APPENDIX ΤΟ BOOK II. No. I. A summary View of the Egyptian Theology, as collected from the Hebrew and Greek Writers, with the Names of the Gods in the ancient native Language, intended to illustrate the remains of Egyptian Antiquity, men tioned in Books I and II. THE name Ægyptus is supposed to have been derived from a town, now called Keft, in the Thebaid: it was unknown among the natives, who called their country by various ap pellations, corresponding to the different districts. The lower part of Egypt was called CHEMI, the upper MARES. The Nomoi, or small divisions into which the whole was arranged by Sesostris, after Egypt became subject to one king, were called Meshshoti, or Plains (ni meshshoti nte Chemi), the fields of Ham. The earliest notice of the Egyptian language is found in Genesis, chap. xii. ver. 15. where the prinées and palace of Pharaoh, properly Pha-ouro," the king,” are mentioned as existing in the days of Abraham; trifling as the information is, it shews that the language was completely different from what has been called Hebrew, about 300 years after the deluge. Greater light is soon received on the subject. Joseph is sold about A. M. 2990, to Potiphar, the prime minister of " the king." Egypt is then opened fully to our view, as a country abounding in corn, the granary of Syria, and rich in gold, fine linen, and all the other luxuries of a wealthy oriental kingdom. The order of priests make their appearance, and ON tebaki, the city of the sun; which shews that the religion of Egypt was already formed. On, in the Coptic language, signifies splendour, or the sun : Baki is a city, having the feminine article before it: Pi, or Phi, and sometimes Pha, precedes the word Ouro, a king, as it does all masculine nouns. Potipherah, the priest of On, whose daughter the king gave to Joseph, is undoubtedly the Hebrew way of writing Pe-hont-phre, the high priest of the sun; as Asenath, with less certainty, may be translated the servant of Neith. The regard paid to sacred animals was already established; the priests formed a separate body, and monopolized the royal favour, as well as the science of the country. In a few centuries, the Israelites set up the golden image of the Apis, or sacred ox, in the Wilderness; and after the revolt of the ten tribes, Jeroboam, who had been protected by Shishak the celebrated conqueror, erected two images of the same kind in Bethel, or Bethon, as it is called by LXX. and in Dan. The Greek writers are next to be consulted for the details of this very ancient system of national superstition, which can be traced far beyond the utmost bound of European learning. From Herodotus to the last historians of Alexandria, we find a large mass of information respecting Egypt, which, if collected and arranged with sound judgment, and the assistance of the Coptic language, would form a very interesting history of that celebrated nation. The priests (Ni-oueb†) and sacred scribes (Ni-sah and Er † A common priest was called oueb; the high-priest, or head of the college, P-hont; a sacred scribe, suh; a scientific person, erpetounebet ; and a learned man, or savant, sabe; from which last the Greeks borrowed the word, a sage. Vide Jablonski and La Croze, passim. pet-ounebet) were divided into sects, on the grand opinions and topics which have always interested the speculative world. According to the most prevailing doctrine, matter and mind were conjoined like the body and soul, and both eternal. The various striking parts of visible nature were deities, whose attributes were revealed by the active effects, or passive qualities, of these objects. Though all the tribes from the Euphrates to Egypt seem to have considered the Supreme Being as separated from the Chaos, the Egyptians faintly acknowledged the distinction. They considered both united. in one confusion from eternity, till at last the spirit, or mind, collected itself under the form of fire, or pure air, from the rest. This primæval being disposed the dark chaos into the form of an egg; and brooding over it, like a bird, produced the visible world, the sun, moon, and the rest of the system. It was accounted male or female, as were most of the Egyptian deities, according as its generative character; for, under the masculine form, considered as the Creator of the world, the name of the Demiurgus was Phthas, "the Disposer;" under the feminine, Neith, "the Determiner," or Isis, "the Ancient." The same spirit was supposed to animate nature; to govern and produce all its effects, whether good or bad. As the source of natural good, it was called Ih-nouphi," the Good Spirit;" and of natural evil, Tithrambo, "the Wrathful." The other deities of Egypt were all elements, or parts of nature, accounted active principles, and loved or feared according as those were beneficent or destructive. The mass of a superstition, which at first view appears as confused as the chaos itself, is therefore analysed into the following principles. I. Athor, "primæval darkness," and the chaos, from which arose the world; in Coptic, Edsorh, "night;" the Aphrodite and Venus of Greece and Rome; because, in conjunction with Phthas, she produced the globe, and of course all the visible deities of Egypt. Her symbol was various; she was worshipped in Athor-t-baki, or Atarbechis, the metropolis of the Prosopitide Nome. II. Phthas, the creating or disposing spirit, that spread out his wings on the globe (See the celebrated symbol over the gates of all the temples). This great being was named Æther, or pure air and fire, by the priests; and thence, by the Greeks, Hæphaistus, and the Latins, Vulcanus. His temple at Memphis existed in the time of Strabo; his worship there was co-eval with the city. Phthas was the god who presided over knowledge of all kinds, particularly of future events. III. Neith, the goddess of wisdom (Anvã at Athens, which was an Egyptian colony); the decreer, or predestinator; the former principle under a female character and name; and finely described by Solomon, Prov. viii. 22-31. As Phthas was the god of divination and prophecy; so this deity also knew the past, the present, and the future; and obtained, on that account, extraordinary veneration. Her temple was at Sais (S-hoou), in the Delta, where she had a college of priests, from whom Plato learned most of his philosophy. IV. Ih-nouphi," the Good Spirit," Agathodamon, or "soul of the world," a principle which was universally acknowledged in Egypt. The writings of Plato bear ample testimony to this part of the superstition. The soul of the world animated the whole planetary system, in all its parts. The symbol of Cneph was an entire serpent; his chief temple I was in the Thebaid. His worshippers refused to pay the sumptuous expences commonly lavished by the other Égyptians on the maintenance and funerals of the sacred animals, because they adored an invisible divinity. The good spirit was also adored at Heliopolis, and in many other cities. V. Tithrambo, "the Wrathful," otherwise called Thermōuti, "the causer of death," a female deity; the Hecate of the Greeks. This goddess was accounted the cause of all natural and moral evil. She was sometimes called Isis; and in that character was a personification of what was called in the East, "the malignity of matter." VI. The large number of deities, which were referred to the sun in different aspects, and producing different effects, were, 1. Oeish-iri (Osiris), "the maker of time;" called in common language Phre, or Pi-phre," the sun;" and Rōmpheh (in Acts, vii. 43. Pucar), the "king of heaven." Another name was On, "light." The sun was worshipped at Heliopolis in the days of Joseph, who married the daughter of P-hont-phre (Greek Пerens, or Teens)," the highpriest of the sun." This was the greatest of all the visible deities of Egypt; for whom, along with Io or Isis, "the |