from Egypt at a time when her language had not varied much from its Hebrew original, the individual names of these figures would amply supply it; for Alecto means to collect or gather, Tisiphone, from Tsaphan, to hide or to inclose, and Megara to sink or precipitate, have an obvious reference to the vintage, to gathering the fruit, to putting the wine into casks or bottles, and lastly to the fining of it. The Parca denote the three months of January, February, and March; these three females are spinsters in Greece as well as in Egypt; they hold the weaver's beam, the distaff, the spindle and the scissars, or some other symbol of making thread or cloth, for these occupations were much attended to during these three months; the word Parc-at signifies a veil, and was probably applied to some particular article similar to the shawls. The veils are spoken of in the prophet Isaiah. The Greek poets feigned that the Parce were three sisters, who continued spinning out the thread of each individual's life, and cutting without remorse the thread of him whose ticket should be drawn out of the fatal urn, into which they pretended the names of mortals were thrown and incessantly shaken together. The name of Harpies given to the three Isises that proclaimed the months of April, May, and June, was expressive of the grasshoppers or locusts, and other destructive insects, that ravaged and spoiled every green thing at that season, these being brought from the lower end of Africa and the shores of the Red Sea by the winds that prevailed during those months. The name is derived from Arbeh, which is the same word that is made use of in Exodus, ch. 10, and rendered locusts by the translators. The winds that brought these insects were often so violent as to lay waste whole plains of olive trees. The symbols of these winds were female faces attached to the bodies and claws of voracious birds: Virgil thus notices them. "Safe from the storm, the Stromphades I gain, Where dwelt Ceeline with her Harpy train; Such fiends to scourge mankind, so fierce, so fell; Bacchus is said by the Greeks to be the son of Jupiter and Semele, and they considered him as the god of wine. We leave the fictions that form the history of this god, and endeavour to trace him up to his true ancestry. Jupiter, his reputed father, we have proved to be no other than the Egyptian Osiris, and on enquiry I apprehend we shall find Semele to be Isis. The ancient symbols employed in the festivals of the new moons had two uses, the one to commemorate past events, the other was that of instructing the people, and was thence called manes, or the regulations. A festival for commemorating the ancient state of mankind after the flood, appears to have been instituted even before the dispersion at Babel. It probably consisted in recitals, by persons who assumed certain characters, of the principal subjects of the history to be transmitted, or in the recital of some striking allegory or impressive poem, and perhaps even rude delineations might exist in that early period. It is supposed, from certain circumstances that we meet with in the classic writers, that the ancient sacrifices began with lamentations for the changes that had taken place in nature, and the privations that were the consequence of these changes; that to these lamentations succeeded thanksgivings for the benefits they still enjoyed, and supplications for the continuance of those blessings. The festival of the state of mankind immediately after the flood, was particularly applicable to the Egyptians with regard to the condition of the people in the infant state of their husbandry, or, in the language of mythology, while Horus was yet an infant; and in the hands of the Egyptian priests there is little doubt that this simple circumstance received several embellishments. This memorial was thus conducted: the persons concerned in the procession carried, in the first place, a basket or small chest, that contained the monuments of the progressive advances of husbandry, among these there was a symbolical indication of the weakening of Osiris; this, though innocent in its first design, in after times gave rise to a good deal of extravagance and licentiousness; next were various seeds of an inferior kind and different substitutes for bread corn, then cakes of several kinds of corn, carded wool, honey and cheese, serving to denote the increasing comforts resulting from husbandry. This part of the procession was followed hy a winnowing van, in which was a child and a serpent. The serpent was merely a representation, and was frequently made of gold; the child was probably only a figure likewise. The whole was accompanied by a flute, or some other musical instrument. This child, which was encompassed with swaddling clothes, represented the infant Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis; it denoted husbandry still weak, having but just conquered the difficulties opposed to him, but though weak yet increasing the comforts of the people, or at least putting an end to many of their privations. This procession, or representation, passed from the Egyptians to the Phoenicians, and was by them carried. into many countries. In this, as in most of the public representations, Isis, the symbol of the earth, formed an important character, and received various epithets, such as Ceres, Themis, Nemesis, Semele, Mnemosyne, and Adrastia. The names of the child, the symbol of industry, also were various, as Horus, Erichthonius, Harpocrates, and the son of Semele, with many others. The epithet of Nemasha or Nemesis given to Isis, is equivalent to Musa or Moses, before explained; Semele is from Samel or Samele, an image or representation; and Ben Semele is the son or child of, or pertaining to the representation. Mnemosyne is a Greek word, which signifies memory or memorial.* * An epithet very expressive of the design of this exhibition. The torches that were always carried before Ceres, belonged to the more ancient memorial of the flood, and to this the epithets Themis, Themisto, and Adrastia, are also to be referred; they mean the excellence of fire, which became necessary in every private family after the flood. These names of Isis are additional proofs of the change that took place at that eventful period. The-mis and Them-isto are derived from THAM, perfection or excellence, and Ash or Ashto, fire. ADAR is also another word for excellence. So that Adrastia is still the same meaning under a different epithet. From what has been now adduced, it is evident that Semele is Isis, and that the son of Semele is Horus, who being sometimes made of gold was thence named Heresichton-the Golden Horus. He is also called the Child, or Liber: and as the author of life and subsistence he is called Pater, and Liber-Pater, that is the Child Father. This procession is one of the ceremonials which the Athenians brought out of Egypt with them, and which continued to attest the country they came from. Three young Athenian women carried in their feasts a basket wherein lay a child and a serpent: the three maidens that carried the basket, had names relating to husbandry, the symbols of which they bore in their hands: they were called Herse, Pandrosos, and Aglauros, which signified the alternations of rain, of dew, and of fine weather. In these festivals or commemorations of the ancient state of things, the hunting of wild beasts, a necessary employment in order to keep down their numbers, was not forgotten, but celebrated by mimic chases, which became in time very tumultuous and disorderly scenes. What has been advanced is sufficient to identify Bacchus with Horus. The name is derived from Baccoth, by changing the Greek for the Hebrew termination. The word signifies mourning or lamentation; notwithstanding Bacchus became the god of wine and revelry. But the names of Bacchus were very numerous, and which, when their true meaning was lost gave rise to many absurd conjectures and ridiculous stories. In these ancient commemorative festivals, the people invoked the name of God with great lamentations: they called him the mighty, the life, the father of life. They implored his assistance: they addressed him with expressions of contrition and sorrow, and on these occasions frequently used the words Io Bacche, or Baccoth, "Lord behold our tears." Hence these epithets, Jehova, Heven, Hevohoe, and Eloah. These, with many other words, which were the expressions of grief and of adoration, became so many titles of this child, which formed so important a character in the commemorative representation; and when they had falsely converted these instructive signs into deities, this Ben Semele was addressed as a god by the names of Bacchus, of Iacchus, Evan, Evoe, Dethyrambus, Jao, and Eleleus. When attacking the wild beast they cried aloud, "Lord thou art an host to me;" io saboi. "Lord be my guide;" io nissi, or Dionissi. Of all these names, that which seemed the most taking in Italy, was Baccoth, or Bacchus, while the Greeks were better pleased with the more sonorous name of Diony sus. These names, misunderstood, gave birth in time to a number of silly stories; thus he was imagined to be the son of Jupiter, on account of his name Dio, and that he was born at Nysa, a city in Arabia. As numerous absurdities were the offspring of changing mere figures and representations into men and women, and then into Gods, so also much confusion and error was introduced into history and chronology, by again changing them into mortals; thus Bacchus, made a human being, is said to have been a famous man, that really existed; since the eastern and the western nations all agree that Dionysus made a voyage into India, and that the time taken up in this expedition was attested by the establishment of a feast that returned every third year; that is, they consider the festival of the Bacchanals to have been instituted to commemorate this expedition. Some imagined they had found one of the sons of Ham in the L |