ed as an equally picturefque fymbol of ETERNITY; and, from its fubtlety, of WISDOM. On this account it was thought the propereft hieroglyphic to represent the demiurgic Mind, or Agathodaimon of the Egyptians, allufive to whofe operations there were, in the temples of Egypt and Tyre, two remarkable fculptures; the former, that described from Eufebius, "as having a hawk's head, beautiful to look upon, who, if he opens his eyes, fills the univerfe with light;" the latter, designated in the attitude of encircling, in the genial folds of his warm and prolific body, the mundane egg, that is, the universe, and making it productive. This curious emblem the reader may fee, engraved from Vaillant, in the fecond volume of Mr. Bryant's Analyfis; and he will hereafter find it, in the first volume of this History, on that plate which exhibits the bull of Japan breaking the egg of chaos with his horn. This emblem, therefore, of eternity and wifdom, this image of the energy of creative power, we confider as referring to the eternal Logos in the Chriftian Triad; to that quickening WORD, by whom all things were made, and without whom was not any thing made that was made. Additional evidence, I am confident, need not be added to the accumulated proofs previously

X 2

previously adduced, that, by sculptured wings, (the fymbols of air and wind,) ever extended to overshadow and defend, the Egyptians defignated their famous Cneph; and though, in this refpect, from their obfcure notions concerning the Trinity, as before observed, they manifeftly confounded the order of the hypoftafes, because the demiurgic Phtha is made to proceed from Cneph; yet, by the latter, they doubtless meant to typify the facred perfon to whom we apply it, the incumbent SPIRIT that moved upon the face of the waters. If, now, we confult the Ifiac or Bembine table, (an account of which has been given in a former page; or if we caft our eye upon the Pamphylian obelisk engraved in Kircher; or, indeed, on any of the portals of the Egyptian temples, copied in the accurate volumes of Pococke and Norden; for, the fronts of all are invariably decorated with it ;) we shall find their conceptions, on this subject, fully expreffed by the very picturesque and beautiful hieroglyphic fo often alluded to in thefe pages, exhibiting a central ORB, with a SERPENT, and WINGS proceeding from it. It was principally to dif play this hieroglyphic on the very spot where it has flourished for near 4000 years, an irrefragable monument of the existence in the old

Egyptian

Egyptian theology, derived from the venerable patriarchs in the infancy of time, of a dogma, falfely afferted to have been the invention of the Platonic philofophers 1500 years after, that I caused that fuperb portal of the grand temple of Luxore to be engraved from Norden's designs, which forms the frontispiece of the third volume of this work. He will find it likewife delineated on a separate plate, and upon a larger fcale, from the fame author's defign of the celebrated temple of Ifis, in the Ifle of Philaë.

Kircher, treating of the Pamphylian obelisk, on which venerable monument of antiquity this hieroglyphic ftands firft in order, cites a variety of authorities, and, in particular, that of Abenephius, an Arabian writer, and a fragment imputed to Sanchoniatho, in teftimony that the Egyptians really did intend, by this fymbol, to fhadow out sov Toμogov, a triform Deity. I fhall not, however, trouble the reader with a multitude of conjectures which may think vifionary, or of authorities which may confider as doubtful. The true meaning of the symbol is only to be found in an impartial investigation and patient comparison of their theological fentiments, as reprefented by writers of high refpectability and undoubt

he

he

ed authenticity in the Pagan world, who can be fufpected of no intereft to warp, and no prejudice to mislead, them. That investigation, and that comparison, have now been made by me; and the refult of the whole is, that, if Proclus and Jamblichus are deferving of credit, the most ancient Egyptians actually did entertain notions, though confused and obfcure, of the doctrine which is the object of this extensive Difquifition.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER III.

An Account of the Trinity of Divine Perfons in the Hymns attributed to ORPHEUS. Conjec tures concerning the Age and History of that obfcure Perfonage. -His Doctrines inculcate a Species of PANTHEISM, and are a Mixture of the Principles propagated in the MAGIAN and HERMETIC Schools.-All, however, to be met with in the ancient INDIAN SASTRAS. Proofs of the Affertion adduced from various Paffages in the BHAGVAT GEETA. The allegorical Hypoftafes in the Orphic Trinity, LIGHT, COUNSEL, and LIFE; very much refembling the SEPHIROTH of the Hebrews i poffibly copied from their Books, or else the Refult of Patriarchal Traditions diffused through Afa in the Time of ORPHEUS. The Samothracian CABIRI, or THREE MIGHTY ONES, are next confidered, and the Transportation of that Worship into Italy; which laid the Bafis of the joint Adoration of Jupiter, Juno,