of a woman, and called Isha, which means woman. Το these the figure of a child or lad was added, to whom they gave the name of HORUS, which signified labour, or rather husbandry, whom they considered as the beloved child of Osiris, and Isha or Isis as the Greeks writers name her. By this last figure they intimated that the industry of man was necessary to complete the benefits resulting from the fertility of the earth, and the general influences of the sun. By exhibiting one or more of these three principal signs, or significant figures, differently invested and bearing different symbols, the priests intimated to the people, the sun's place in the ecliptic, or in other words, the time of the year, the state of the Nile, the occupations of each particular month, and the public assemblies both of a civil and religious nature.

That these figurative representations were adopted by the children of Ham almost immediately after their settling in Egypt, is evident, first, from the necessity of an immediate attention to the influx of the Nile, and various circumstances connected with this novel phenomenon; and secondly, that the Hebrew language affords us the only true key to the meaning of the terms used in this system of significant symbols, which shows that they were brought into use by these colonists, while they yet retained the language of their native country.

On their first settling in the neighbourhood of the Nile, this people naturally sowed their seed at the same time of the year that they were accustomed to do in their own country, and nothing could be more flattering than the promising appearance of the crops, till the boisterous winds of May and June, greatly damaged them, and the sudden inundation of the river completed their destruction, and the hopes entertained of an abundant harvest. After repeated disappointments and the suffering of many privations, the people learned the necessity of regulating their agricultural labours by attending to the time, not only of the approaching of the flood, but to that of its retiring, and the various depths of the river at different periods.

If the inundation was not of a tolerable depth, it did not leave behind it a sufficient deposit of mud to make it worth the husbandman's while to sow his seed, since he had no reason to expect a crop that would repay him. If, on the other hand, the flood was much beyond a certain depth, then would the waters be a great while in retiring, and consequently the soil would be so long in drying, that the lands could not be re-measured, and the seed sown in time for the crops to ripen and be got in before the stormy winds of May and June. These important circumstances were to be carefully attended to, and publicly announced by the priests, to whom this duty was peculiarly assigned; and in the performance of this office various signals were necessary, of which the following are the principal.

The approach of the inundation was indicated two ways, first, by the appearance of a particular kind of hawk that preceded the rising of the waters, and secondly, the flood regularly commenced at a time when the sun entered Leo, and this was known by the first emerging of the dog star from the rays of the morning sun. This circumstance gave birth to two symbols: first, the people considered that this star by warning them of the coming on of the flood, performed the office of a faithful dog, that by barking apprizes the family of the approach of a stranger, they therefore gave that star the name of the barker; also, the dog; and represented it. under the figure of a dog with the star attached to it. They also gave the star the name of Sihor, which, it appears from the scriptures, was the ancient name of the river Nile, so that Sihor, or as the Greeks have it Sireios, and the Latins Sirius, means literally the Nilestar. And the approach of the inundation was publicly announced, by exhibiting the figure of Horus accompanied by a dog, or with the head of a dog instead of that of a man: or Horus was exhibited with a hawk's head, and the nilometer in his hand: lastly, the figure of Isis with a feather in the fillet of her head dress, and the nilometer in her hand, denoted the inundation.

I

OSIRIS, the symbol of the sun, was drawn as a man seated on a throne; having a triple cap on his head, and a whip in one hand, and a sceptre resembling a shepherd's crook in the other. The sun's place in the ecliptic, or the precise time of the year, was frequently indicated by engraving, or delineating the appropriate sign on the throne of Osiris.

OSIRIS was sometimes indicated by the throne itself, but this appears to have reference to the sun's position in his diurnal course. Thus it is probable that the empty throne, that is, the throne without the cap and sceptre, placed on the head of Isis, with the seat foremost, denoted a sacrifice or assembly in the morning twilight. The throne in its direct position, and having in it the cap and sceptre, denoted the perfect day. The throne turned backward, and having neither the cap nor the sceptre, indicated the evening twilight; while the empty throne painted black was the symbol of dark night.

HORUS, the representative of husbandry, was a complete Proteus, so various were the circumstances he had to announce and the characters he had to assume for that purpose. Was the sun entering Leo; he then appeared with the head of a lion: was the approach of the inundation to be announced; he then was presented with the head of a hawk or a dog: was the commencement of the year to be proclaimed; he was then exhibited with the head of a wolf, or having the head of a man with two faces, the one, the countenance of an old man looking backwards: the other, that of a youth looking forward, and in this character Horus had a key put into his hand.

IsIs also appeared in characters no less numerous and diversified, for she was brought forward to announce the times of the solemn assemblies-the season of gathering in, and of pressing the olives-the commencement of the nightly labours of spinning and weaving; while Horus, in his different appropriate characters, announced the festivals for the celebration of the dif

ferent harvests-the season for hunting and fishing-the embodying the troops for war-the annual arrival of the fleets-the fairs for the sale of various articles of commerce and manufacture-the sittings of the judges and senators, &c. In Egypt nothing was left to the negligence or caprice of individuals; even the cleansing of the houses once a year, and the emptying of the river and the ditches of their mud before the coming on of the hot weather, were duties to be performed, of which the priests were to give timely notice. Thus Egypt became one of the most orderly and well regulated countries of that day: she also abounded in plenty and enjoyed perfect tranquillity.

The strangers who visited Egypt, and observed these public exhibitions without understanding their precise meaning, considered the figures thus exhibited as different deities under whose happy auspices the Egyptians were thus favoured; and these innocent and useful representations became additional incitements to that idolatry which was already commenced in the neighbouring countries, and indeed the Egyptians themselves gradually fell into this gross absurdity; for they in the first place, considered these diversified appearances of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, as so many distinct personages of illustrious character, who had formerly resided in Egypt, and benefited the country by instructing the people in the various arts and manufactures indicated by the insignia they carried, and to this personification of these representative signals succeeded their deification, and hence the polytheism of the Egyptians; for OSIRIS thus diversified as occasion required, was at one time considered to be the governor of the sun, at another the ruler of the sea, and lastly, the king of the infernal regions.

Isis was also differently invested with symbolical attributes, some of which related to the courses of the moon, others to the productions of the different seasons, gave rise to the idea of so many distinct goddesses. Thus when she bore the moon on her head, she was of course a deity of the first rank, she was the queen of heaven;

and the wife of Osiris; but with regard to her other characters, she gave occasion to imagine as many distinct goddesses of an inferior order, each of which had her peculiar and distinct history, according to the local circumstances and the genius of the people into whose country migration or commerce had introduced them; such was the case with respect to HORUS also. Having premised this much, it will not be difficult to refer the numerous male and female deities of other nations, to the Osiris, Isis, and Horus of the Egyptians, but, on the present occasion, I shall confine my observations almost exclusively to the mythology of the Grecians.

The Origin of the Grecian Mythology.

The word Mythology means a fabulous system, aud may be applied to history, or religion, or to both combined; perhaps the last acceptation of the term may be most appropriate to our present subject of investigation. At the outset of our research it seems indispensably requisite to distinguish between fable and fiction; for I apprehend that the terms fable and fiction have been indiscriminately and unjustly applied to some of those oral traditions received immediately from Noah, or one of the three primary ancestors of the aborigines of every ancient people; and that some of these have, with as little truth, been attributed to the lively imaginations and the creative geniuses of the Greek mythologists and poets. It will be however proper to consider this subject with minute attention, especially as I consider the mythology of the Greeks to be a compound of the ancient patriarchal traditions, mutilated and obscured, and of the Egyptian ceremonials, misunderstood by the Greeks, because inapplicable to the local circumstances of their country; and that the numerous absurdities that occur in the Grecian Mythology, are not so much to be considered as wilful fabrications, arising out of a love of fiction, as the natural consequences of