the ponds, (or lakes) and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.

V. 6. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.

V. 13. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses: and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields..

V. 14. And they gathered them together upon heaps; and the land stank.

This evil, like the former, arose from their sacred river, in which they so much confided; and of whose sanctity and excellence they were so much persuaded. Its streams by these means became a second time polluted, and disgraced, to the utter confusion both of their gods and priests. The land also was equally defiled, and their palaces and temples rendered hateful: so that every native was infected, and had no way to perform any lustration, and to cleanse himself from the filth, with which he was tainted. Every stream, and every lake, was in a state of pollution. Whether the frog among the Egyptians was an object of reverence, or of abhorrence, is' uncertain:

The wolf, Auxos, was sacred to the God of Light, because at the appearance of the sun he retires.

or whether it were not at the same time both hated and reverenced, as many objects are known to have been among particular nations. Of this we may be assured, both from the examples of the Greeks and of the Romans. They worshipped many deities out of dread, such as Ate, Proserpine, and the Furies: and there were others, which they must have hated and * despised: witness, Priapus, Fatua, Vacuna, Cloacina, and Mephitis. By this last was signified stink in the abstract: which had a temple at Cremona. Add to these Fear, Fever, Dread Force, * Calumny, Envy, Impudence: all abhorred, yet personified and worshipped. The Egyptians held serpents in great veneration, yet they reverenced the

ibis, which destroyed' them. Whether the frog was held in this twofold predicament

'See Lucian de Calumniæ non temere credendo.

* See Lilius Gyraldus de Miscellaneis Deis, p. 47.

3 Ibid. P. 59.

4 Calumnia, quam Græci AaCon nominant, et Impudentiæ, aras Athenienses consecrâsse, testis est Theophrastus apud Diogenianum. Lilius Gyraldus, Syntagm. 1. p. 37. 5 Herod. 1. 2. c. 74. p. 138.

• Ibid. c. 75.

7 Invocant etiam Ægyptii ibes suas contra serpentum morsus. Pliny, l. x. c. 26, 27. p. 559.

D

may not be easy to determine. Thus much is certain, that it was very consistent with divine wisdom and justice, to punish the Egyptians either by what they abominated, or by what they idly revered. We know, that the Sun, or Apollo, was the same as 'Osiris: and we are informed by Plutarch, that no animal was so little acceptable to this deity as a frog. Yet he acknowledges that it was an emblem of the Sun in Egypt. And in the same treatise he tells us, that the brazen palmtree at Delphi, which was a representation of that tree under which Apollo was supposed to have been born, had many of these animals engraved at its basis. It was the gift of Cypselus, an ancient king of Corinth and Plutarch mentions, that he and many others wondered, how these symbolical representations could have any relation to the deity. And in his banquet of wise 3 men, he makes Pittacus ask Periander the son of Cypselus―T">

'Plut. Isis et Osiris, vol. 2. p. 372. Diod. I. 1. p. 10.

-παντα μαλλον, η ταυτα, είναι προσφιλή τα θηρια νομιζο

γηγενές ζωον (βατραχον) η φυτον έλειον αποφαινετε τον Ήλιον, εἰς βατραχων πατρίδα, η ύδως εγγράφοντες. vol. 1. de Pyth. Οrac. p. 400.

3 Vol. 1. p. 164.

αιτιαν των βατραχων εκείνων, τι βέλονται πέρι τον πυθμένα τα φοινικος ενετετορνευμένοι τοσετοι,---the reason, why those frogs were engraved in such numbers at the bottom of the palm. To this no answer is given: yet we may be sure, that both the tree and the animals had a relation to the deity, by their being of old dedicated to him. Of this we may be certain, that the frog, like the tortoise, crocodile, &c. was an emblem of preservation in floods and inundations: also of lymphatic prophecy. Philastrius Brixiensis tells us, that it was held sacred by the Egyptians. As to the palm itself, we may suppose it, on account of its beauty and utility, to have been made an emblem of this god, the same as Osiris: and that it was originally an hieroglyphic imported from Egypt. For we learn from Hesychius, Παλμυτης Θεος Αιγυπτιος, that there was an

And

Some would alter it to Пavλns: but that term had been taken notice of by Hesychius before, and the place, in which the word Пarns is introduced, shews that it is rightly expressed. Whence the Romans got the term Palma, for the Pon of the Greeks, is uncertain. The tree may have been so stiled among other nations; and perhaps by the Egyptians. Even among the Greeks Пavs signified a prince; or, as I should suspect, a conquerour. It came probably from an old word Пan, Palma: and from thence

Egyptian deity called Palmytes. This deity was generally denominated Hermes; and, according to Apuleius, described with a branch of the palm in his hand; and leaves of the same tree upon his feet. The palm is an evergreen: and by this emblem was signified Victory, Honour, and Immortality.

I

Though Plutarch tells us that the frog was not acceptable to the Grecian Apollo; yet we may be assured, that it was a sacred represen→ tation in Egypt, by its being found in the Bembine Table sitting upon the water-lily or lotus and that it was sacred to Osiris Helius. This deity was sometimes described upon the same lotus, and in the midst of waters, under the form of a newly-born child. Both emblems were of the same signification; and related to the prophetic god Osiris; and to his

both Παλμός, and Παλμυτης. For the Palm was certainly a badge of victory and honour.

Παλμυς, ὁ βασιλους. Hesych. Ζευς Παλμυς αφθιτων. Lycophron, v. 691.

'Jablonsk. 1. 4. c. 1. p. 161.

* Plutarch says, that the Egyptians described the rising of the sunt-παιδιον νεογμον γράφοντας επι λωτῳ καθεζόμενον, as an infant sitting upon the lotus. De Pyth. Orac. p. 400. But it was not the rising of the luminary, but the renovation and restoration of a person, stiled Helius, Sol: who had been exposed upon the waters, and preserved: whom the Egyptians called Osiris.