dark receffes, Niebuhr obferves: "Près de D, (fur le plan, tab. 3.) il y a des appartemens obfcurs; où, dans la faifon que j'ai été voir ce temple, il y avoit encore de l'eau, qui vient fort à point aux vaches qui fe rendent ici. Près d'E, il y a un grand appartement pareillement obfcur." With respect to the symbols that adorned the myftic cell of Egypt, they are all fuppofed to be accurately arranged in that celebrated monument of antiquity, called the ISIAC or BEMBINE TABLE, which exhibits at one view, under various beftial and human figures, the deities adored in Egypt, but which, as has been conjectured by thofe learned antiquarians, who have written concerning its age and design in a more particular manner, alludes to the mystic rites of Ifis and Ofiris. Of this curious and valuable remain, a fhort account from Pignorius, whofe edition of it is in my posfeffion, may not be unacceptable to my readers. It was a table of brafs, four feet in length, and nearly of the fame diameter; the ground-work of the plate confifted of a black enamel, with filver plates curiously inlaid, on which were engraved a variety of emblems, divided into different claffes and compartments, with hieroglyphic characters intermixed; the center contained the human figures, or rather gods in human

Voy. en Arab. tom. ii. p. 28, where fee that plan.

human fhape, fome ftanding, fome in motion, fome fitting on thrones, to whom other hu man figures are making offerings, or perform, ing facrifices. Two of these figures, diftinguifhed by the facred Ibis and the Hawk's head, are evidently intended for Isis and OSIRIS; but even, without that distinction, the confpicuous figure, which the facred bull, the known fymbol of Ofiris, makes on this table, fufficiently points out the deities, in illustration, of whofe rites it was defigned. The border, that furrounds the whole, is crowded with figures of birds, beafts, and fishes, agreeing very nearly, both in number and shape, with the various animals afferted by the ancients to have received divine homage in the different cities of Egypt. Before most of these are human figures, delineated in postures of profound adoration. This valuable relic of ancient art, on the plunder of Rome by the army of Charles the Fifth, about the year 1527, became the property of a common artificer,* and was fold by him to Cardinal Bembo, by whose name it has fince been frequently diftinguished. At the death of that cardinal, the TABLE OF ISIS came into the poffeffion of the Duke

* Vide Pignorii MENSA ISICA Expofitio, p. 12. Edit. Amft. 1669.

Duke of Mantua, in whofe family it was preserved as an inestimable rarity, till the palace of Mantua was plundered of its immense treafure of curiofities by the imperial general in 1630, fince which period the original has not been heard of; though, owing to the zeal of those profound antiquaries, Pignorius and Montfaucon, the literary world is in poffeffion of two exact copies of it, with fome curious ftrictures by each of those writers. The figures of the gods, or deified mortals, in the middle of this table, might poffibly be intended for a representation of those fculptures that adorned the body of the myftic temple, in the fame manner as the Indian deities, or god rajahs, are arranged along the center part of the walls of Elephanta; while the animals peculiar to Egypt, pourtrayed on the furrounding border, might, like those peculiar to India on the cornices of the fame temple-pagoda, be fymbols of the various conftellations; and the kneeling figures, emblematical of the worship paid to them.

After confidering the form and fome of the decorations, let us attend to the mysterious rites celebrated, and the doctrines themfelves propagated, in these sacred recesses. I offer it, with diffidence, as my humble opinion, that

the

μυςηρίοις,

the grand basis of all the theological dogmas inculcated, at leaft in thofe of India, was the Μετεμψύχωσις, or tranfmmigration of the human foul, and I am fo fortunate as to be able to support that opinion by the express declaration of Porphyry, that the Metempfychofis was one of the firft do&trines taught εν τοις τε Μιθρα in the mystic rites of Mithra, which is only the Afiatic appellation of the African Ofiris. Now the Metempfychofis was a doctrine invented by the philofophers of the ancient world, for the direct purpose of vindicating the mysterious ways of Providence, and removing all impious doubts concerning the moral attributes of the deity; which, if permitted to take root, they knew must have been attended with the most baneful effects in fociety. But the doctrine of the existence of the human foul in a prior state naturally induced the fuppofition of its existence in a future sphere of action; and, while those diligent obfervers of mankind beheld the unequal diftribution of human happiness and misery, while they beheld VIRTUE frequently groaning under the bondage of oppreffion, and VILLAINY as frequently clothed in regal purple, they were not only confirmed themselves in that judgement, but endeavoured to imprefs the awful

truth

truth upon the minds of others. If this argument fhould not hold good in regard to all the philofophers of Greece and Rome, as in the cafe of certain bold Sceptics, and prefumptuous Sophifts among them, the little knowledge I have acquired of the theologic fentiments, of the inflexible virtue, and fevere penances, of the Hindoo philofophers, has convinced me, that to them it is perfectly applicable. The professed design, then, both of the Indian, the Egyptian, and Eleufinian, myfteries, was to reftore the fallen foul to its priftine ftate of purity and perfection; and the INITIATED in those mysteries were inftructed in the fublime doctrines of a fupreme prefiding Providence, of the immortality of the foul, and of the rewards and pu nifhments of a future ftate. But the Brahmans, in their profounder speculations on the being and attributes of God, initiated their pupils into mysteries still more refined: they inculcated upon their minds the neceffity, refulting as a natural confequence from that doctrine, of not only restraining the violence of the more boisterous paffions, but of entirely fubduing the grofs animal propenfities by continued acts of abftinence and mortification, and of feeking that intimate communion of foul with the great Father of the universe,