r, they painted
a hog or a serpent, which delight in humid places, and the combination
of these figures carried the known sense of words and phrases.* But as
this sense could not be fixed with precision, as the number of these
figures and their combinations became excessive, and overburdened
the memory, the immediate consequence was confusion and false
interpretations. Genius afterwards having invented the more simple
art of applying signs to sounds, of which the number is limited, and
painting words, instead of thoughts, alphabetical writing thus threw
into disuetude hieroglyphical painting; and its signification, falling
daily into oblivion, gave rise to a multitude of illusions, ambiguities,
and errors.

* The reader will doubtless see with pleasure some examples
of ancient hieroglyphics.

"The Egyptians (says Hor-appolo) represent eternity by the
figures of the sun and moon. They designate the world by
the blue serpent with yellow scales (stars, it is the
Chinese Dragon). If they were desirous of expressing the
year, they drew a picture of Isis, who is also in their
language called Sothis, or dog-star, one of the first
constellations, by the rising of which the year commences;
its inscription at Sais was, It is I that rise in the
constellation of the Dog.

"They also represent the year by a palm tree, and the month
by one of its branches, because it is the nature of this
tree to produce a branch every month. They farther
represent it by the fourth part of an acre of land." The
whole acre divided into four denotes the bissextile period
of four years. The abbreviation of this figure of a field
in four divisions, is manifestly the letter ha or het, the
seventh in the Samaritan alphabet; and in general all the
letters of the alphabet are merely astronomical
hieroglyphics; and it is for this reason that the mode of
writing is from right to left, like the march of the stars.
--"They denote a prophet by the image of a dog, because the
dog star (Anoubis) by its rising gives notice of the
inundation. Noubi, in Hebrew signifies prophet--They
represent inundation by a lion, because it takes place under
that sign: and hence, says Plutarch, the custom of placing
at the gates of temples figures of lions with water issuing
from their mouths.--They express the idea of God and d