concluded that he invented music, the lyre, and all the exercises that form the body; because all these things being inseparable from the ancient feasts, he was thought the regulator of them, as well as of the feasts themselves. In opening the feasts, he, of course introduced every thing belonging to them. As Mercury is said to be the grandson of

Atlas,

it may be necessary to inquire a little into the history of Atlas. As the husbandmen and artificers had their peculiar signs displayed by Horus in some appropriate character, it is reasonable to suppose that the priests would have theirs also. But it is very likely that the symbols exhibited to regulate the priests, were not exposed publicly, but in the tower or labyrinth.

From the testimony of Herodotus, Diodorus, Plutarch, and many other ancients, we know that study was the principal occupation of the Egyptian priests, who led a very retired life. They applied themselves to the knowledge of the order of the stars, the course of the planets, and the progress of the year-the motions of the air, and the returns of certain winds-the increase of the Nile— the tides of the Arabian gulph-the disposition of the continents, islands, and seas in remote parts of the earththe order of feasts-the particular state of the moonthe eclipses, and aspects of the planets-geometry, and land surveying. In short, they were assiduously and laboriously engaged in the study of the earth and seaof the heavens and all nature. It is highly probable then, since nothing can be more appropriate, that each particular festival or assembly of the priests should be announced by Horus bearing a sphere or globe on his shoulders, the most suitable symbol of astronomical and natural science.

The name Atlah, both in the Hebrew and Phoenician tongues, means both wearisomeness and labour, and the

term was peculiarly applicable to the unremitting atten tion of these priests, whose sacred duties occupied but a comparatively small portion of their time, the sacrifices and sacred ceremonials forming only a part of the business of the monthly assemblies. From the word Atlah the Greeks get their word Athlos, great difficulties, hard combats.

In these studies the noviciates were exercised by the priests; hence the epithet of doctor or instructor, was conferred upon Horus Atlas, when he became a god, and by these epithets Homer and Virgil frequently speak of him-the first making him a very learned god, who knew all the obliquities of the coasts, and all the depths of the sea the latter for the same reason ascribes to the instructions communicated by the great Atlas, the knowledge men had acquired of the changes of the moon, the eclipses of the sun, and the whole order of nature; that is, these were the benefits, and this the instruction, which the Egyptian priests, of whose labours Atlas was the symbol, conferred on the husbandmen, the artificers, and the mariners of Egypt, in monthly announcing to each class its particular duties. The word Telah or Atlah had also another meaning, viz. to hang up, or to suspend: and perhaps the attitude of Horus Atlas favouring this acceptation of the word, led to the idea of Atlas being transformed into a high mountain, which supported the heavens. To the Phoenician navigators, who, in their triennial voyage to Tarshish or Cadiz, frequently had a sight of the highest mountains of Mauritania, whose tops were always covered with snow, and seemed joined with the heavens, this hint was sufficient, and these mariners, who, together with their love of the marvellous, had leisure for the fabrication of such idle legends, gave out that Atlas, king of Mauritania, was a great astrologer and geographer, who, after his long studies, was at length changed by the gods into a high mountain, reaching from the earth to heaven. Nor.need we wonder at such absurd tales as these, when in our own country we hear tales equally ridiculous, told by the country people with a gravity, and supported with a te

nacity which leaves no doubt of their belief in the legend they are communicating: thus we are told in the west of England, that some stones in that part of the kingdom, the remains of an ancient British temple, were once men, who, whilst they were playing at a well-known game called hurlstone, on the sabbath-day, were all turned into stone; and were thence called the hurlers. Indeed so abundant are such absurd tales in our own country, that we have no pretensions to find fault with the Greek mythologists on this score. But to return to Atlas, among other fictions that it would be but waste of time to repeat, is one that claims attention-it is the fable of Hercules freeing Atlas from his burden, and taking it upon his own shoulders: this is mere allegory, and may be thus explained. The intercourse which the Phoenicians had with the Egyptians, and the friendship that their mutual interests had given rise to, produced the exchange of good offices, and while the people of Tyre and Sidon devoted themselves to improvements in arts and manufactures: the Egyptians, whose redundant harvests, procured them every thing that necessity, comfort, or luxury demanded, with little or no exertion on their part; had more leisure to cultivate the sciences: among their other studies geography was not neglected; but, paying little attention to maritime affairs themselves, the geographical knowledge of the Egyptians would necessarily be very limited; and they were indebted to the friendly communications of the the more adventurous and more widely expatiating Tyrians, who furnished their priests with those materials from which they constructed maps and charts, which were of infinite utility and importance to the Tyrians. While the Tyrians confined their voyages to the vicinity of Egypt and Tyre, the charts or instructions of the Egyptian priests were of great service, but when, under the conduct of their own Hercules, they essayed to pass the straits of Cadiz, and spread their adventurous sails on the vast Atlantic, the instructions and charts of the Egyptian priests were no longer serviceable, and their leader was compelled to take upon himself these astronomical and nautical labours; and to ascertain the depths of the seas, and the windings of the shores, by his own

personal observations. He, in short, took the burden of Atlas on his own shoulders. This illustration of Hercules relieving Atlas of his burden, seems to lead me of necessity to an inquiry respecting.

Hercules.

We have seen what strange fictions the misapprehension of the oriental words have given birth to: this seems to have been very much the case with respect to the word Hercules; and it has been considered as the name of an individual, who rendered himself illustrious by his unparallelled exploits, and many countries have laid claim to the honour of giving birth to this supposed hero. Heraclus is the Phoenician or Hebrew word Horecli, modified by the Greeks after their fashion; it means princely or eminent warriors, or armed nobility. The application of the name to a single person seems to have originated in the personification of Horus, and in the confounding of the sign with the thing to be signified. When mischievous beasts multiplied so as to become troublesome as well as dangerous, or some furious beast or some notorious robber infested the country: they called together the most experienced and determined warriors to unite in expelling or destroying the unwelcome intruders. To this intent a Horus, armed with a club, and placed in the public assembly, soon drew together, on an appointed day, the most distinguished among the young warriors; but Hercules, who in the present instance was no more than a publick signal, became a god, who was wholly taken up with the care of destroying the monsters, beasts, and robbers that troubled the inhabitants of that particular district.

Antiquity_considers Egypt as the native country of Hercules. Tully finds another Hercules in Crete, and a third in Phoenicia, who led the Tyrian fleet into the Atlantic ocean, and gave his own name to the promon tories that face each other at the straits of Cadiz. Greeks also had a Hercules of their own, and each nation that had received this Egyptian symbol into their

The

country, and made a god of him, invented some pretty tale to embellish his history.

A circumstance that has contributed as much as, if not more than, any other, to perplex chronology and history, is, that of giving the names of these fictitious characters to real personages; the confusion that arises out of these ideal and real characters, those, who are engaged in archælogical researches, know to their sorrow. Thus, in addition to the fictitious characters, bearing the epithet, of Hercules, there no doubt existed a little before the time of the Trojan war, a famous adventurer, a demolisher of forts, and a great destroyer of robbers, to whom men ascribed all the exploits before attributed to several imaginary Hercules'. From this real Hercules, the Heraclidæ, that settled in Peloponnese, most probably descended. The Phoenicians called their HerThis per

cules Ben-Alcum, i. e. the invincible son. haps occasioned the Grecian Hercules to be said to be the son of Alcumene or Alcmene; respecting whom some fictions have been promulgated.

Neptune.

The Grecian genealogy of this pretended deity states him to be the son of Saturn, and the brother of Jupiter. They say, that in the division of their father's kingdom, the empire of the seas fell to his share. He was worshipped as the god of the seas. Amphitrite was his wife. In painting, he was represented with black hair, and blue eyes, standing erect in a chariot formed of a vast shell, drawn by sea horses, clothed in an azure mantle, and holding in his hand the trident, which commanded the waves: around him played the sea nymphs, and the tritons, sounding their trumpets of shells. Such is the picturesque group of sea gods and nymphs, which the Grecian painters and sculptors have presented posterity with.

Other appellations of Neptune were the following; the Greeks called him Poseidon, and the Romans Consus,