clude that these memorials would be interwoven in the mythology of the Gentile world: and that there would be continually allusions to these antient occurrences in the rites and mysteries; as they were practised by the nations of the earth. In conformity to these suppositions I shall endeavour to shew, that these things did happen : That the history of the deluge was religiously preserved in the first ages: That every circumstance of it is to be met with among the historians and mytholo- ́ gists of different countries: and traces of it are to be particularly found in the sacred rites of Egypt, and of Greece.

It will appear from many circumstances in the more antient writers, that the great Patriarch was highly reverenced by his posterity. They looked up to him as a person peculiarly favoured by heaven; and honoured him with many titles; each of which had a reference to some particular part of his history. They styled him Prometheus, Deucalion, Atlas, Theuth, Zuth, Xuthus, Inachus, Osiris. When there began to be a tendency towards idolatry; and the adoration of the Sun was introduced by the posterity of Ham; the title of Helius among others was conferred upon him. They called him also Mn, and Mav, which is the Moon; the secret meaning of which name I shall hereafter shew. When colonies went abroad, many took to themselves the title of Minyadæ

and Minya from him; just as others were denominated Achæmenidæ, Auritæ, Heliade, from the Sun. People of the former name are to be found in Arabia, and in other parts of the world. The natives at Orchomenos were styled Minyæ; as were also some of the inhabitants of Thessaly. It was the antient name of the Arcadians, interpreted anuray Lunares: but grew obsolete. Noah was the original Zevs, Zeus, and Dios. He was the planter of the vine, and the inventor of 9 fermented liquors: whence he was denominated Zeuth, which signifies ferment; rendered Zeus, Zeus, by the Greeks. He was also Dionusos, interpreted by the Latines Bacchus, but very improperly. Bacchus was Chus, the grandson of Noah; as Ammon may be in general esteemed Ham, so much reverenced by the Egyptians.

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8 Και Αριςών ο Χιος εν ταις θέσεσι και Διονύσιος ὁ Χαλκιδέως εν πρώτῳ κτίσεως τα αυτα φασι, και εθνος δε Αρκαδίας Σεληνίτας είναι. Schol. in Apollon. Rhod. 1: 4. v. 264.

(9 Toy Origin Arrvoor. Diod. Sic. 1. 1. p. 11. 4.

Αλλά και τις άπηγριωμενην έχοντας χώραν, η προς φυτείαν αμπελά απηλλοτριωμένην, μαθείν το κατασκευαζόμενον εκ των κριθων πομα, βραχε λειπόμενον της περί τον οίναν ευωδιάς. Diod. Sic. 1. 3. p. 207.

Νωε, ὡς κεκληται ὑπο ενιών Δευκαλίων. Theophil. ad Autolyc. 1. 2. p. 370.

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1 19 Ηφαιστος τις Αιγυπτος εν τοις χρόνοις τε Νως,

1. Ὡς Έως και Διογράφος, και Όσιρις καλείται. Tzetzes Chil. 10. Hist. 335,

As many of these terms were titles, they were not always uniformly adapted: nor were the antients consistent in their mythology. But nothing has produced greater confusion in these antient histories than that fatal turn in the Greeks of reducing every unknown term to some word, with which they were better acquainted. In short, they could not rest till they had formed every thing by their own idiom, and made every nation speak the language of Greece. Among the people of the east the true name of the Patriarch was preserved: they called him Noas, Naus, and sometimes contracted Nous: and many places of sanctity, and many rivers were denominated from him. Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ had been in Egypt; and had there obtained some knowledge of this personage. He spoke of him by the name of Noas or Nous; and both he and his disciples were sensible that it was a foreign appellation; yet he has well nigh ruined the whole of a very curious history, which he had been taught, by taking the terms in a wrong acceptation, and then making inferences in consequence of this abuse. * Οι δε Αναξαγοραιοι ἑρμηνεύεσι Νεν μεν τον Δία, την δε Αθηναν τέχνην-Προμηθεα δε Νεν ελεγον Προμηθεια γαρ

Euseb. Hist. Synagoge. p. 374. What is rendered Nes, should be expressed Noös, or Nous.

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εσιν ανθρωποις ὁ νας διο και μυθεύονται της ανθρωπος μεταπεπλασθαι, δηλονότι απο ιδιωτείας εις γνωσιν. The disciples of Anaxagoras say, that Nous is, by interpretation, the Deity Dis, or Dios: and they call Athena, Art or Science-They likewise esteem Nous the same as Prometheus. He then proceeds to inform us why they looked upon Nous to have been Prometheus: because he was the renewer of mankind; and was said, petatenλaóðar, to have fashioned them again, after that they had been in a manner extinct. All this is to be inferred from the words above. But the author, while he is giving this curious account, starts aside, and, forgetting that he is confessedly treating of a foreign term, recurs to his own language, and from thence frames a solution of the story. He tells us that Nous, which he had been speaking of as a proper name, was, after all, a Grecian term, v8s, the mind: that the mind was Prometheia; and Prometheus was said to renew mankind from new forming their minds, and leading them by cultivation from ignorance to "knowledge.

1 Eusebius in another place mentions Προμηθευς, ὃς πλαττειν ardewπs EμvDEVETO. Chron. Can. p. 103.

ALOUUGOV, ALos Nev. Macrob. Saturn. 1. 1. c. 18.

Nες, ψυχή, ποταμος, και η μονας. Hesych.

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Fulgentius says the same from Apollophanes, c. 2. p. 628.

Thus have the Greeks, by their affectation, continually ruined history: and the reader may judge how difficult it is to see the truth through the mist, with which it is environed. One would imagine that Homer had an eye to this fatality in his countrymen, when he made the following pathetic exclamation:

14 Α δειλοι, τι κακον τοδε πάσχετε ; νυκτι μεν ύμων Ειλύαται κεφαλαι τε, προσωπα τε.-Ηελιος δε Ουρανε εξαπολωλε, κακη δ' επιδεδρομεν αχλύς.

Near the temple of Eleusinian Damater, in Arcadia, were two vast stones, called Petroma,, one of which was erect, and the other was laid over, and inserted into the former. There was a hollow place in the upper stone, with a lid to it. In this, among other things, was kept a kind of mask, which was thought to represent the countenance of Damater, to whom these stones were sacred. I mention this circumstance because there was a notion among the Pheneatæ, who were the inhabitants of this district, that the Goddess came into these parts in an age very re

Apollophanes in sacro carmine scribit Saturnum quasi sacrum Nav; Nec enim Græcè sensus dicitur; aut satorem Nev.

14 Hom, Odyss. Y. V. 351.