epithet applied to this star byPlutarch,de Isid.Ib.—“Was its birth-star.”—Ἡ Σωθεως ανατολη γενεσεως καταρχουσα της εις τον κοσμον.Porphyr. de Antro Nymph.Page 168.—“Golden Mountains.”—v.Wilford on Egypt and the Nile, Asiatic Researches.Ib.—“Sweet-smelling wood.”—“’A l’époque de la crue le Nil Vert charie les planches d’un bois qui a une odeur semblable à celle de l’encens.”Quatremere.Page 169.—“Barges full of bees.”—Maillet.Page 170.—“Such a profusion of the white flowers,”&c.—“On les voit comme jadis cueillir dans les champs des tiges du lotus, signes du débordement et présages de l’abondance; ils s’enveloppent les bras et le corps avec les longues tiges fleuries, et parcourent les rues,”&c.Description des Tombeaux des Rois, par M. Costaz.Page 173.—“While composing his commentary on the scriptures.”—It was during the composition of his great critical work, the Hexapla, that Origen employed these female scribes.Page 176.—“That rich tapestry,”&c.Non ego prætulerim Babylonica picta superbèTexta, Semiramiâ quæ variantur acu.Martial.[pg 325]Page 200.—“The Place of Weeping.”—v.Wilford,Asiatic Researches, vol. 3. p. 340.Page 210.—“We had long since left this mountain behind.”—The voyages on the Nile are, under favourable circumstances, performed with considerable rapidity.“En cinq ou six jours,”saysMaillet,“on pourroit aisément remonter de l’embouchure du Nil à ses cataractes, ou descendre des cataractes jusqu’à la mer.”The great uncertainty of the navigation is proved by whatBelzonitells us:—“Nous ne mîmes cette fois que deux jours et demi pour faire le trajet du Caire à Melawi, auquel, dans notre second voyage, nous avions employés dix-huit jours.”Page 212.—“Those mighty statues, that fling their shadows.”—“Elles out près de vingt mètres (61 pieds) d’élévation; et au lever du soleil, leurs ombres immenses s’étendent au loin sur la chaine Libyen.”Description générale de Thèbes, par Messrs. Jollois et Desvilliers.Ib.—“Those cool alcoves.”—Paul Lucas.Page 219.—“Whose waters are half sweet, half bitter.”—Paul Lucas.Page 224.—“The Mountain of the Birds.”—There has been much controversy among the Arabian writers, with respect to the site of this mountain, for which seeQuatremere, tom. 1. art.Amoun.Page 230.—“The hand of labour had succeeded,”&c.—The monks of Mount Sinai (Shawsays) have covered over near four acres of the naked rocks with fruitful gardens and orchards.[pg 326]Page 233.—“The image of a head.”—There was usually, Tertullian tells us, the image of Christ on the communion-cups.Ib.—“Kissed her forehead.”—“We are rather disposed to infer,”says the present Bishop of Lincoln, in his very sensible work on Tertullian,“that, at the conclusion of all their meetings for the purpose of devotion, the early Christians were accustomed to give the kiss of peace, in token of the brotherly love subsisting between them.”Page 237.—“In the middle of the seven valleys.”—See Macrizy’s account of these valleys, given by Quatremere, tom. 1. p. 450.Ib.—“Red lakes of Nitria.”—For a striking description of this region, see“Rameses,”—a work which, though, in general, too technical and elaborate, shows, in many passages, to what picturesque effects the scenery and mythology of Egypt may be made subservient.Page 238.—“In the neighbourhood of Antinoë.”—From the position assigned to Antinoë in this work, we should conclude that it extended much farther to the north, than these few ruins of it that remain would seem to indicate; so as to render the distance between the city and the Mountain of the Birds considerably less than what it appears to be at present.Page 243.—“When Isis, the pure star of lovers.”—v.Plutarch de Isid.Ib.—“Ere she again embrace her bridegroom sun.”—“Conjunctio solis cum luna, quod est veluti utriusque connubium.”Jablonski.[pg 327]Page 247.—“Of his walks a lion is the companion.”—M. Chateaubriand has introduced Paul and his lion into the“Martyrs,”liv. 11.Page 235.—“Come thus secretly before day-break.”—It was among the accusations of Celsus against the Christians, that they held their assemblies privately and contrary to law; and one of the speakers in the curious work of Minucius Felix calls the Christians“latebrosa et lucifugax natio.”Page 256.—“A swallow,”&c.—“Je vis dans le desert des hirondelles d’un gris clair comme le sable sur lequel elles volent.”—Denon.Page 257.—“The comet that once desolated this world.”—In alluding to Whiston’s idea of a comet having caused the deluge,M. Girard, having remarked that the word Typhon means a deluge, adds,“On ne peut entendre par le tems du règne de Typhon que celui pendant lequel le déluge inonda la terre, tems pendant lequel on dût observer la comète qui l’occasionna, et dont l’apparition fut, non seulement pour les peuples de l’Egypte, et de l’Ethiopie, mais encore pour tous les peuples le présage funeste de leur destruction presque totale.”Description de la Vallée de l’E’garement.Page 259.—“In which the spirit of my dream,”&c.—“Many people,”saidOrigen,“have been brought over to Christianity by the Spirit of God giving a sudden turn to their minds, and offering visions to them either by day or night.”On thisJortinremarks:—“Why should it be thought improbable that Pagans of good dispositions, but not free from prejudices, should have been[pg 328]called by divine admonitions, by dreams or visions, which might be a support to Christianity in those days of distress.”Page 263.—“One of those earthen cups.”—Palladius, who lived some time in Egypt, describes the monk Ptolemæus, who inhabited the desert of Scete, as collecting in earthen cups the abundant dew from the rocks.—Bibliothec. Pat.tom. 13.Page 264.—“It was to preserve, he said,”&c.—The brief sketch here given of the Jewish dispensation agrees very much with the view taken of it by Dr. Sumner, the present Bishop of Llandaff, in the first chapters of his eloquent and luminous work, the“Records of the Creation.”Page 266.—“In vain did I seek the promise of immortality.”—“It is impossible to deny,”says the Bishop of Llandaff,“that the sanctions of the Mosaic Law are altogether temporal.... It is, indeed, one of the facts that can only be explained by acknowledging that he really acted under a divine commission, promulgating a temporary law for a peculiar purpose,”—a much more candid and sensible way of treating this very difficult point, than by either endeavouring, like Warburton, to escape from it into a paradox, or still worse, contriving, like Dr. Graves, to increase its difficulty by explanation. v.“On the Pentateuch.”See alsoHorne’s Introduction,&c.vol. I. p. 226.Page 268.—“All are of the dust,”&c.—While Voltaire, Volney, &c. refer to the Ecclesiastes, as abounding with tenets of materialism and Epicurism, Mr. Des Voeux and others find in it strong proofs of belief in a future state. The chief difficulty lies in the chapter from[pg 329]which this text is quoted; and the mode of construction by which some writers attempt to get rid of it,—namely, by putting these texts into the mouth of a foolish reasoner,—appears forced and gratuitous. v.Dr. Hales’s Analysis.Page 270.—“The noblest and first-created,”&c.—This opinion of the Hermit may be supposed to have been derived from his master, Origen; but it is not easy to ascertain the exact doctrine of Origen on this subject. In the Treatise on Prayer attributed to him, he asserts that God the Father alone should be invoked,—which, says Bayle, is“encherir sur les Hérésies des Sociniens.”Notwithstanding this, however, and some other indications of, what was afterwards called, Arianism, (such as the opinion of the divinity being received bycommunication, whichMilnerasserts to have been held by this Father,) Origen was one of the authorities quoted by Athanasius in support of his high doctrines of co-eternity and co-essentiality. What Priestley says is, perhaps, the best solution of these inconsistencies;—“Origen, as well as Clemens Alexandrinus, has been thought to favour the Arian principle; but he did it only in words and not in ideas.”Early Opinions,&c.Whatever uncertainty, however, there may exist with respect to the opinion of Origen himself on this subject, there is no doubt that the doctrines of his immediate followers were, at least, Anti-Athanasian.“So many Bishops of Africa,”says Priestley,“were, at this period (between the years 255 and 258), Unitarians, that Athanasius says,‘The Son of God,’—meaning his divinity,—‘was scarcely any longer preached in the churches.’”Page 271.—“The restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness.”—This benevolent doc[pg 330]trine,—which not only goes far to solve the great problem of moral and physical evil, but which would, if received more generally, tend to soften the spirit of uncharitableness, so fatally prevalent among Christian sects,—was maintained by that great light of the early Church, Origen, and has not wanted supporters among more modern Theologians. That Tillotson was inclined to the opinion appears from his sermon preached before the queen. Paley is supposed to have held the same amiable doctrine; and Newton (the author of the work on the Prophecies) is also among the supporters of it. For a full account of the arguments in favour of this opinion, derived both from reason and the express language of Scripture, see Dr. Southwood Smith’s very interesting work,“On the Divine Government.”See alsoMagee on the Atonement, where the doctrine of the advocates of Universal Restoration is thus briefly and fairly explained:—“Beginning with the existence of an infinitely powerful, wise, and good Being, as the first and fundamental principle of rational religion, they pronounce the essence of this Being to belove, and from this infer, as a demonstrable consequence, that none of the creatures formed by such a Being will ever be made eternally miserable.... Since God (they say) would act unjustly in inflicting eternal misery for temporary crimes, the sufferings of the wicked can be but remedial, and will terminate in a complete purification from moral disorder, and in their ultimate restoration to virtue and happiness.”Page 273.—“Fruit of the desert shrub.”—v.Hamilton’s Ægyptiaca.Page 278.—“The white garment she wore, and the ring of gold on her finger.”—See, for the custom among the early Christians of wearing white for a few days after[pg 331]baptism,Ambros. de Myst.—With respect to the ring, the Bishop of Lincoln says, in his work on Tertullian,“The natural inference from these words (Tertull. de Pudicitiâ) appears to be that a ring used to be given in baptism; but I have found no other trace of such a custom.”Page 280.—“Pebbles of jasper.”—v.Clarke.Ib.—“Stunted marigold,”&c.—“LesMesembryanthemum nodiflorumetZygophyllum coccineum, plantes grasses des déserts, rejetées à cause de leur âcreté par les chameaux, les chèvres, et les gazelles.”M. Delile upon the plants of Egypt.Page 281.—“Antinoë.”—v.SavaryandQuatremere.Page 286.—“I have observed in my walks.”—“Je remarquai avec une réflexion triste, qu’un animal de proie accompagne presque toujours les pas de ce joli et frêle individu.”Page 272.—“Glistened over its silver letters.”—The Codex Cottonianus of the New Testament is written in silver letters on a purple ground. The Codex Cottonianus of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament is supposed to be the identical copy that belonged to Origen.Page 289.—“Some denier of Christ.”—Those Christians who sacrificed to idols to save themselves were called by various names,Thurificati,Sacrificati,Mittentes,Negatores, &c. Baronius mentions a bishop of this period (253), Marcellinus, who, yielding to the threats[pg 332]of the Gentiles, threw incense upon the altar. v.Arnob. contra Gent.lib. 7.Page 297.—“The clear voice with which,”&c.—The merit of the confession“Christianus sum,”or“Christiana sum,”was considerably enhanced by the clearness and distinctness with which it was pronounced.Eusebiusmentions the martyr Vetius as making itλαμπροτατη φωνη.Page 304.—“The band round the young Christian’s brow.”—We find poisonous crowns mentioned byPliny, under the designation of“coronæ ferales.”Paschalius, too, gives the following account of these“deadly garlands,”as he calls them:—“Sed mirum est tam salutare inventum humanam nequitiam reperisse, quomodo ad nefarios usus traducent. Nempe, repertæ sunt nefandæ coronæ harum, quas dixi, tam salubrium per nomen quidem et speciem imitatrices, at re et effectu ferales, atque adeo capitis, cui imponuntur, interfectrices.”De Coronis.THE END.London:Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,New-Street-Square.

[pg 309]NOTES.Page 17.—For the importance attached to dreams by the ancients, seeJortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1. p. 90.Page 22.—“The Pillar of Pillars”—more properly, perhaps,“the column of the pillars.”v.Abdallatif, Relation de l’Egypte, and the notes ofM. de Sacy. The great portico round this column (formerly designated Pompey’s, but now known to have been erected in honour of Dioclesian) was still standing, M. de Sacy says, in the time of Saladin. v.Lord Valentia’s Travels.Page 23.—Ammianus thus speaks of the state of Alexandria in his time, which was, I believe, as late as the end of the fourth century:—“Ne nunc quidem in eadem urbe Doctrinæ variæ silent, non apud nos exaruit Musica nec Harmonia conticuit.”Lib. 22.Page 25.—From the character of the features of the Sphinx, and a passage in Herodotus, describing the Egyptians asμελαγχροες και ουλοτρικες, Volney, Bruce, and a few others, have concluded that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt were negroes. But this opinion is contradicted by a host of authorities. SeeCastera’s notes upon[pg 310]Browne’s Travels, for the result of Blumenbach’s dissection of a variety of mummies. Denon, speaking of the character of the heads represented in the ancient sculpture and painting of Egypt, says,“Celle des femmes ressemble encore à la figure des jolies femmes d’aujourd’hui: de la rondeur, de la volupté, le nez petit, les yeux longs, peu ouverts,”&c. &c. He could judge, too, he says, from the female mummies,“que leurs cheveux étoient longs et lisses, que le caractère de tête de la plupart tenoit du beau style”—“Je raportai,”he adds,“une tête de vieille femme qui étoit aussi belle que celles de Michel Ange, et leur ressembloit beaucoup.”In a“Description générale de Thèbes”byMessrs. Jollois et Desvilliers, they say,“Toutes les sculptures Egyptiennes, depuis les plus grands colosses de Thèbes jusqu’aux plus petites idoles, ne rappellent en aucune manière les traits de la figure des nègres; outre que les têtes des momies des catacombs de Thèbes presentent des profils droits.”See alsoM. Jomard’s“Description of Syene and the Cataracts,”Baron Larrey, on the“conformation physique”of the Egyptians, &c.De Pauw, the great depreciator of every thing Egyptian, has, on the authority of a passage in Ælian, presumed to affix to the countrywomen of Cleopatra the stigma of complete and unredeemed ugliness. The following line of Euripides, however, is an answer to such charges:—Νειλου μεν αἱδε καλλιπαρθενοι ροαι.In addition to the celebrated instances of Cleopatra, Rhodope, &c. we are told, on the authority of Manetho (as given by Zoega from Georgius Syncellus), of a beautiful queen of Memphis, Nitocris, of the sixth dynasty, who, in addition to other charms and perfections, was (rather inconsistently with the negro hypothesis)ξανθη την χροιαν.[pg 311]See, for a tribute to the beauty of the Egyptian women, Montesquieu’s Temple de Gnide.Page 35.—“Among beds of lotus flowers.”—v.Strabo.Page 36.—“Isle of the golden Venus.”—“On trouve une île appelée Venus-Dorée, ou le champ d’or, avant de remonter jusqu’à Memphis.”Voyages de Pythagore.Page 39.—For an account of the Table of Emerald, v.Lettres sur l’Origine des Dieux d’Egypte.De Pauwsupposes it to be a modern fiction of the Arabs. Many writers have fancied that the art of making gold was the great secret that lay hid under the forms of Egyptian theology.“La science Hermétique,”says the Benedictine, Pernetz,“l’art sacerdotal étoit la source de toutes les richesses des Rois d’Egypte, et l’objet de ces mystères si cachés sous le voile du leur pretendu Religion.”Fables Egyptiennes.The hieroglyphs, that formerly covered the Pyramids, are supposed by some of these writers to relate to the same art. SeeMutus liber, Rupellæ.Page 40.—“By reflecting the sun’s rays,”saysClarke, speaking of the Pyramids,“they appeared white as snow.”Page 41.—For Bubastis, the Diana of the Egyptians, v.Jablonski, lib. 3. c. 4.Page 43.—“The light coracle,”&c.—v.Amuilhon,“Histoire de la Navigation et du Commerce des Egyptiens sous les Ptolemées.”See also, for a description of the various kinds of boats used on the Nile,Maillet, tom. i. p. 98.Page 44.—v.Maurice, Appendix to“Ruins of Ba[pg 312]bylon.”Another reason, he says, for their worship of the Ibis,“founded on their love of geometry, was (according to Plutarch) that the space between its legs, when parted asunder, as it walks, together with its beak, forms a complete equilateral triangle.”From the examination of the embalmed birds, found in the Catacombs of Saccara, there seems to be no doubt that the Ibis was the same kind of bird as that described by Bruce, under the Arabian name of Abou Hannes.Ib.—“The sistrum,”&c.—“Isis est genius,”saysServius,“Ægypti, qui per sistri motum, quod gerit in dextra, Nili accessus recessusque significat.”Page 48.—“The ivy encircled it,”&c.—The ivy was consecrated to Osiris. v.Diodor. Sic.1. 10.Ib.—“The small mirror.”—“Quelques unes,”saysDupuis, describing the processions of Isis,“portoient des miroirs attachés à leurs épaules, afin de multiplier et de porter dans tous les sens les images de la Déesse.”Origine des Cultes, tom. 8. p. 847. A mirror, it appears, was also one of the emblems in the mysteries of Bacchus.Page 49.—“Thereis, to the north of Memphis,”&c.—“Tout prouve que la territoire de Sakkarah étoit la Necropolis au sud de Memphis, et le faubourg opposé à celui-ci, où sont les pyramides de Gizeh, une autre Ville des Morts, qui terminoit Memphis au nord.”Denon.There is nothing known with certainty as to the site of Memphis, but it will be perceived that the description of its position given by the Epicurean corresponds, in almost every particular, with that which M. Maillet (the French consul, for many years, at Cairo) has left us. It must be always borne in mind, too, that of the dis[pg 313]tances between the respective places here mentioned, we have no longer any accurate means of judging.Page 49.—“Pyramid beyond pyramid.”—“Multas olim pyramidas fuisse e ruinis arguitur.”Zoega.—Vansleb, who visited more than ten of the small pyramids, is of opinion that there must have originally been a hundred in this place.See, for the lake to the northward of Memphis,Shaw’s Travels, p. 302.Page 57.—“The Theban beetle.”—“On voit en Egypte, après la retraite du Nil et la fécondation des terres, le limon couvert d’une multitude de scarabées. Un pareil phénomène a dû sembler aux Egyptiens le plus propre à peindre une nouvelle existence.”M. Jomard.—Partly for the same reason, and partly for another, still more fanciful, the early Christians used to apply this emblem to Christ.“Bonus ille scarabæus meus,”says St. Augustine“non eâ tantum de causâ quod unigenitus, quod ipsemet sui auctor mortalium speciem induerit, sed quod in hac nostrâ fæce sese volutaverit et ex hac ipsa nasci voluerit.”Ib.—“Enshrined within a case of crystal.”—“Les Egyptiens ont fait aussi, pour conserver leurs morts, des caisses de verre.”De Pauw.—He mentions, in another place, a sort of transparent substance, which the Ethiopians used for the same purpose, and which was frequently mistaken by the Greeks for glass.Page 58.—“Among the emblems of death.”—“Un prêtre, qui brise la tige d’une fleur, des oiseaux qui[pg 314]s’envolent sont les emblemes de la morte et de l’âme qui se sépare du corps.”Denon.Theseus employs the same image in the Phædra:—Ορνις γαρ ὡς τις εκ χερων αφαντος ειΠηδημ’ ες ἁδου πικρον ὁρμησασα μοι.Page 59.—“The singular appearance of a Cross so frequently recurring among the hieroglyphics of Egypt, had excited the curiosity of the Christians at a very early period of ecclesiastical history; and as some of the Priests, who were acquainted with the meaning of the hieroglyphics, became converted to Christianity the secret transpired.‘The converted heathens,’says Socrates Scholasticus,‘explained the symbol, and declared that it signified Life to Come.’”Clarke.Lipsius, therefore, erroneously supposes the Cross to have been an emblem peculiar to the Christians. See, on this subject,L’Histoire des Juifs, liv. 9. c. 16.It is singular enough that while the Cross was held sacred among the Egyptians, not only the custom of marking the forehead with the sign of the Cross, but Baptism and the consecration of the bread in the Eucharist were imitated in the mysterious ceremonies of Mithra.Tertull. de Proscriptione Hereticorum.Zoega is of opinion that the Cross found (for the first time, it is said) on the destruction of the temple of Serapis, by the Christians, could have not been the crux ansata; as nothing is more common than this emblem on all the Egyptian monuments.Page 62.—“Stood shadowless.”—It was an idea entertained among the ancients that the Pyramids were so constructed (“mecanicâ constructione,”saysAmmianus Marcellinus) as never to cast any shadow.[pg 315]Page 64.—“Rhodope.”—From the story of Rhodope, Zoega thinks,“videntur Arabes ansam arripuisse ut in una ex pyramidibus, genii loco, habitare dicerent mulierem nudam insignis pulchritudinis quæ aspectu suo homines insanire faciat.”De Usu Obeliscorum.See alsoL’Egypte de Murtadi par Vattier.Page 66.—“The Gates of Oblivion.”—“Apud Memphim æneas quasdam portas, quæ Lethes et Cocyti (hoc est oblivionis et lamentationis) appellenter aperiri, gravem asperumque edentes sonum.”Zoega.Page 69.—“A pile of lifeless bodies.”—See, for the custom of burying the dead upright (“post funus stantia busto corpora,”as Statius describes it), Dr. Clarke’s preface to the 2d section of his fifth volume. They used to insert precious stones in the place of the eyes.“Les yeux étoient formés d’émeraudes, de turquoises,”&c.—v.Masoudy, quoted byQuatremere.Page 72.—“It seemed as if every echo.”—See, for the echoes in the pyramids,Plutarch, de Placitis Philosoph.Page 74.—“Pale phantom-like shapes.”—“Ce moment heureux (de l’Autopsie) étoit preparé par des scènes effrayantes, par des alternatives de crainte et de joie, de lumière et des ténèbres, par la lueur des éclairs, par le bruit terrible de la foudre, qu’on imitoit, et par des apparitions de spectres, des illusions magiques, qui frappoient les yeux et les oreilles tout ensemble.”Dupuis.Page 77.—“Serpents of fire.”—“Ces considérations me portent à penser que, dans les mystères, ces phéno[pg 316]mènes étoient beaucoup mieux exécutées et sans comparison plus terribles à l’aide de quelque composition pyrique, qui est restée cachée, comme celle du feu Grégeois.”De Pauw.Page 78.—“The burning of the reed-beds of Ethiopia.”—“Il n’y a point d’autre moyen que de porter le feu dans ces forêts de roseaux, qui répandent alors dans tout le païs une lumière aussi considérable que celle du jour même.”Maillet, tom. 1. p. 63.Page 79.—“The sound of torrents.”—The Nile,Plinytells us, was admitted into the Pyramid.Page 81.—“I had almost given myself up.”—“On exerçoit,”saysDupuis,“les recipiendaires, pendant plusieurs jours, à traverser, à la nage, une grande étendue d’eau. On les y jettoit et ce n’étoit que avec peine qu’ ils s’en retiroient. On appliquoit le fer et le feu sur leurs membres. On les faisoit passer à travers les flammes.”The aspirants were often in considerable danger, and Pythagoras, we are told, nearly lost his life in the trials. v.Recherches sur les Initiations, par Robin.Page 90.—For the two cups used in the mysteries, seeL’Histoire des Juifs, liv. 9. c. 16.Ib.—“Osiris.”—Osiris, under the name of Serapis, was supposed to rule over the subterranean world; and performed the office of Pluto, in the mythology of the Egyptians.“They believed,”says Dr. Pritchard,“that Serapis presided over the region of departed souls, during the period of their absence, when languishing without bodies, and that the dead were deposited in his palace.”Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology.[pg 317]Ib.—“To cool the lips of the dead.”—“Frigidam illam aquam post mortem, tanquam Hebes poculum, expetitam.”Zoega.—The Lethe of the Egyptians was called Ameles. SeeDupuis, tom. 8. p. 651.Page 90.—“A draught divine.”—Diodor. Sicul.Page 93.—“Grasshopper, symbol of initiation.”—Hor. Apoll.—The grasshopper was also consecrated to the sun as being musical.Page 94.—“Isle of gardens.”—The isle Antirrhodus near Alexandria.Maillet.Ib.—“Vineyard at Anthylla.”—SeeAthen. Deipnos.Page 97.—“We can see those stars.”—“On voyoit en plein jour par ces ouvertures les étoiles, et même quelques planètes en leur plus grande latitude septentrionale; et les prêtres avoient bientôt profité de ce phénomène pour observer à diverses heures la passage des étoiles.”Séthos.—Strabomentions certain caves or pits, constructed for the purpose of astronomical observations, which lay in the Zelopolitan prefecture, beyond Heliopolis.Page 98.—“A plantain.”—This tree was dedicated to the Genii of the Shades, from its being an emblem of repose and cooling airs.“Cui imminet musæ folium, quod ab Iside infera geniisque ei addictis manu geri solitum, umbram requiemque et auras frigidas subindigitare videtur.”Zoega.Page 107.—“He spoke of the preexistence of the soul,”&c.—For a full account of the doctrines which are here represented as having been taught to the initiated[pg 318]in the Egyptian mysteries, the reader may consultDupuis,Pritchard’s Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology, &c. &c.“L’on découvroit l’origine de l’ame, sa chute sur la terre, à travers les sphères et les élémens, et son retour au lieu de sa origine ... c’étoit ici la partie la plus métaphysique, et que ne pourroit guère entendre le commun des Initiés, mais dont on lui donnoit le spectacle par des figures et des spectres allégoriques.”Dupuis.Page 108.—“Those fields of radiance.”—SeeBeausobre, liv. 3. c. 4. for the“terre bienheureuse et lumineuse”which the Manicheans supposed God to inhabit. Plato, too, speaks (in Phæd.) of a“pure land lying in the pure sky (την γην καθαραν εν καθαρω κεισθαι ουρανω), the abode of divinity, of innocence, and of life.”Page 110.—“Tracing it from the first moment of earthward desire.”—In the original construction of this work, there was an episode introduced here, (which I have since published in another form,) illustrating the doctrine of the fall of the soul by the Oriental fable of the Loves of the Angels.Page 111.—“Restoring her lost wings.”—Damasciusin his Life of Isidorus, says,“Ex antiquissimis Philosophis Pythagoram et Platonem Isidorus ut Deos coluit, eteorum animas alatas essedixit quas in locum supercœlestem inque campum veritatis et pratum elevatas, divinis putavit ideis pasci.”Apud Phot. Bibliothec.Page 112.—“A pale, moonlike meteor.”—Apuleius, in describing the miraculous appearances exhibited in the mysteries, says,“Nocte mediâ vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine.”Metamorphos.lib. 11.[pg 319]Page 113.—“So entirely did the illusion of the scene,”&c.—In tracing the early connection of spectacles with the ceremonies of religion, Voltaire says,“Il y a bien plus; les véritables grandes tragédies, les representations imposantes et terribles, étoient les mystères sacrés, qu’on célébroit dans les plus vastes temples du monde, en présence des seuls Initiés; c’étoit là que les habits, les décorations, les machines étoient propres au sujet; et le sujet étoit la vie présente et la vie future.”Des divers changemens arrivés à l’art tragique.To these scenic representations in the Egyptian mysteries, there is evidently an allusion in the vision of Ezekiel, where the spirit shows him the abominations which the Israelites learned in Egypt:—“Then said he unto me,‘Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man inthe chambers of his imagery.’”Chap. 8.Page 118.—“The seven tables of stone.”—“Bernard, Comte de la Marche Trévisane, instruit par la lecture des livres anciens, dit qu’ Hermes trouva sept tables dans la vallée d’Hebron, sur lesquelles étoient gravés les principes des arts liberaux.”Fables Egyptiennes.SeeJablonski de stelis Herm.Page 119.—“Beside the goat of Mendes.”—For an account of the animal worship of the Egyptians, seeDe Pauw, tom. 2.Ib.—“The Isiac serpents.”—“On auguroit bien des serpens Isiaques, lorsqu’ils goutoient l’offrande et se trainoient lentement autour de l’autel.”De Pauw.Page 121.—“Hence the festivals and hymns,”&c.—For an account of the various festivals at the different periods[pg 320]of the sun’s progress, in the spring, and in the autumn, seeDupuisandPritchard.Ib.—“The mysteries of the night.”—v.Athenag. Leg. pro Christ.p. 133.Page 125.—“A peal like that of thunder.”—See, for some curious remarks on the mode of imitating thunder and lightning in the ancient mysteries,De Pauw, tom. 1. p. 323. The machine with which these effects were produced on the stage was called a ceraunoscope.Page 131.—“Windings, capriciously intricate.”—In addition to the accounts which the ancients have left us of the prodigious excavations in all parts of Egypt,—the fifteen hundred chambers under the Labyrinth—the subterranean stables of the Thebaïd, containing a thousand horses—the crypts of Upper Egypt passing under the bed of the Nile, &c. &c.—the stories and traditions current among the Arabs still preserve the memory of those wonderful substructions.“Un Arabe,”says Paul Lucas,“qui étoit avec nous, m’assura qu’étant entré autrefois dans le Labyrinthe, il avoit marché dans les chambres souterraines jusqu’en un lieu où il y avoit une grande place environnée de plusieurs niches qui ressembloit à de petites boutiques, d’où l’on entroit dans d’autres allées et dans des chambres, sans pouvoir en trouver la fin.”In speaking, too, of the arcades along the Nile, near Cosseir,“Ils me dirent même que ces souterrains étoient si profondes qu’il y en avoient qui alloient à trois journées de là, et qu’ils conduisoient dans un pays où l’on voyoit de beaux jardins, qu’on y trouvoit de belles maisons,”&c. &c.See also inM. Quatremere’s Memoires sur l’Egypte, tom. 1. p. 142., an account of a subterranean reservoir,[pg 321]said to have been discovered at Kaïs, and of the expedition undertaken by a party of persons, in a long narrow boat, for the purpose of exploring it.“Leur voyage avoit été de six jours, dont les quatre premiers furent employés à pénétrer les bords; les deux autres à revenir au lieu d’où ils étoient partis: Pendant tout cet intervalle ils ne purent atteindre l’extrémité du bassin. L’émir Ala-eddin-Tamboga, gouverneur de Behnesa, écrivit ces détails au sultan, qui en fut extrêmement surpris.”Page 136.—“A small island in the centre of Lake Mœris.”—The position here given to Lake Mœris, in making it the immediate boundary of the city of Memphis to the south, corresponds exactly with the site assigned to it by Maillet:—“Memphis avoit encore à son midi un vaste reservoir, par où tout ce qui peut servir à la commodité et à l’agrément de la vie lui étoit voituré abondamment de toutes les parties de l’Egypte. Ce lac qui la terminoit de ce côté-là,”&c. &c. Tom. 2. p. 7.Ib.—“Ruins rising blackly above the wave.”—“On voit sur la rive orientale des antiquités qui sont presque entièrement sous les eaux.”Belzoni.Page 137.—“Its thundering portals.”—“Quorundam autem domorum (in Labyrintho) talis est situs, ut adaperientibus foris tonitru intus terribile existat.”Pliny.Page 138.—“Leaves that serve as cups.”—Strabo.According to the French translator of Strabo, it was the fruit of thefaba Ægyptiaca, not the leaf, that was used for this purpose.“Leκιβωριον,”he says,“devoit s’entendre de la capsule ou fruit de cette plante, dont les Egyptiens[pg 322]se servoient comme d’un vase, imaginant que l’eau du Nil y devenoit delicieuse.”Page 142.—“The fish of these waters,”&c.—Ælian, lib. 6. 32.Ib.—“Pleasure boats or yachts.”—Called Thalamages, from the pavilion on the deck. v.Strabo.Page 144.—“Covered with beds of those pale, sweet roses.”—As April is the season for gathering these roses (SeeMalte-brun’s Economical Calendar), the Epicurean could not, of course, mean to say that he saw them actually in flower.Page 146.—“The lizards upon the bank.”—“L’or et l’azur brillent en bandes longitudinales sur leur corps entier, et leur queue est du plus beau bleu celeste.”Sonnini.Page 147.—“The canal through which we now sailed.”—“Un canal,”saysMaillet,“très profond et très large y voituroit les eaux du Nil.”Page 150.—“For a draught of whose flood,”&c.—“Anciennement on portoit les eaux du Nil jusqu’au des contrées fort éloignées, et surtout chez les princesses du sang des Ptolomées, mariées dans des families étrangères.”De Pauw.Page 154.—“Bearing each the name of its owner.”—“Le nom du maître y étoit écrit, pendant la nuit en lettres de feu.”Maillet.[pg 323]Page 155.—“Cups of that frail crystal”—called Alassontes. For their brittlenessMartialis an authority:—Tolle, puer, calices, tepidique toreumata Nili,Et mihi securâ pocula trade manu.Ib.—“Bracelets of the black beans of Abyssinia.”—The bean of the Glycyne, which is so beautiful as to be strung into necklaces and bracelets, is generally known by the name of the black bean of Abyssinia.Niebhur.Ib.—“Sweet lotus-wood flute.”—SeeM. Villoteau on the musical instruments of the Egyptians.Page 156.—“Shine like the brow of Mount Atlas at night.”—Solinusspeaks of the snowy summit of Mount Atlas glittering with flames at night. In the account of the Periplus of Hanno, as well as in that of Eudoxus, we read that as those navigators were coasting this part of Africa, torrents of light were seen to fall on the sea.Page 158.—“The tears of Isis.”—“Per lacrymas, vero, Isidis intelligo effluvia quædam Lunæ, quibus tantam vim videntur tribuisse Ægypti.”Jablonski.—He is of opinion that the superstition of theNucta, or miraculous drop, is of a relic of the veneration paid to the dews, as the tears of Isis.Page 158.—“The rustling of the acacias,”&c.—Travels of Captain Mangles.Ib.—“Supposed to rest in the valley of the moon.”—Plutarch.Dupuis, tom. 10. The Manicheans held the same belief. SeeBeausobre, p. 565.[pg 324]Page 160.—“Sothis, the fair star of the waters.”—ὑδραγωγονis the epithet applied to this star byPlutarch,de Isid.Ib.—“Was its birth-star.”—Ἡ Σωθεως ανατολη γενεσεως καταρχουσα της εις τον κοσμον.Porphyr. de Antro Nymph.Page 168.—“Golden Mountains.”—v.Wilford on Egypt and the Nile, Asiatic Researches.Ib.—“Sweet-smelling wood.”—“’A l’époque de la crue le Nil Vert charie les planches d’un bois qui a une odeur semblable à celle de l’encens.”Quatremere.Page 169.—“Barges full of bees.”—Maillet.Page 170.—“Such a profusion of the white flowers,”&c.—“On les voit comme jadis cueillir dans les champs des tiges du lotus, signes du débordement et présages de l’abondance; ils s’enveloppent les bras et le corps avec les longues tiges fleuries, et parcourent les rues,”&c.Description des Tombeaux des Rois, par M. Costaz.Page 173.—“While composing his commentary on the scriptures.”—It was during the composition of his great critical work, the Hexapla, that Origen employed these female scribes.Page 176.—“That rich tapestry,”&c.Non ego prætulerim Babylonica picta superbèTexta, Semiramiâ quæ variantur acu.Martial.[pg 325]Page 200.—“The Place of Weeping.”—v.Wilford,Asiatic Researches, vol. 3. p. 340.Page 210.—“We had long since left this mountain behind.”—The voyages on the Nile are, under favourable circumstances, performed with considerable rapidity.“En cinq ou six jours,”saysMaillet,“on pourroit aisément remonter de l’embouchure du Nil à ses cataractes, ou descendre des cataractes jusqu’à la mer.”The great uncertainty of the navigation is proved by whatBelzonitells us:—“Nous ne mîmes cette fois que deux jours et demi pour faire le trajet du Caire à Melawi, auquel, dans notre second voyage, nous avions employés dix-huit jours.”Page 212.—“Those mighty statues, that fling their shadows.”—“Elles out près de vingt mètres (61 pieds) d’élévation; et au lever du soleil, leurs ombres immenses s’étendent au loin sur la chaine Libyen.”Description générale de Thèbes, par Messrs. Jollois et Desvilliers.Ib.—“Those cool alcoves.”—Paul Lucas.Page 219.—“Whose waters are half sweet, half bitter.”—Paul Lucas.Page 224.—“The Mountain of the Birds.”—There has been much controversy among the Arabian writers, with respect to the site of this mountain, for which seeQuatremere, tom. 1. art.Amoun.Page 230.—“The hand of labour had succeeded,”&c.—The monks of Mount Sinai (Shawsays) have covered over near four acres of the naked rocks with fruitful gardens and orchards.[pg 326]Page 233.—“The image of a head.”—There was usually, Tertullian tells us, the image of Christ on the communion-cups.Ib.—“Kissed her forehead.”—“We are rather disposed to infer,”says the present Bishop of Lincoln, in his very sensible work on Tertullian,“that, at the conclusion of all their meetings for the purpose of devotion, the early Christians were accustomed to give the kiss of peace, in token of the brotherly love subsisting between them.”Page 237.—“In the middle of the seven valleys.”—See Macrizy’s account of these valleys, given by Quatremere, tom. 1. p. 450.Ib.—“Red lakes of Nitria.”—For a striking description of this region, see“Rameses,”—a work which, though, in general, too technical and elaborate, shows, in many passages, to what picturesque effects the scenery and mythology of Egypt may be made subservient.Page 238.—“In the neighbourhood of Antinoë.”—From the position assigned to Antinoë in this work, we should conclude that it extended much farther to the north, than these few ruins of it that remain would seem to indicate; so as to render the distance between the city and the Mountain of the Birds considerably less than what it appears to be at present.Page 243.—“When Isis, the pure star of lovers.”—v.Plutarch de Isid.Ib.—“Ere she again embrace her bridegroom sun.”—“Conjunctio solis cum luna, quod est veluti utriusque connubium.”Jablonski.[pg 327]Page 247.—“Of his walks a lion is the companion.”—M. Chateaubriand has introduced Paul and his lion into the“Martyrs,”liv. 11.Page 235.—“Come thus secretly before day-break.”—It was among the accusations of Celsus against the Christians, that they held their assemblies privately and contrary to law; and one of the speakers in the curious work of Minucius Felix calls the Christians“latebrosa et lucifugax natio.”Page 256.—“A swallow,”&c.—“Je vis dans le desert des hirondelles d’un gris clair comme le sable sur lequel elles volent.”—Denon.Page 257.—“The comet that once desolated this world.”—In alluding to Whiston’s idea of a comet having caused the deluge,M. Girard, having remarked that the word Typhon means a deluge, adds,“On ne peut entendre par le tems du règne de Typhon que celui pendant lequel le déluge inonda la terre, tems pendant lequel on dût observer la comète qui l’occasionna, et dont l’apparition fut, non seulement pour les peuples de l’Egypte, et de l’Ethiopie, mais encore pour tous les peuples le présage funeste de leur destruction presque totale.”Description de la Vallée de l’E’garement.Page 259.—“In which the spirit of my dream,”&c.—“Many people,”saidOrigen,“have been brought over to Christianity by the Spirit of God giving a sudden turn to their minds, and offering visions to them either by day or night.”On thisJortinremarks:—“Why should it be thought improbable that Pagans of good dispositions, but not free from prejudices, should have been[pg 328]called by divine admonitions, by dreams or visions, which might be a support to Christianity in those days of distress.”Page 263.—“One of those earthen cups.”—Palladius, who lived some time in Egypt, describes the monk Ptolemæus, who inhabited the desert of Scete, as collecting in earthen cups the abundant dew from the rocks.—Bibliothec. Pat.tom. 13.Page 264.—“It was to preserve, he said,”&c.—The brief sketch here given of the Jewish dispensation agrees very much with the view taken of it by Dr. Sumner, the present Bishop of Llandaff, in the first chapters of his eloquent and luminous work, the“Records of the Creation.”Page 266.—“In vain did I seek the promise of immortality.”—“It is impossible to deny,”says the Bishop of Llandaff,“that the sanctions of the Mosaic Law are altogether temporal.... It is, indeed, one of the facts that can only be explained by acknowledging that he really acted under a divine commission, promulgating a temporary law for a peculiar purpose,”—a much more candid and sensible way of treating this very difficult point, than by either endeavouring, like Warburton, to escape from it into a paradox, or still worse, contriving, like Dr. Graves, to increase its difficulty by explanation. v.“On the Pentateuch.”See alsoHorne’s Introduction,&c.vol. I. p. 226.Page 268.—“All are of the dust,”&c.—While Voltaire, Volney, &c. refer to the Ecclesiastes, as abounding with tenets of materialism and Epicurism, Mr. Des Voeux and others find in it strong proofs of belief in a future state. The chief difficulty lies in the chapter from[pg 329]which this text is quoted; and the mode of construction by which some writers attempt to get rid of it,—namely, by putting these texts into the mouth of a foolish reasoner,—appears forced and gratuitous. v.Dr. Hales’s Analysis.Page 270.—“The noblest and first-created,”&c.—This opinion of the Hermit may be supposed to have been derived from his master, Origen; but it is not easy to ascertain the exact doctrine of Origen on this subject. In the Treatise on Prayer attributed to him, he asserts that God the Father alone should be invoked,—which, says Bayle, is“encherir sur les Hérésies des Sociniens.”Notwithstanding this, however, and some other indications of, what was afterwards called, Arianism, (such as the opinion of the divinity being received bycommunication, whichMilnerasserts to have been held by this Father,) Origen was one of the authorities quoted by Athanasius in support of his high doctrines of co-eternity and co-essentiality. What Priestley says is, perhaps, the best solution of these inconsistencies;—“Origen, as well as Clemens Alexandrinus, has been thought to favour the Arian principle; but he did it only in words and not in ideas.”Early Opinions,&c.Whatever uncertainty, however, there may exist with respect to the opinion of Origen himself on this subject, there is no doubt that the doctrines of his immediate followers were, at least, Anti-Athanasian.“So many Bishops of Africa,”says Priestley,“were, at this period (between the years 255 and 258), Unitarians, that Athanasius says,‘The Son of God,’—meaning his divinity,—‘was scarcely any longer preached in the churches.’”Page 271.—“The restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness.”—This benevolent doc[pg 330]trine,—which not only goes far to solve the great problem of moral and physical evil, but which would, if received more generally, tend to soften the spirit of uncharitableness, so fatally prevalent among Christian sects,—was maintained by that great light of the early Church, Origen, and has not wanted supporters among more modern Theologians. That Tillotson was inclined to the opinion appears from his sermon preached before the queen. Paley is supposed to have held the same amiable doctrine; and Newton (the author of the work on the Prophecies) is also among the supporters of it. For a full account of the arguments in favour of this opinion, derived both from reason and the express language of Scripture, see Dr. Southwood Smith’s very interesting work,“On the Divine Government.”See alsoMagee on the Atonement, where the doctrine of the advocates of Universal Restoration is thus briefly and fairly explained:—“Beginning with the existence of an infinitely powerful, wise, and good Being, as the first and fundamental principle of rational religion, they pronounce the essence of this Being to belove, and from this infer, as a demonstrable consequence, that none of the creatures formed by such a Being will ever be made eternally miserable.... Since God (they say) would act unjustly in inflicting eternal misery for temporary crimes, the sufferings of the wicked can be but remedial, and will terminate in a complete purification from moral disorder, and in their ultimate restoration to virtue and happiness.”Page 273.—“Fruit of the desert shrub.”—v.Hamilton’s Ægyptiaca.Page 278.—“The white garment she wore, and the ring of gold on her finger.”—See, for the custom among the early Christians of wearing white for a few days after[pg 331]baptism,Ambros. de Myst.—With respect to the ring, the Bishop of Lincoln says, in his work on Tertullian,“The natural inference from these words (Tertull. de Pudicitiâ) appears to be that a ring used to be given in baptism; but I have found no other trace of such a custom.”Page 280.—“Pebbles of jasper.”—v.Clarke.Ib.—“Stunted marigold,”&c.—“LesMesembryanthemum nodiflorumetZygophyllum coccineum, plantes grasses des déserts, rejetées à cause de leur âcreté par les chameaux, les chèvres, et les gazelles.”M. Delile upon the plants of Egypt.Page 281.—“Antinoë.”—v.SavaryandQuatremere.Page 286.—“I have observed in my walks.”—“Je remarquai avec une réflexion triste, qu’un animal de proie accompagne presque toujours les pas de ce joli et frêle individu.”Page 272.—“Glistened over its silver letters.”—The Codex Cottonianus of the New Testament is written in silver letters on a purple ground. The Codex Cottonianus of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament is supposed to be the identical copy that belonged to Origen.Page 289.—“Some denier of Christ.”—Those Christians who sacrificed to idols to save themselves were called by various names,Thurificati,Sacrificati,Mittentes,Negatores, &c. Baronius mentions a bishop of this period (253), Marcellinus, who, yielding to the threats[pg 332]of the Gentiles, threw incense upon the altar. v.Arnob. contra Gent.lib. 7.Page 297.—“The clear voice with which,”&c.—The merit of the confession“Christianus sum,”or“Christiana sum,”was considerably enhanced by the clearness and distinctness with which it was pronounced.Eusebiusmentions the martyr Vetius as making itλαμπροτατη φωνη.Page 304.—“The band round the young Christian’s brow.”—We find poisonous crowns mentioned byPliny, under the designation of“coronæ ferales.”Paschalius, too, gives the following account of these“deadly garlands,”as he calls them:—“Sed mirum est tam salutare inventum humanam nequitiam reperisse, quomodo ad nefarios usus traducent. Nempe, repertæ sunt nefandæ coronæ harum, quas dixi, tam salubrium per nomen quidem et speciem imitatrices, at re et effectu ferales, atque adeo capitis, cui imponuntur, interfectrices.”De Coronis.THE END.London:Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,New-Street-Square.

Page 17.—For the importance attached to dreams by the ancients, seeJortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1. p. 90.

Page 22.—“The Pillar of Pillars”—more properly, perhaps,“the column of the pillars.”v.Abdallatif, Relation de l’Egypte, and the notes ofM. de Sacy. The great portico round this column (formerly designated Pompey’s, but now known to have been erected in honour of Dioclesian) was still standing, M. de Sacy says, in the time of Saladin. v.Lord Valentia’s Travels.

Page 23.—Ammianus thus speaks of the state of Alexandria in his time, which was, I believe, as late as the end of the fourth century:—“Ne nunc quidem in eadem urbe Doctrinæ variæ silent, non apud nos exaruit Musica nec Harmonia conticuit.”Lib. 22.

Page 25.—From the character of the features of the Sphinx, and a passage in Herodotus, describing the Egyptians asμελαγχροες και ουλοτρικες, Volney, Bruce, and a few others, have concluded that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt were negroes. But this opinion is contradicted by a host of authorities. SeeCastera’s notes upon[pg 310]Browne’s Travels, for the result of Blumenbach’s dissection of a variety of mummies. Denon, speaking of the character of the heads represented in the ancient sculpture and painting of Egypt, says,“Celle des femmes ressemble encore à la figure des jolies femmes d’aujourd’hui: de la rondeur, de la volupté, le nez petit, les yeux longs, peu ouverts,”&c. &c. He could judge, too, he says, from the female mummies,“que leurs cheveux étoient longs et lisses, que le caractère de tête de la plupart tenoit du beau style”—“Je raportai,”he adds,“une tête de vieille femme qui étoit aussi belle que celles de Michel Ange, et leur ressembloit beaucoup.”

In a“Description générale de Thèbes”byMessrs. Jollois et Desvilliers, they say,“Toutes les sculptures Egyptiennes, depuis les plus grands colosses de Thèbes jusqu’aux plus petites idoles, ne rappellent en aucune manière les traits de la figure des nègres; outre que les têtes des momies des catacombs de Thèbes presentent des profils droits.”See alsoM. Jomard’s“Description of Syene and the Cataracts,”Baron Larrey, on the“conformation physique”of the Egyptians, &c.

De Pauw, the great depreciator of every thing Egyptian, has, on the authority of a passage in Ælian, presumed to affix to the countrywomen of Cleopatra the stigma of complete and unredeemed ugliness. The following line of Euripides, however, is an answer to such charges:—

Νειλου μεν αἱδε καλλιπαρθενοι ροαι.

Νειλου μεν αἱδε καλλιπαρθενοι ροαι.

In addition to the celebrated instances of Cleopatra, Rhodope, &c. we are told, on the authority of Manetho (as given by Zoega from Georgius Syncellus), of a beautiful queen of Memphis, Nitocris, of the sixth dynasty, who, in addition to other charms and perfections, was (rather inconsistently with the negro hypothesis)ξανθη την χροιαν.

See, for a tribute to the beauty of the Egyptian women, Montesquieu’s Temple de Gnide.

Page 35.—“Among beds of lotus flowers.”—v.Strabo.

Page 36.—“Isle of the golden Venus.”—“On trouve une île appelée Venus-Dorée, ou le champ d’or, avant de remonter jusqu’à Memphis.”Voyages de Pythagore.

Page 39.—For an account of the Table of Emerald, v.Lettres sur l’Origine des Dieux d’Egypte.De Pauwsupposes it to be a modern fiction of the Arabs. Many writers have fancied that the art of making gold was the great secret that lay hid under the forms of Egyptian theology.“La science Hermétique,”says the Benedictine, Pernetz,“l’art sacerdotal étoit la source de toutes les richesses des Rois d’Egypte, et l’objet de ces mystères si cachés sous le voile du leur pretendu Religion.”Fables Egyptiennes.The hieroglyphs, that formerly covered the Pyramids, are supposed by some of these writers to relate to the same art. SeeMutus liber, Rupellæ.

Page 40.—“By reflecting the sun’s rays,”saysClarke, speaking of the Pyramids,“they appeared white as snow.”

Page 41.—For Bubastis, the Diana of the Egyptians, v.Jablonski, lib. 3. c. 4.

Page 43.—“The light coracle,”&c.—v.Amuilhon,“Histoire de la Navigation et du Commerce des Egyptiens sous les Ptolemées.”See also, for a description of the various kinds of boats used on the Nile,Maillet, tom. i. p. 98.

Page 44.—v.Maurice, Appendix to“Ruins of Ba[pg 312]bylon.”Another reason, he says, for their worship of the Ibis,“founded on their love of geometry, was (according to Plutarch) that the space between its legs, when parted asunder, as it walks, together with its beak, forms a complete equilateral triangle.”From the examination of the embalmed birds, found in the Catacombs of Saccara, there seems to be no doubt that the Ibis was the same kind of bird as that described by Bruce, under the Arabian name of Abou Hannes.

Ib.—“The sistrum,”&c.—“Isis est genius,”saysServius,“Ægypti, qui per sistri motum, quod gerit in dextra, Nili accessus recessusque significat.”

Page 48.—“The ivy encircled it,”&c.—The ivy was consecrated to Osiris. v.Diodor. Sic.1. 10.

Ib.—“The small mirror.”—“Quelques unes,”saysDupuis, describing the processions of Isis,“portoient des miroirs attachés à leurs épaules, afin de multiplier et de porter dans tous les sens les images de la Déesse.”Origine des Cultes, tom. 8. p. 847. A mirror, it appears, was also one of the emblems in the mysteries of Bacchus.

Page 49.—“Thereis, to the north of Memphis,”&c.—“Tout prouve que la territoire de Sakkarah étoit la Necropolis au sud de Memphis, et le faubourg opposé à celui-ci, où sont les pyramides de Gizeh, une autre Ville des Morts, qui terminoit Memphis au nord.”Denon.

There is nothing known with certainty as to the site of Memphis, but it will be perceived that the description of its position given by the Epicurean corresponds, in almost every particular, with that which M. Maillet (the French consul, for many years, at Cairo) has left us. It must be always borne in mind, too, that of the dis[pg 313]tances between the respective places here mentioned, we have no longer any accurate means of judging.

Page 49.—“Pyramid beyond pyramid.”—“Multas olim pyramidas fuisse e ruinis arguitur.”Zoega.—Vansleb, who visited more than ten of the small pyramids, is of opinion that there must have originally been a hundred in this place.

See, for the lake to the northward of Memphis,Shaw’s Travels, p. 302.

Page 57.—“The Theban beetle.”—“On voit en Egypte, après la retraite du Nil et la fécondation des terres, le limon couvert d’une multitude de scarabées. Un pareil phénomène a dû sembler aux Egyptiens le plus propre à peindre une nouvelle existence.”M. Jomard.—Partly for the same reason, and partly for another, still more fanciful, the early Christians used to apply this emblem to Christ.“Bonus ille scarabæus meus,”says St. Augustine“non eâ tantum de causâ quod unigenitus, quod ipsemet sui auctor mortalium speciem induerit, sed quod in hac nostrâ fæce sese volutaverit et ex hac ipsa nasci voluerit.”

Ib.—“Enshrined within a case of crystal.”—“Les Egyptiens ont fait aussi, pour conserver leurs morts, des caisses de verre.”De Pauw.—He mentions, in another place, a sort of transparent substance, which the Ethiopians used for the same purpose, and which was frequently mistaken by the Greeks for glass.

Page 58.—“Among the emblems of death.”—“Un prêtre, qui brise la tige d’une fleur, des oiseaux qui[pg 314]s’envolent sont les emblemes de la morte et de l’âme qui se sépare du corps.”Denon.

Theseus employs the same image in the Phædra:—

Ορνις γαρ ὡς τις εκ χερων αφαντος ειΠηδημ’ ες ἁδου πικρον ὁρμησασα μοι.

Ορνις γαρ ὡς τις εκ χερων αφαντος ει

Πηδημ’ ες ἁδου πικρον ὁρμησασα μοι.

Page 59.—“The singular appearance of a Cross so frequently recurring among the hieroglyphics of Egypt, had excited the curiosity of the Christians at a very early period of ecclesiastical history; and as some of the Priests, who were acquainted with the meaning of the hieroglyphics, became converted to Christianity the secret transpired.‘The converted heathens,’says Socrates Scholasticus,‘explained the symbol, and declared that it signified Life to Come.’”Clarke.

Lipsius, therefore, erroneously supposes the Cross to have been an emblem peculiar to the Christians. See, on this subject,L’Histoire des Juifs, liv. 9. c. 16.

It is singular enough that while the Cross was held sacred among the Egyptians, not only the custom of marking the forehead with the sign of the Cross, but Baptism and the consecration of the bread in the Eucharist were imitated in the mysterious ceremonies of Mithra.Tertull. de Proscriptione Hereticorum.

Zoega is of opinion that the Cross found (for the first time, it is said) on the destruction of the temple of Serapis, by the Christians, could have not been the crux ansata; as nothing is more common than this emblem on all the Egyptian monuments.

Page 62.—“Stood shadowless.”—It was an idea entertained among the ancients that the Pyramids were so constructed (“mecanicâ constructione,”saysAmmianus Marcellinus) as never to cast any shadow.

Page 64.—“Rhodope.”—From the story of Rhodope, Zoega thinks,“videntur Arabes ansam arripuisse ut in una ex pyramidibus, genii loco, habitare dicerent mulierem nudam insignis pulchritudinis quæ aspectu suo homines insanire faciat.”De Usu Obeliscorum.See alsoL’Egypte de Murtadi par Vattier.

Page 66.—“The Gates of Oblivion.”—“Apud Memphim æneas quasdam portas, quæ Lethes et Cocyti (hoc est oblivionis et lamentationis) appellenter aperiri, gravem asperumque edentes sonum.”Zoega.

Page 69.—“A pile of lifeless bodies.”—See, for the custom of burying the dead upright (“post funus stantia busto corpora,”as Statius describes it), Dr. Clarke’s preface to the 2d section of his fifth volume. They used to insert precious stones in the place of the eyes.“Les yeux étoient formés d’émeraudes, de turquoises,”&c.—v.Masoudy, quoted byQuatremere.

Page 72.—“It seemed as if every echo.”—See, for the echoes in the pyramids,Plutarch, de Placitis Philosoph.

Page 74.—“Pale phantom-like shapes.”—“Ce moment heureux (de l’Autopsie) étoit preparé par des scènes effrayantes, par des alternatives de crainte et de joie, de lumière et des ténèbres, par la lueur des éclairs, par le bruit terrible de la foudre, qu’on imitoit, et par des apparitions de spectres, des illusions magiques, qui frappoient les yeux et les oreilles tout ensemble.”Dupuis.

Page 77.—“Serpents of fire.”—“Ces considérations me portent à penser que, dans les mystères, ces phéno[pg 316]mènes étoient beaucoup mieux exécutées et sans comparison plus terribles à l’aide de quelque composition pyrique, qui est restée cachée, comme celle du feu Grégeois.”De Pauw.

Page 78.—“The burning of the reed-beds of Ethiopia.”—“Il n’y a point d’autre moyen que de porter le feu dans ces forêts de roseaux, qui répandent alors dans tout le païs une lumière aussi considérable que celle du jour même.”Maillet, tom. 1. p. 63.

Page 79.—“The sound of torrents.”—The Nile,Plinytells us, was admitted into the Pyramid.

Page 81.—“I had almost given myself up.”—“On exerçoit,”saysDupuis,“les recipiendaires, pendant plusieurs jours, à traverser, à la nage, une grande étendue d’eau. On les y jettoit et ce n’étoit que avec peine qu’ ils s’en retiroient. On appliquoit le fer et le feu sur leurs membres. On les faisoit passer à travers les flammes.”

The aspirants were often in considerable danger, and Pythagoras, we are told, nearly lost his life in the trials. v.Recherches sur les Initiations, par Robin.

Page 90.—For the two cups used in the mysteries, seeL’Histoire des Juifs, liv. 9. c. 16.

Ib.—“Osiris.”—Osiris, under the name of Serapis, was supposed to rule over the subterranean world; and performed the office of Pluto, in the mythology of the Egyptians.“They believed,”says Dr. Pritchard,“that Serapis presided over the region of departed souls, during the period of their absence, when languishing without bodies, and that the dead were deposited in his palace.”Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology.

Ib.—“To cool the lips of the dead.”—“Frigidam illam aquam post mortem, tanquam Hebes poculum, expetitam.”Zoega.—The Lethe of the Egyptians was called Ameles. SeeDupuis, tom. 8. p. 651.

Page 90.—“A draught divine.”—Diodor. Sicul.

Page 93.—“Grasshopper, symbol of initiation.”—Hor. Apoll.—The grasshopper was also consecrated to the sun as being musical.

Page 94.—“Isle of gardens.”—The isle Antirrhodus near Alexandria.Maillet.

Ib.—“Vineyard at Anthylla.”—SeeAthen. Deipnos.

Page 97.—“We can see those stars.”—“On voyoit en plein jour par ces ouvertures les étoiles, et même quelques planètes en leur plus grande latitude septentrionale; et les prêtres avoient bientôt profité de ce phénomène pour observer à diverses heures la passage des étoiles.”Séthos.—Strabomentions certain caves or pits, constructed for the purpose of astronomical observations, which lay in the Zelopolitan prefecture, beyond Heliopolis.

Page 98.—“A plantain.”—This tree was dedicated to the Genii of the Shades, from its being an emblem of repose and cooling airs.“Cui imminet musæ folium, quod ab Iside infera geniisque ei addictis manu geri solitum, umbram requiemque et auras frigidas subindigitare videtur.”Zoega.

Page 107.—“He spoke of the preexistence of the soul,”&c.—For a full account of the doctrines which are here represented as having been taught to the initiated[pg 318]in the Egyptian mysteries, the reader may consultDupuis,Pritchard’s Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology, &c. &c.“L’on découvroit l’origine de l’ame, sa chute sur la terre, à travers les sphères et les élémens, et son retour au lieu de sa origine ... c’étoit ici la partie la plus métaphysique, et que ne pourroit guère entendre le commun des Initiés, mais dont on lui donnoit le spectacle par des figures et des spectres allégoriques.”Dupuis.

Page 108.—“Those fields of radiance.”—SeeBeausobre, liv. 3. c. 4. for the“terre bienheureuse et lumineuse”which the Manicheans supposed God to inhabit. Plato, too, speaks (in Phæd.) of a“pure land lying in the pure sky (την γην καθαραν εν καθαρω κεισθαι ουρανω), the abode of divinity, of innocence, and of life.”

Page 110.—“Tracing it from the first moment of earthward desire.”—In the original construction of this work, there was an episode introduced here, (which I have since published in another form,) illustrating the doctrine of the fall of the soul by the Oriental fable of the Loves of the Angels.

Page 111.—“Restoring her lost wings.”—Damasciusin his Life of Isidorus, says,“Ex antiquissimis Philosophis Pythagoram et Platonem Isidorus ut Deos coluit, eteorum animas alatas essedixit quas in locum supercœlestem inque campum veritatis et pratum elevatas, divinis putavit ideis pasci.”Apud Phot. Bibliothec.

Page 112.—“A pale, moonlike meteor.”—Apuleius, in describing the miraculous appearances exhibited in the mysteries, says,“Nocte mediâ vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine.”Metamorphos.lib. 11.

Page 113.—“So entirely did the illusion of the scene,”&c.—In tracing the early connection of spectacles with the ceremonies of religion, Voltaire says,“Il y a bien plus; les véritables grandes tragédies, les representations imposantes et terribles, étoient les mystères sacrés, qu’on célébroit dans les plus vastes temples du monde, en présence des seuls Initiés; c’étoit là que les habits, les décorations, les machines étoient propres au sujet; et le sujet étoit la vie présente et la vie future.”Des divers changemens arrivés à l’art tragique.

To these scenic representations in the Egyptian mysteries, there is evidently an allusion in the vision of Ezekiel, where the spirit shows him the abominations which the Israelites learned in Egypt:—“Then said he unto me,‘Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man inthe chambers of his imagery.’”Chap. 8.

Page 118.—“The seven tables of stone.”—“Bernard, Comte de la Marche Trévisane, instruit par la lecture des livres anciens, dit qu’ Hermes trouva sept tables dans la vallée d’Hebron, sur lesquelles étoient gravés les principes des arts liberaux.”Fables Egyptiennes.SeeJablonski de stelis Herm.

Page 119.—“Beside the goat of Mendes.”—For an account of the animal worship of the Egyptians, seeDe Pauw, tom. 2.

Ib.—“The Isiac serpents.”—“On auguroit bien des serpens Isiaques, lorsqu’ils goutoient l’offrande et se trainoient lentement autour de l’autel.”De Pauw.

Page 121.—“Hence the festivals and hymns,”&c.—For an account of the various festivals at the different periods[pg 320]of the sun’s progress, in the spring, and in the autumn, seeDupuisandPritchard.

Ib.—“The mysteries of the night.”—v.Athenag. Leg. pro Christ.p. 133.

Page 125.—“A peal like that of thunder.”—See, for some curious remarks on the mode of imitating thunder and lightning in the ancient mysteries,De Pauw, tom. 1. p. 323. The machine with which these effects were produced on the stage was called a ceraunoscope.

Page 131.—“Windings, capriciously intricate.”—In addition to the accounts which the ancients have left us of the prodigious excavations in all parts of Egypt,—the fifteen hundred chambers under the Labyrinth—the subterranean stables of the Thebaïd, containing a thousand horses—the crypts of Upper Egypt passing under the bed of the Nile, &c. &c.—the stories and traditions current among the Arabs still preserve the memory of those wonderful substructions.“Un Arabe,”says Paul Lucas,“qui étoit avec nous, m’assura qu’étant entré autrefois dans le Labyrinthe, il avoit marché dans les chambres souterraines jusqu’en un lieu où il y avoit une grande place environnée de plusieurs niches qui ressembloit à de petites boutiques, d’où l’on entroit dans d’autres allées et dans des chambres, sans pouvoir en trouver la fin.”In speaking, too, of the arcades along the Nile, near Cosseir,“Ils me dirent même que ces souterrains étoient si profondes qu’il y en avoient qui alloient à trois journées de là, et qu’ils conduisoient dans un pays où l’on voyoit de beaux jardins, qu’on y trouvoit de belles maisons,”&c. &c.

See also inM. Quatremere’s Memoires sur l’Egypte, tom. 1. p. 142., an account of a subterranean reservoir,[pg 321]said to have been discovered at Kaïs, and of the expedition undertaken by a party of persons, in a long narrow boat, for the purpose of exploring it.“Leur voyage avoit été de six jours, dont les quatre premiers furent employés à pénétrer les bords; les deux autres à revenir au lieu d’où ils étoient partis: Pendant tout cet intervalle ils ne purent atteindre l’extrémité du bassin. L’émir Ala-eddin-Tamboga, gouverneur de Behnesa, écrivit ces détails au sultan, qui en fut extrêmement surpris.”

Page 136.—“A small island in the centre of Lake Mœris.”—The position here given to Lake Mœris, in making it the immediate boundary of the city of Memphis to the south, corresponds exactly with the site assigned to it by Maillet:—“Memphis avoit encore à son midi un vaste reservoir, par où tout ce qui peut servir à la commodité et à l’agrément de la vie lui étoit voituré abondamment de toutes les parties de l’Egypte. Ce lac qui la terminoit de ce côté-là,”&c. &c. Tom. 2. p. 7.

Ib.—“Ruins rising blackly above the wave.”—“On voit sur la rive orientale des antiquités qui sont presque entièrement sous les eaux.”Belzoni.

Page 137.—“Its thundering portals.”—“Quorundam autem domorum (in Labyrintho) talis est situs, ut adaperientibus foris tonitru intus terribile existat.”Pliny.

Page 138.—“Leaves that serve as cups.”—Strabo.According to the French translator of Strabo, it was the fruit of thefaba Ægyptiaca, not the leaf, that was used for this purpose.“Leκιβωριον,”he says,“devoit s’entendre de la capsule ou fruit de cette plante, dont les Egyptiens[pg 322]se servoient comme d’un vase, imaginant que l’eau du Nil y devenoit delicieuse.”

Page 142.—“The fish of these waters,”&c.—Ælian, lib. 6. 32.

Ib.—“Pleasure boats or yachts.”—Called Thalamages, from the pavilion on the deck. v.Strabo.

Page 144.—“Covered with beds of those pale, sweet roses.”—As April is the season for gathering these roses (SeeMalte-brun’s Economical Calendar), the Epicurean could not, of course, mean to say that he saw them actually in flower.

Page 146.—“The lizards upon the bank.”—“L’or et l’azur brillent en bandes longitudinales sur leur corps entier, et leur queue est du plus beau bleu celeste.”Sonnini.

Page 147.—“The canal through which we now sailed.”—“Un canal,”saysMaillet,“très profond et très large y voituroit les eaux du Nil.”

Page 150.—“For a draught of whose flood,”&c.—“Anciennement on portoit les eaux du Nil jusqu’au des contrées fort éloignées, et surtout chez les princesses du sang des Ptolomées, mariées dans des families étrangères.”De Pauw.

Page 154.—“Bearing each the name of its owner.”—“Le nom du maître y étoit écrit, pendant la nuit en lettres de feu.”Maillet.

Page 155.—“Cups of that frail crystal”—called Alassontes. For their brittlenessMartialis an authority:—

Tolle, puer, calices, tepidique toreumata Nili,Et mihi securâ pocula trade manu.

Tolle, puer, calices, tepidique toreumata Nili,

Et mihi securâ pocula trade manu.

Ib.—“Bracelets of the black beans of Abyssinia.”—The bean of the Glycyne, which is so beautiful as to be strung into necklaces and bracelets, is generally known by the name of the black bean of Abyssinia.Niebhur.

Ib.—“Sweet lotus-wood flute.”—SeeM. Villoteau on the musical instruments of the Egyptians.

Page 156.—“Shine like the brow of Mount Atlas at night.”—Solinusspeaks of the snowy summit of Mount Atlas glittering with flames at night. In the account of the Periplus of Hanno, as well as in that of Eudoxus, we read that as those navigators were coasting this part of Africa, torrents of light were seen to fall on the sea.

Page 158.—“The tears of Isis.”—“Per lacrymas, vero, Isidis intelligo effluvia quædam Lunæ, quibus tantam vim videntur tribuisse Ægypti.”Jablonski.—He is of opinion that the superstition of theNucta, or miraculous drop, is of a relic of the veneration paid to the dews, as the tears of Isis.

Page 158.—“The rustling of the acacias,”&c.—Travels of Captain Mangles.

Ib.—“Supposed to rest in the valley of the moon.”—Plutarch.Dupuis, tom. 10. The Manicheans held the same belief. SeeBeausobre, p. 565.

Page 160.—“Sothis, the fair star of the waters.”—ὑδραγωγονis the epithet applied to this star byPlutarch,de Isid.

Ib.—“Was its birth-star.”—Ἡ Σωθεως ανατολη γενεσεως καταρχουσα της εις τον κοσμον.Porphyr. de Antro Nymph.

Page 168.—“Golden Mountains.”—v.Wilford on Egypt and the Nile, Asiatic Researches.

Ib.—“Sweet-smelling wood.”—“’A l’époque de la crue le Nil Vert charie les planches d’un bois qui a une odeur semblable à celle de l’encens.”Quatremere.

Page 169.—“Barges full of bees.”—Maillet.

Page 170.—“Such a profusion of the white flowers,”&c.—“On les voit comme jadis cueillir dans les champs des tiges du lotus, signes du débordement et présages de l’abondance; ils s’enveloppent les bras et le corps avec les longues tiges fleuries, et parcourent les rues,”&c.Description des Tombeaux des Rois, par M. Costaz.

Page 173.—“While composing his commentary on the scriptures.”—It was during the composition of his great critical work, the Hexapla, that Origen employed these female scribes.

Page 176.—“That rich tapestry,”&c.

Non ego prætulerim Babylonica picta superbèTexta, Semiramiâ quæ variantur acu.

Non ego prætulerim Babylonica picta superbè

Texta, Semiramiâ quæ variantur acu.

Martial.

Page 200.—“The Place of Weeping.”—v.Wilford,Asiatic Researches, vol. 3. p. 340.

Page 210.—“We had long since left this mountain behind.”—The voyages on the Nile are, under favourable circumstances, performed with considerable rapidity.“En cinq ou six jours,”saysMaillet,“on pourroit aisément remonter de l’embouchure du Nil à ses cataractes, ou descendre des cataractes jusqu’à la mer.”The great uncertainty of the navigation is proved by whatBelzonitells us:—“Nous ne mîmes cette fois que deux jours et demi pour faire le trajet du Caire à Melawi, auquel, dans notre second voyage, nous avions employés dix-huit jours.”

Page 212.—“Those mighty statues, that fling their shadows.”—“Elles out près de vingt mètres (61 pieds) d’élévation; et au lever du soleil, leurs ombres immenses s’étendent au loin sur la chaine Libyen.”Description générale de Thèbes, par Messrs. Jollois et Desvilliers.

Ib.—“Those cool alcoves.”—Paul Lucas.

Page 219.—“Whose waters are half sweet, half bitter.”—Paul Lucas.

Page 224.—“The Mountain of the Birds.”—There has been much controversy among the Arabian writers, with respect to the site of this mountain, for which seeQuatremere, tom. 1. art.Amoun.

Page 230.—“The hand of labour had succeeded,”&c.—The monks of Mount Sinai (Shawsays) have covered over near four acres of the naked rocks with fruitful gardens and orchards.

Page 233.—“The image of a head.”—There was usually, Tertullian tells us, the image of Christ on the communion-cups.

Ib.—“Kissed her forehead.”—“We are rather disposed to infer,”says the present Bishop of Lincoln, in his very sensible work on Tertullian,“that, at the conclusion of all their meetings for the purpose of devotion, the early Christians were accustomed to give the kiss of peace, in token of the brotherly love subsisting between them.”

Page 237.—“In the middle of the seven valleys.”—See Macrizy’s account of these valleys, given by Quatremere, tom. 1. p. 450.

Ib.—“Red lakes of Nitria.”—For a striking description of this region, see“Rameses,”—a work which, though, in general, too technical and elaborate, shows, in many passages, to what picturesque effects the scenery and mythology of Egypt may be made subservient.

Page 238.—“In the neighbourhood of Antinoë.”—From the position assigned to Antinoë in this work, we should conclude that it extended much farther to the north, than these few ruins of it that remain would seem to indicate; so as to render the distance between the city and the Mountain of the Birds considerably less than what it appears to be at present.

Page 243.—“When Isis, the pure star of lovers.”—v.Plutarch de Isid.

Ib.—“Ere she again embrace her bridegroom sun.”—“Conjunctio solis cum luna, quod est veluti utriusque connubium.”Jablonski.

Page 247.—“Of his walks a lion is the companion.”—M. Chateaubriand has introduced Paul and his lion into the“Martyrs,”liv. 11.

Page 235.—“Come thus secretly before day-break.”—It was among the accusations of Celsus against the Christians, that they held their assemblies privately and contrary to law; and one of the speakers in the curious work of Minucius Felix calls the Christians“latebrosa et lucifugax natio.”

Page 256.—“A swallow,”&c.—“Je vis dans le desert des hirondelles d’un gris clair comme le sable sur lequel elles volent.”—Denon.

Page 257.—“The comet that once desolated this world.”—In alluding to Whiston’s idea of a comet having caused the deluge,M. Girard, having remarked that the word Typhon means a deluge, adds,“On ne peut entendre par le tems du règne de Typhon que celui pendant lequel le déluge inonda la terre, tems pendant lequel on dût observer la comète qui l’occasionna, et dont l’apparition fut, non seulement pour les peuples de l’Egypte, et de l’Ethiopie, mais encore pour tous les peuples le présage funeste de leur destruction presque totale.”Description de la Vallée de l’E’garement.

Page 259.—“In which the spirit of my dream,”&c.—“Many people,”saidOrigen,“have been brought over to Christianity by the Spirit of God giving a sudden turn to their minds, and offering visions to them either by day or night.”On thisJortinremarks:—“Why should it be thought improbable that Pagans of good dispositions, but not free from prejudices, should have been[pg 328]called by divine admonitions, by dreams or visions, which might be a support to Christianity in those days of distress.”

Page 263.—“One of those earthen cups.”—Palladius, who lived some time in Egypt, describes the monk Ptolemæus, who inhabited the desert of Scete, as collecting in earthen cups the abundant dew from the rocks.—Bibliothec. Pat.tom. 13.

Page 264.—“It was to preserve, he said,”&c.—The brief sketch here given of the Jewish dispensation agrees very much with the view taken of it by Dr. Sumner, the present Bishop of Llandaff, in the first chapters of his eloquent and luminous work, the“Records of the Creation.”

Page 266.—“In vain did I seek the promise of immortality.”—“It is impossible to deny,”says the Bishop of Llandaff,“that the sanctions of the Mosaic Law are altogether temporal.... It is, indeed, one of the facts that can only be explained by acknowledging that he really acted under a divine commission, promulgating a temporary law for a peculiar purpose,”—a much more candid and sensible way of treating this very difficult point, than by either endeavouring, like Warburton, to escape from it into a paradox, or still worse, contriving, like Dr. Graves, to increase its difficulty by explanation. v.“On the Pentateuch.”See alsoHorne’s Introduction,&c.vol. I. p. 226.

Page 268.—“All are of the dust,”&c.—While Voltaire, Volney, &c. refer to the Ecclesiastes, as abounding with tenets of materialism and Epicurism, Mr. Des Voeux and others find in it strong proofs of belief in a future state. The chief difficulty lies in the chapter from[pg 329]which this text is quoted; and the mode of construction by which some writers attempt to get rid of it,—namely, by putting these texts into the mouth of a foolish reasoner,—appears forced and gratuitous. v.Dr. Hales’s Analysis.

Page 270.—“The noblest and first-created,”&c.—This opinion of the Hermit may be supposed to have been derived from his master, Origen; but it is not easy to ascertain the exact doctrine of Origen on this subject. In the Treatise on Prayer attributed to him, he asserts that God the Father alone should be invoked,—which, says Bayle, is“encherir sur les Hérésies des Sociniens.”Notwithstanding this, however, and some other indications of, what was afterwards called, Arianism, (such as the opinion of the divinity being received bycommunication, whichMilnerasserts to have been held by this Father,) Origen was one of the authorities quoted by Athanasius in support of his high doctrines of co-eternity and co-essentiality. What Priestley says is, perhaps, the best solution of these inconsistencies;—“Origen, as well as Clemens Alexandrinus, has been thought to favour the Arian principle; but he did it only in words and not in ideas.”Early Opinions,&c.Whatever uncertainty, however, there may exist with respect to the opinion of Origen himself on this subject, there is no doubt that the doctrines of his immediate followers were, at least, Anti-Athanasian.“So many Bishops of Africa,”says Priestley,“were, at this period (between the years 255 and 258), Unitarians, that Athanasius says,‘The Son of God,’—meaning his divinity,—‘was scarcely any longer preached in the churches.’”

Page 271.—“The restoration of the whole human race to purity and happiness.”—This benevolent doc[pg 330]trine,—which not only goes far to solve the great problem of moral and physical evil, but which would, if received more generally, tend to soften the spirit of uncharitableness, so fatally prevalent among Christian sects,—was maintained by that great light of the early Church, Origen, and has not wanted supporters among more modern Theologians. That Tillotson was inclined to the opinion appears from his sermon preached before the queen. Paley is supposed to have held the same amiable doctrine; and Newton (the author of the work on the Prophecies) is also among the supporters of it. For a full account of the arguments in favour of this opinion, derived both from reason and the express language of Scripture, see Dr. Southwood Smith’s very interesting work,“On the Divine Government.”See alsoMagee on the Atonement, where the doctrine of the advocates of Universal Restoration is thus briefly and fairly explained:—“Beginning with the existence of an infinitely powerful, wise, and good Being, as the first and fundamental principle of rational religion, they pronounce the essence of this Being to belove, and from this infer, as a demonstrable consequence, that none of the creatures formed by such a Being will ever be made eternally miserable.... Since God (they say) would act unjustly in inflicting eternal misery for temporary crimes, the sufferings of the wicked can be but remedial, and will terminate in a complete purification from moral disorder, and in their ultimate restoration to virtue and happiness.”

Page 273.—“Fruit of the desert shrub.”—v.Hamilton’s Ægyptiaca.

Page 278.—“The white garment she wore, and the ring of gold on her finger.”—See, for the custom among the early Christians of wearing white for a few days after[pg 331]baptism,Ambros. de Myst.—With respect to the ring, the Bishop of Lincoln says, in his work on Tertullian,“The natural inference from these words (Tertull. de Pudicitiâ) appears to be that a ring used to be given in baptism; but I have found no other trace of such a custom.”

Page 280.—“Pebbles of jasper.”—v.Clarke.

Ib.—“Stunted marigold,”&c.—“LesMesembryanthemum nodiflorumetZygophyllum coccineum, plantes grasses des déserts, rejetées à cause de leur âcreté par les chameaux, les chèvres, et les gazelles.”M. Delile upon the plants of Egypt.

Page 281.—“Antinoë.”—v.SavaryandQuatremere.

Page 286.—“I have observed in my walks.”—“Je remarquai avec une réflexion triste, qu’un animal de proie accompagne presque toujours les pas de ce joli et frêle individu.”

Page 272.—“Glistened over its silver letters.”—The Codex Cottonianus of the New Testament is written in silver letters on a purple ground. The Codex Cottonianus of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament is supposed to be the identical copy that belonged to Origen.

Page 289.—“Some denier of Christ.”—Those Christians who sacrificed to idols to save themselves were called by various names,Thurificati,Sacrificati,Mittentes,Negatores, &c. Baronius mentions a bishop of this period (253), Marcellinus, who, yielding to the threats[pg 332]of the Gentiles, threw incense upon the altar. v.Arnob. contra Gent.lib. 7.

Page 297.—“The clear voice with which,”&c.—The merit of the confession“Christianus sum,”or“Christiana sum,”was considerably enhanced by the clearness and distinctness with which it was pronounced.Eusebiusmentions the martyr Vetius as making itλαμπροτατη φωνη.

Page 304.—“The band round the young Christian’s brow.”—We find poisonous crowns mentioned byPliny, under the designation of“coronæ ferales.”Paschalius, too, gives the following account of these“deadly garlands,”as he calls them:—“Sed mirum est tam salutare inventum humanam nequitiam reperisse, quomodo ad nefarios usus traducent. Nempe, repertæ sunt nefandæ coronæ harum, quas dixi, tam salubrium per nomen quidem et speciem imitatrices, at re et effectu ferales, atque adeo capitis, cui imponuntur, interfectrices.”De Coronis.

THE END.

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