11

attributes to Hermes, consequently to a period before Menes, 1100 books; and describes Seleucus as having mentioned 20,000 volumes of the same Hermes, and Manetho even 36,500. This latter number is nothing but the year of the world in twenty-five Sothiac cycles of 1461 years. It was either invented by Iamblichus himself, or a Pseudo-Manetho, whose writings will be examined in the sequel. As little do we here propose to renew the inquiry concerning the celebrated antediluvian columns or stela, on which the lore of this primeval world with all its wisdom was said to be transmitted. Plato, it is well known, speaks of these columns in the opening of the Timæus. We shall examine in the fifth book whether this be any thing more than a figurative description, and how far we may be justified in assuming any connection between the Egyptian legend and the two pillars of Seth mentioned by Josephus.12 These pillars, it is obvious, have reference to the Book of Enoch 13; perhaps, also, to the pillars of Akikarus, or Akicharus, the prophet of Babylon or the Bosphorus (whose wisdom Democritus was said to have stolen), and on which Theophrastus composed a treatise.11 In the Egyptian traditions that have come down to us, tion of the work upon the gods (viii. 8.). Damascius, Proclus, Olympiodorus, and Julianus ascribe the work to Iamblichus; as, in fact, does he himself in the explanation of the Pythagorean Symbola (Gale on that passage). Iamblichus might even have been the author of some or all the books of Hermes quoted by Stobæus. It is at least remarkable that in both of them, according to all the MSS., a god, Emeph ('Huno), occurs, of whom no notice is extant elsewhere. See

viii. 2.

11 Iamblichus de Mysteriis, viii. 1, 2.

12 Joseph. Antiq. i. c. 2.

13 See the English translation of this book from the Ethiopian, by Lawrence, Oxford, 1821; and compare with it the extracts from it in Syncellus (p. 9-14.) upon the so-called Egregors, who are alluded to in the Epistle of Jude (v. 6.).

14 Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 357. P. See Strabo, xvi. p. 762.; Diog. Laërt. v. 50.; and Potter and Fabric. Bibl. Gr. i. 87., &c.

these primeval stele do not make their appearance until the third and fourth centuries. They are first mentioned in the so-called fragments of Hermes in Stobæus, where they are mysticised into secret symbols of created things15; afterwards in Zosimus of Panopolis, evidently in the colouring of Judaising-Christian writers.16 They again appear in the worst shape of all somewhere in the fourth century, in the work of an impostor who assumed the name of Manetho. That, in this latter instance at least, they were connected with the narrative of Josephus, is shown by their allusion to the 'Syriadic Country.'

Passing over these and similar notices, attention must be called to the fact that Lepsius found on monuments of as early a date as the twelfth dynasty, the last but one of the Old Empire, the hieroglyphic sign of the papyrus roll.17 That of the stylus and inkstand was observed by him on those of the fourth-consequently in the fifth century after Menes, or the earliest period of which we possess hieroglyphical monuments.18 All that has hitherto been identified as belonging to the third dynasty are royal Rings and Pyramids-the latter devoid of inscriptions.

The monumental characters, however, can be traced on contemporary records above a century earlier, and in forms altogether similar to those of later times. With such evidence we can hardly hesitate to assume-what

15 Stobæus, Ecl. Eth. Aóyos "Ioidos, p. 930. Comp. 978. The author was a Neo-Platonist; probably, however, an Egyptian.

16 Syncellus, p. 13., from the ninth book of his work 'Imuth' (Esculapius), in which also the 'Chemia' was introduced, i. e. the science of medicine and alchemy-from 'Chemi,' Egypt.

17 The Papyrus roll, since this was written, has been found on monuments of the fourth dynasty. Cf. Lepsius, Abth. II. Bl. 6, 9, 12, &c. Later researches have discovered a monument of King Sent of the Second Dynasty, in the Ashmolean Collection at Oxford. Cf. Lepsius, Auswahl, Taf. ix.; Devéria, Rev. Arch. 1865, p. 58. [S. B.] 18 Lepsius, the Todtenbuch of the Egyptians, Leip. 1842, Pref. p. 17.

ever preconceived ideas it may disturb-that this genuine Egyptian writing, combining Phonetic with figurative signs, is, in its essential elements, at least as old as the time of Menes. It is the general tradition of the ancients, that the chronological registers of the Egyptian kings, above referred to, commenced with him —and there is no tradition of antiquity which admits of being better authenticated.

III. THE ANTIQUITY AND HISTORICAL CONTENTS OF THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EGYPTIANS.

With these facts before us, it may here be proper to meet a question hitherto neglected by Egyptologers: whether the genuine books of Hermes, that is, the really Sacred Books of the Egyptians, contained any historical element, and in what shape? May not the older registers of the kings have been themselves, perhaps, a part of the Sacred Books? Or did the contents of the latter embody any considerable amount of matter of fact concerning the reigns of those kings? If they did so in ever so slight a degree, we must certainly consider them as a main source of historical tradition. For in a nation whose literature had a religious origin, and remained always in the hands of the priests, the most ancient history must also necessarily have been contained in the Sacred Writings. The progress of our researches will show how important this inquiry may become in forming any judgment upon the sources of history which have been preserved to us; and even at this stage of our subject it may throw some new light upon the Sacred Books.

We are indebted for our knowledge of these writings to Clemens of Alexandria alone; the very remarkable passage of whose work we give in our Appendix of Authorities.19 From it we learn that the Egyptians in his time had forty-two Sacred Books—a canon, which 19 See Zoega de Obeliscis, p. 505. &c.

must have been closed at latest in the time of the Psammetici, but probably earlier. The last six of these books treated of the art of medicine, which had taken root in Egypt in the darkest ages of antiquity, and boasted royal authors from Athothis down to Nechepso. The books of both these kings are quoted, and that of the former (a son of Menes) was certainly a sacred one. The other thirty-six books were divided into five classes, each of which requires separate consideration.

1. The Two Books of the Chanter.

The first book of the first class contained songs in honour of the gods; the second a description of royal life and its duties.20 The Chanter was required to know both by heart. The first book, therefore, was something like the Rig-Veda. Such was the reputed antiquity and sanctity of the Egyptian hymns, that some of them, according to Plato", were ascribed to Isis, and, like the earliest paintings and sculptures, were held to be 10,000 years old, and that—not, he adds, by mere figure of speech, but in the literal sense. In fact the fragments of Hermes, preserved by Stobæus, place hymns in the mouth of Isis, who teaches them to Horus. Stobæus has omitted the compositions themselves, and their genuine antiquity is very questionable.22 The title of the second book reminds us of the precepts

20 Some of the Papyri contains hymns to the gods, as that to Hapi or the Nile in the 2nd Sallier Select. Papyri, Pl. xx-xxiii. There is also a Papyrus known with a hymn to Amen-Ra. Perhaps the Prisse Papyrus, see Chabas, Rev. Arch. 1858, p. 1 and foll., was a royal manual.-[S. B.]

21 Plato de Legg. ii. p. 657. : Σκοπῶν δὲ εὑρήσεις τὰ μυριοστὸν ἔτος γεγραμμένα ἢ τετυπωμένα — οὐχ ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν μυριοστών, ἀλλ ̓ ὄντως —τῶν νῦν δεδημιουργημένων οὔτε τι καλλίωνα, οὔτ ̓ αἰσχίω, τὴν αὐτὴν δὲ τέχνην ἀπειργασμένα. And soon after where he speaks of the songs which were prescribed as being an institution worthy of the divinity, or of the divine name : καθάπερ ἐκεῖ φασι τὰ τὸν πολὺν τοῦτον σεσωσμένα χρόνον μέλη τῆς Ισιδος ποιήματα γεγονέναι.

22 Stob. Eclog. Eth. ed. Heeren, p. 980.

which Manu's code lays down for the Indian Kings, and even of some passages in the Vedas. This book was not strictly of an historical nature, although it may have contained, doubtless, as Zoega himself remarks, a few particulars of the lives or ordinances of primeval rulers by way of examples. Here, therefore, we have historical songs in praise of the ancient kings; for both the books were adapted for musical recitation. The Egyptians, therefore, alluded principally, if not exclusively, to this book, when they described Darius as having learned from their sacred books their mythology, as well as the magnanimity and clemency of their ancient rulers, for which qualities he was himself so much distinguished and beloved.23

2. The Four Astronomical Books of the Horoscopus.

The second class comprised the so-called astrological books, four in number, a knowledge of which was required on the part of the Horoscopus. The first treated of the system of the fixed stars, the second and third of the solar and lunar conjunction, and the phases of the moon; the fourth of the 'risings,' i. e. of the sun, moon, and stars in general. Originally, doubtless, their contents were purely astronomical, relating to the constellations (not the twelve signs of the zodiac, however), the synodic epochs, and the rising of particular stars at different seasons of the year, as in Aratus. The astrological element, in the usual sense, was akin to the astronomical, but was, as we shall see, unknown to the ancient Egyptians in the shape in which we understand it. Observations of the stars were, nevertheless, of old date among them. This is stated by Aristotle in a passage to be quoted in the sequel; and the antiquity of the Sothiac cycle, which implies that observations of that star had been taken, and in fact continuously, in connection with the course of the

23 Diod. Sic. i. 95.