considerable number of
instances; let us add one more relative to our word God.
This is known to be the Deus of the Latins, and the Theos of
the Greeks. Now by the confession of Plato (in Cratylo), of
Macrobius (Saturn, lib. 1, c. 24,) and of Plutarch (Isis and
Osiris) its root is thein, which signifies to wander, like
planein, that is to say, it is synonymous with planets;
because, add our authors, both the ancient Greeks and
Barbarians particularly worshipped the planets. I know that
such enquiries into etymologies have been much decried: but
if, as is the case, words are the representative signs of
ideas, the genealogy of the one becomes that of the other,
and a good etymological dictionary would be the most perfect
history of the human understanding. It would only be
necessary in this enquiry to observe certain precautions,
which have hitherto been neglected, and particularly to make
an exact comparison of the value of the letters of the
different alphabets. But, to continue our subject, we shall
add, that in the Phoenician language, the word thah (with
ain) signifies also to wander, and appears to be the
derivation of thein. If we suppose Deus to be derived from
the Greek Zeus, a proper name of You-piter, having zaw, I
live, for its root, its sense will be precisely that of you,
and will mean soul of the world, igneous principle. (See
note p. 143). Div-us, which only signifies Genius, God of
the second order, appears to me to come from the oriental
word div substituted for dib, wolf and chacal, one of the
emblems of the sun. At Thebes, says Macrobius, the sun was
painted under the form of a wolf or chacal, for there are no
wolves in Egypt. The reason of this emblem, doubtless, is
that the chacal, like the cock announces by its cries the
sun's rising; and this reason is confirmed by the analogy of
the words lykos, wolf, and lyke, light of the morning,
whence comes lux.

Dius, which is to be understood also of the sun, must be
derived from dih, a hawk. "The Egyptians," says Porphyry
(Euseb. Proecep. Evang. p. 92,) "represent the sun under the
emblem of a hawk, because this bird soars to the highest
regions of air where light abounds." And in reality we
continually see at Cairo large flights of these birds,