f things which obtained in Egypt when the Pyramids of Memphis
are supposed to have been erected, within 300 years of the supposed date
of the deluge, and that the Beni Hassan tombs, about 300 years later,
depict the manners and customs of what we cannot help admitting, was a
highly civilized nation, we must be struck with the fact that the
distance of time between the deluge and the building of these pyramids
and tombs is so short, that it might be represented by a comparison of
our own date with those of Queen Elizabeth and Henry the Third.

Jackson in his "Antiquities" tells us that, Sanchoniatho states that the
most ancient Phoenician records show that letters were invented soon
after the dispersion of mankind, by Tsaut, the son of Mizor or Misraim,
who was the first Egyptian Hermes or Thoth. He went out of Phoenicia,
and first, with a colony of Mizrites, settled and reigned in Egypt, and,
according to Cicero, gave both laws and letters to the Egyptians.

This Hermes was born in the second generation after the flood, and was
not only the inventor of letters and writing, but he is also said to
have delineated the sacred characters or symbols of the elements and
planets, viz.,--sun, moon, earth, air, fire, water, &c.

These symbols are without doubt of very ancient origin, and Boerhaeve in
his Theory of Chemistry explains them hieroglyphically as follows:--

[Transcriber's Note:
The listed symbols are included in the "images" directory
accompanying the html version of this file.]

[Symbol: plus] Denotes anything sharp, gnawing, or corrosive; as vinegar
or fire: being supposed to be stuck around with barbed spikes.

[Symbol: sun] Denotes a perfect immutable simple body, such as gold,
which has nothing acrimonious or heterogeneous adhering to it.

[Symbol: first quarter moon] Denotes half gold, whose inside, if turned
outward, would make it entire gold, as having nothing foreign or
corrosive in it; which the alchemists observe of silver.

[Symbol: mercury] Denotes the inside to be pure gold, but the outer part
of the colour of silver and a corrosive underneath, which, if taken
away, would leave it mere gold, and this the adepts affirm of mercury.

[Symbol: female/venus] Denotes the chief part to be gold; whereto,
however, adheres another large, crude, corrosive part, which, if
removed, would leave the rest possessed with all the properties of gold,
and this the adepts affirm of copper.

[Symbol: mal