tile de ente & effentia, fpeaks of a volume of plants defcribed by ADAM; and there are traditions of a whole natural hiftory, with feveral other works of this most learned of all men living, as SUIDAS doubts not to call him. Nor do we think, that his unhappy fall did fo much concern his rare and infufed habits, as not to leave him the most accomplished and perfectly instructed in all thofe arts which were fo highly neceffary, and therefore thus early invented; though whether these books of his were fo miraculously found out, and preferved by the renowned TRISMEGISTUS, we leave to the more credulous: but that letters, and confequently SCULPTURE, was long before the flood, we make no fcruple of; SUIDAS, whom but now we mentioned, is peremptory, afcribing (as was affirmed) both letters, and all the reft of the fciences to ADAM, τέτε πάντα ευρήματα, ει &c. We shall not add hereunto, what the Rabbins affert he compofed of the precepts given him in paradife, with the like trafh, but pals from thefe conjectures to others of the antediluvian patriarchs mentioned by JOSEPHUS, CEDRENUS, and fome other authors, concerning the fculptures in ftone and brick erected at Joppa, containing (as fome depofe) the fidereal and celeftial fciences, proof against the two moft devouring and fubverting elements, and lafting fome thousands of years after the universal cataclyfm. The Æthiopians are faid at this day to glory much in poffeffing the books of SETH and ENOCH, as those who have lately written of the Abyffines relate. ORIGEN, St. AUGUSTINE, and HIEROм, have likewife made honourable mention of them; and TERTULLIAN plainly plainly reproves thofe*, who (in his time) thought they could not be preferved; NOAH being himfelf one of the great nephews of SETH: and the probability that these ancient men of renown would transmit to posterity the glorious actions and atchievements which they had performed; especially CHAM, (that is ZOROASTER) a spirit fo universally curious, and flourishing above an hundred years before this public calamity. But to apply this to the honour now of CHALCOGRAPHY, and juftify our defign. The author of the fcholaftical hiftory upon Genefis fpeaks of this ZOROASTER's engraving the liberal arts on fourteen columns, feven whereof he affirms to have been of brafs, and the reft of brick. The fame is alfo reported by SERENus†, where he adds [diverforum metallorum laminis] "on plates of different metals," together with fome other infcriptions thus preserved, and which the noble and learned earl of Mirandula, in a certain epistle of his to Marfilius Ficinus, boafts to have the poffeffion of: his words are thefe; Chaldaici bi libri funt, fi libri funt, & non Thefauri. Audi infcriptiones: patris Ezra, Zoroaftris, & Melchior Magorum oracula. In quibus, & illa quoque, que apud Græcos mendofa, & mutila circumferuntur, leguntur integra & abfoluta, &c, Thefe books, (faith Picus) if books it be lawful to call them, " and not rather most ineftimable treasures, are all "in the Chaldaic tongue. Obferve their titles: "the oracles of thofe famous Magi, Ezra, Zoro"after, and Melchior; in which thofe particulars also, which have been carried about by the Greeks, *De habit. mulier. † Apud Caffianum. "maimed "maimed and miferably corrupted, are here to be "read perfect and entire." Concerning the art of SCULPTURE immediately after the flood, there are few, we suppose, make any confiderable queftion, as that it might not be propagated by NOAH to his pofterity; though fome there be, that indeed admit of none before MOSES: but what then shall we think of that "book of the "wars of the Lord," which this facred author mentions, Num. xxi; not to infift upon the eighty-eighth and one hundred and ninth Pfalms, by many afcribed to fome of the patriarchs his predeceffors. The above mentioned MERCURIUS TRISMEGISTUS, three hundred years after the flood, and long before MOSES, engraved his fecret and mysterious things in ftone, as himself reports; reforming what had been depraved by the wicked CHAM, fome in letters, fome in figures and enigmatical characters; fuch haply, as were thofe contained in the magnificent and ftupendous obelisks erected by MISRA the first Ægyptian PHAROAH, which being at least four hundred years before MOSES (as the most indefatigable KIRCHER has computed) does greatly prefage their antiquity to have been before that holy prophet*. But not to put too much stress upon fuperannuated tradition, this we are fure is of faith and without controverfy, that in MOSES we have the tables of ftone, engraven by the finger of GOD himfelf; where the commandment is exprefs, even against the abufe of this very ART, as well as an inftance of the antiquity of idolatry attefting that of fculpture: THOU SHALT NOT MAKE TO THY Obelis. Pamphil. SELF SELF ANY GRAVEN IMAGE *. But this which is, indeed, the first writing that we have scripture to vouch for, does yet pre-fuppofe ENGRAVING to have been of much greater antiquity. What elfe were the TERAPHIM? what the Penates of LABAN ftolen by RACHEL? the idols of TERAH, or the Ægyptian? &c. But we forbear to expatiate; only that which is by BEN. SYRAC fomewhere in t Ecclefiafticus delivered, that the original of idolatry was from images to preserve the memory of the dead, as in procefs of time by the flatterers of great men it was turned to be an object of adoration, plainly infers GRAVING to have been elder than idolatry. But now to recover its efteem again beyond all prejudice (however by others abufed, as indeed many of the best things have been,) it was, we know, imputed for a fpiritual talent in BEZALEEL and AHOLIAB‡, who made intaglias to adorn the high priest's pectoral. And we have faid how the ÆGYPTIANS reverenced it, as seeming to have used it before letters; or rather their hieroglyphics (importing facred fculpture) were thofe elements by which they tranfmitted to pofterity what they esteemed most worthy of record; and not (as fome have imagined) wrapped up in thofe enigmatical figures, the fecrets of their arts both divine and fecular for Nondum flumineas memphis contexere biblos Noverat; & faxis tantum volucrifque feræque, Sculptaque fervabant magicas animalia linguas §. whence TACITUS calls them [antiquiffima monu* EXOD. XX. † c. xiv. xxxi Exod. § LUCANUS, 1. 3. menta menta memoriæ humanæ impreffa faxis]" mostancient "records engraven on ftone." Such as were also the borapollinis note, and all thofe other venerable antiquities of this nature, tranfported to Rome out of Egypt in no less than two-and-forty prodigious obelifks, of late interpreted by the industrious KIRCHER before cited. SUIDAS attributes the invention to the FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL, others to THEUT OF HERMES, fome to CADMUS and the Phoenicians. BIBLIANDER will have letters and fculpture from ADAM, JOSEPHUS from ENOCH, PHILO from ABRAHAM, EUSEBIUS from MOSES, CYPRIAN from SATURN; where, by the way, becaufe 'tis faid he did [literas imprimere] "print "letters," PETER CALABER, who much affects to call himself POMPONIUS LETUS, foolishly deduces, that even the typographical art was known in the age of this hero*; but thence, as we faid, it defcended to the Egyptians by MISRAIM, and fo was communicated to the Perfians Medes and Affyrians, thence to the Greeks, and finally to the Romans, from whom it was derived to us; as PETER CRINITUS in his XVIIth. book de honefta difciplinat, out of a very ancient manufcript biblithecæ feptimiana feems to deduce, and thus fum them up together: [Moyfes primus Hebraicas exaravit literas; Mente Phanices fagaci condiderunt Atticas; Quas Latini fcriptitamus, edidit Nicoftrata ; Abraham Syras, & idem repperit Chaldaicas; Ifis arte non minore, protulit Ægyptiacas; Gulfila promfit Getarum, quas videmus literas.] " MOSES *Vossius in Art. Hift. + Cap. 1. |