quently, the invention of philosophy, the science which exhibits the laws and conditions of the very nature he had organized. He is always represented together with the goddess Neith, who was another emanation or attribute of Ammon, and one of the regular companions of the great Demiurgos. The god Phtha was considered as the founder of the dynasties of Egypt, and the Pharaohs had consecrated to him the royal city of Memphis, the second capital of the empire, where he had a magnificent temple superbly embellished, in which the grand ceremony of the inauguration or installation of the Egyptian kings was splendidly performed; and he was also considered as their protector, by the titles they had assumed of "Beloved by Phtha," Approved by Phtha," and the like.

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His name, like those of the other gods and goddesses, was represented phonetically, figuratively, and symbolically. Phonetically [fig. 5.] it was spelt Pth, or Phth, leaving out the intermediate A; for the square is a P, the half circle T, and the chain is also a T. Figuratively, by the image under which he was seen in his temple [fig. 6.]; and symbolically, by the figure of a Nilometer, followed by something like the image of the god [fig. 7. As he was considered the inventor of philosophy, you will have no difficulty in understanding why the Nilometer had been selected for the symbol of this deity. He sometimes, under a new form, assumes the surname of Socari, and then he is looked upon as the director of the destiny of the

K

souls of the dead, who, according to their merit, are to be distributed in the thirty-two supreme regions, of which I shall say more hereafter. It is for this reason we always find his image among the funeral rites, in the royal catacombs, and on the engravings and paintings which adorn the boxes or coffins, as well as the envelopes of the mummies.

Under this form, his phonetic name is spelt [fig. 8. Scri, that is, Socri, or Socari, for the broken lines are an S; the vase with the ring, a K; the mouth an R; the two perpendicular lines an I; and the remaining figure is simply a figurative character. His figurative name [fig. 9.] represents him with a peculiar head-dress, placed over the horns of a ram, and holding in his hand a whip; these two last emblems, or characteristics, he has derived from his father, Amon Nub, of whose nature he partakes, and, therefore, exhibits his attributes. And, lastly, symbolically, he appears either under the human form, with the head of a hawk, or [fig. 10.] under the simple image of this bird, holding an emblematical head-dress, not much dissimilar from that of his figurative representation.

As Ammon was the supreme deity, the creator of the world, the spirit which animates the whole nature, both male and female, the Egyptians, having considered Cneph, or Cnouphis, as the male emanation of this great Demiurgos, imagined a second emanation, which should represent the

female principle of productive nature.

This was

the goddess Neith, who, together with Cnouphis, formed but one single being with the great Demiurgos, who had created and organised the whole. This goddess occupied the superior part of the heavens, inseparable from the first principle, and was considered also as presiding over the moral attributes of the mind. Hence wisdom, philosophy, and military tactics, were departments that had been attributed to her, and this consideration persuaded the Greeks to look upon her as their Minerva, who was equally the protectress of wise men and warriors.

It was before her colossal statues and images that, in the legends engraved on the columns of the magnificent temples dedicated to her worship, the victorious Pharaohs are perceived in the act of striking a confused group of prisoners, who lift up their hands in a supplicating manner.

The first seat of the worship of this deity was in the city of Sais, in Lower Egypt, where there was a college of priests, and a magnificent temple. The inscription which decorated this sanctuary gave a most sublime idea of the creating power of nature. "I am all that has been, all that is, all that will be. No mortal has ever raised the veil which conceals me; and the fruit I have produced is the sun!" Such is the interpretation given by M. Champollion, of the hieroglyphics that compose it. I have not been able to see the inscription. The goddess Neith was symbolically represented

by a vulture [fig. 2.1, the emblem of the female principle of the creation, and consequently of maternity in general. This arose from an idle notion the primitive Egyptians had, that amongst the vultures there was no male bird. Her phonetic name [fig. 12.] consists of four characters. The waiving line an N, the two feathers an E, or I, the half circle a T, followed by the image of a goddess.. Hitherto we have seen the god Ammon Cnouphis, and his son, the god Phtha, occupying the first rank among the mystical persons of the Egyptian theology; because, as we have observed, the goddess Neith, whow as a second emanation of Ammon, formed in reality but one and the same being with the first principle, from which she had emanated. Ammon and Phtha governed and presided over the intellectual world, and the world above; but of the material or physical world, the government belonged to another god, not less ancient than the other two. He was considered as the soul of nature, the eye of the world, and the son of Phtha, the active intelligence which had organised the universe. He was no less a personage than the sun, the "Haus of the Greeks, and in the Egyptian language was called Re, or Ri. The priests described him as one of the earliest kings, and the successor of his father in the government of Egypt, and, like him, the special protector of the sovereigns, whom adulation regarded as members belonging to the family of this god. In consequence of this belief, all the Egyptian kings, from

the earliest Pharaohs to the last of the Roman emperors, adopted, in the legends consecrated to their honour, the pompous titles of offspring of the sun, son of the sun, king like the sun of all inferior and superior regions, and the like. They had, besides, consecrated to this god, the city of Heliopolis; and thus each of the four principal cities of the empire, Thebes, Memphis, Sais, and Heliopolis was under the special protection of one of the four great deities Ammon Cnouphis, Phtha, Neith, and Phre, or Re.

The city of Heliopolis, which, in the Egyptian language, was called the city of On, was situated a little to the north of Memphis, and was one of the most extensive cities of Egypt, during the reign of the Pharaohs, and so adorned by monuments, as to be reckoned among the first sacred cities of the kingdom. The temple dedicated to Re, was a magnificent building, having in front an avenue of Sphinxes, so celebrated in history, and adorned by several obelisks, raised by the order of Sethosis Rameses, 1900 years before Christ. By means of lakes and canals, the town, though built upon an artificial eminence, communicated with the Nile; and during the beautiful ages of the Egyptian monarchy, their priests and learned men acquired and taught the elements of learning within the precincts of its temples. It was there that, after the lapse of time, the degenerate descendants of the same Egyptians, communicated to the wise men and lawgivers of Greece, the