imagined they had found the most profound metaphysics therein.— Nor does the simplicity of the Egyptian appear by much so shocking as the sublime nonsense of a Platonic, who sees Monades and Triades every where; who, in a figure of Isis exposed in the middle of an assembly of husbandmen, finds the archetype world, the intellectual world, and the sensible world; or who seeks in the feet of a goat the picture of universal nature; or who finds out in the horn of an ox the efficacy of the impressions of his imaginary genii.

Thus the learned, from a habit of diving into matters, and of looking out for extraordinary explications, have perplexed a subject of itself very simple.

A few regular assemblies excepted, in which by public authority were preserved some footsteps of truth together with some ancient customs, the whole went on from bad to worse, from the liberty of embellishments and interpretations. The gods were multiplied in the popular discourses as much as the symbols, and even in proportion to the different names given one and the same symbol. Oftentimes the minutest equivocations, proceeding from a variety in the pronunciation, the diversity of dresses of the same figure, nay, a bare change of place, a trifle added or retrenched, gave birth to a new god.

We may see in Plutarch's treatise, but above all in Eusebius's Evangelical Preparation, the strange variety of adventures and employments which the Africans, the Phenicians, and the Phrygians attributed to the same gods. The celestial court was not the same in Egypt as in Greece. In Egypt it was Osiris that gave light to the world. In Greece Osiris or Jupiter was freed from that care. The sceptre and the thunderbolt were left to him, but the chariot of the day was given to Horus or Apollo, who in his quality of symbol of the rural works bore by way of abbreviation the marks of the situation of the sun, or the characteristic of the season.

Jupiter could neither do everything nor be everywhere. Lieutenants were then given him, each with separate districts. Every thing assumed a settled form. The histories of the gods were composed; and by attributing to them what each nation in particular was pleased to publish on their account; by adding thereto the histories of the ministers of the temples, and those of the kings who had favoured their worship; but chiefly by excusing the disorders of women ou account of the pretended disguises of these gods possessed with their charms; they formed that monstrous lump of mythology, in which it is no wonder that we find no sense, no coherency, no order of place or time, nor any kind of regard either to reason or good manners. Though the major part of these fabulous recitals be utterly extravagant, yet as they have made part of the strange theology of our forefathers, men have at all times endeavoured to find out the true origin of them. I have ventured my own conjectures on the same subject; because they appeared to me to amount nearly to a certainty, and the whole might be unravelled with no less decency than benefit. It is no longer so with regard to the minute particulars of these extra

vagancies. The collection of them would be the matter of very large volumes; and there is indeed no subject upon which it will be more lawful to set bounds to one's knowledge.

The foregoing article has been very much curtailed as it is intended to give a full account of the ancient mysteries from bishop Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses: in which the subject is treated of more at large, and in some respect evidently with a better understanding of it than the Abbe Pluche possessed.

The horrors exhibited at the commencement of the ceremony were ; intended to represent the condition of the wicked in another life, and the closing scene pourtrayed the abode of the blessed; the miseries of Tartarus and the happiness of Elysium were contrasted; and being pronounced by holy priests, in whom the vulgar in barbarous ages placed implicit confidence, to be a true picture of what actually takes place in a future state of existence, must have produced a most powerful effect.

This scene is imitated in the royal arch degree of masonry, originally with the same view as the archetype; and as in the original mysteries, it forms the last act or degree of ancient masonry. The candidates are kept in the dark by being hoodwinked; thunder and lightning are represented by the firing of pistols, rolling cannon balls, etc. In the conclusion, the aspirants are brought to light, and presented to what is called the grand council, consisting of three personages denominated high priest, king, and the holy scribe; on whose decorations some hundred dollars are expended, in order duly to prepare them to sustain the exalted characters allotted to them. These three are the principal persons of the drama. The fourth, and next in dignity, is styled the captain of the host; "who is stationed at the right hand of the grand council, and whose duty is, to receive their orders, and see them duly executed."

The high priest corresponds with the hierophant of the mysteries, the king with the flambeau bearer, the sun, who was deemed the king and governor of the world; the holy scribe with Isis, the adorer, hence the attribute holy applied to him; and the captain of the host, with Anubis Hermes or Mercury, the messenger of the gods. The identity of these institutions cannot be mistaken.

The Auguries.

My readers, ever so little conversant in ancient history, may remember to have often seen the Romans, the Sabines, the Hetrurians, the Greeks and many other nations, very careful in never attempting any important undertaking, without previously consulting the birds, and drawing favourable or ill consequences, sometimes from the number and kind of the birds that traversed the air, sometimes from the quarter whence they began their flight, and the different course they took. We may

likewise remember, that in order not to be obliged to wait long for a bird which chance may not immediately offer, the priests of the false deities had introduced the custom of the sacred chickens, brought into the middle of the assembly of the people in a cage, for the magistrates gravely to observe their ways and motion. They had reduced into an art, and referred to constant and settled rules, all the consequences to be drawn with regard to futurity, from the several methods in which these whimsical animals let fall or swallowed the food offered to them. Have not the priests of paganism, either out of interested views, or from an infatuation for these chimerical rules, a thousand times spoiled or put a stop to the most important and best concerted undertakings, out of regard to a fowl that had refused her meat? Augustus and many other persons of understanding, have without any fatal consequences despised the chickens and divination. But when the generals in the times of the republic had miscarried in any enterprise, the priest and people cast the whole blame of it on the heedlessness with which the sacred chickens had been consulted, and more commonly still, on the general's having preferred his own forecast to that of these fowls. Nor can one indeed without some indignation, see these dangerous sillinesses continue in the highest esteem and credit among people full of magnanimity, and the greatest genius seemingly making serious apologies for them.

Tully has handed to us a good saying of Cato, who declared that one of the most surprising things to him was, how one soothsayer could look another in the face without laughing. I do not doubt but this judicious orator, when he was discharging his functions as a priest of the auguries, was always ready to change his countenance whenever he happened to see any of his colleagues walking with a grave stately air, and lifting up the augural staff. He was perfectly sensible of the vanity of these practices. After having observed in the second book of divination, that the Romans had never been concerned in a matter of greater consequence than that of the quarrel between Cæsar and Pompey, he freely confesses, that the augurs, aruspices, and oracles, had never been more frequently consulted; but that the answers, whose number was endless, had not been followed by the events they foretold, or else had been succeeded by such as were quite contrary. However, Tully, notwithstanding this confession, which wholly demolished the art of prediction, yet.out of politic views defends the practice of it. He preferred leaving the people in their error, to the risk of provoking them, by endeavouring to free them from a pernicious and criminal superstition.*

Anciently, or at the time of the institution of the symbols, men,

It may be presumed that the risk which Cicero was uuwilling to hazard in this case, was the loss of popularity, and the emolument arising from the priestly office. Seif-interest in all ages of the world, has been the moving principle of action with the gunuing and designing, to impose rpon the credulity of ignorauce. Observing the feeding or flight of birds, her inspecting the entrails of a bullock, thereby to predict future events, is not more ridiculous. nor less creditablo to the understanding of the human species, than some practices that might be mentionod, which are in vogus at the present day.-Edit.

before sowing, or planting, used to say; let us first consult the birds. Nor was there any thing better understood. People were satisfied, when they had observed this custom with care. These birds signified the winds, the observation and course of which determined the propriety of rural works. But men, in process of time, very earnestly invoked the birds themselves.

The cock commonly placed by the side of Horus and Anubis or Mercury, very plainly signified what was to be done in the morning, as the owl marked out the assemblies that were to be held in the evening. Cocks were then made so many new monitors foretelling futurity; and the owl acquired in this matter a talent which many people earnestly contend she is still possessed of. When this bird, which is an enemy to light, happens to shriek as she passes by the window of a sick person, where she perceives it, you never can beat it out of their head, that this shrieking, is a foreboding of his end.

Origin and Falsehood of the Sibyls.

Ir is from a sensible abuse in astronomy or of the custom of consulting certain stars, that the oracles of the Sibyls were introduced. Harvest has always been the great object of the desires and attention of all nations. In order therefore to regulate the manuring of their lands, their ploughing, sowing, and the other operations of concern to the bulk of society, men had their eyes fixed on the virgin that bears the ear of corn, and which is the mark of the time of harvest. They observed how far the sun was remote from it and on this account they generally used to consult and have recourse to the virgin; a language as reasonable as the practice expressed by it. They at first gave this constellation the name Shibyl Ergone* the reddening ear of corn, because it is exactly the circumstance for which men wait to begin their harvest, and because their crop ripens when the sun draws near this collection of stars.

They afterwards called it sometimes Sibyl, sometimes Erigone. This name Erigone rendered in Greek by that of Erytra, which corresponds to it, and signifies red, gave birth to the Egyptian Sibyl. There was certainly an advantage in consulting her, and her answers were very just to regulate husbandry so long as she was taken for what she was, that is, for a cluster of stars under which the sun placed himself at the time which brought on harvest, and reddened the ear of corn. And because the Egyptian harvest did not fall under that sign, but under the Ram or the Bull, it is, that Egypt flocked to the oracles of Ammon or of Apis, and had so particular an affection for Isis with the horns of a heifer, the ancient proclamation of their harvest; whereas all the east consulted the Erytrean Sibyl, in order to be assured

-From- -Shibul, or

Shibolet, spica; and from Dan 7 Ergone purpura. The purple ear of corn, Spica rubescens...

of a plentiful crop. This language became the matter of fables. Our maid changed from a sign to a prophetess, had no doubt the most perfect knowledge of futurity, since people came from all parts to ask her questions. The excessive wickedness of mankind at last obliged her to quit their abodes, to go, and in the heavens take possession of the place due to her. Many countries assumed to themselves the honor of having given birth to this sibyl: nor would it be a hard matter to find seven instead of one. All the current predictions, among which some strokes of the prophecies addressed to the Hebrews, are found, in time passed for the answers of these sibyls.*

The American reader should be aware that the term corn is used in England as a generic term for all seeds that grow in ears. The French word, here translated corn, is ble. which signifies grain, wheat; ble de Terquie or d' Indie, means maize, Indian corn. Wheat, as it ripens, puts on a reddish hue; which is not the case with Indian corn, although red ears are sometimes found among it. Grain, in English, seems the most proper term, for the genus of the different species.

In masonic lodges, the master is stationed in the east, representing Osiris the sun; and the senior warden in the west, representing Isis or Virgo, the sign of harvest; his duty is to pay the craft their wages, which alludes metaphorically to the reward the husbandman receives in the produce of his labor, when the sun arrives at this sign. This is indicated by a painting representing a sheaf of wheat, which is hung back of this officer's chair. The pass word of the fellow-craft, at this station, to entitle him to pay, is shibboleth, the reddening ear of wheat. Can any thing more conclusively point out the astronomical cast of free-masonry.

It must have been at a remote period when the Egyptian harvest occured, as above stated, during the passage of the sun, either under the sign of the ram or the bull.

Volney, in his travels in Egypt and Syria, observes:

"As the sun approaches the tropic of Capricorn, the winds becomes variable and tempestuous; they most usually blow from the north, the north-west, and west, in which points they continue during the months of December, January, and February, which is the winter season in Egypt, as well as with us. The vapour of the Mediterranean, condensed by the coldness of the atmosphere, descends in mists and rains."

Conjuration.

I am still to inquire into the origin of an art far more important than all the foregoing. This is necromancy, the art of calling up the spirits

See upon this subject the excellent remarks of P. Catron on the fifth eclogue of Virgil.