morality are conveyed to the mind; and whose noble and dignified discourse naturally inspiring the sentiments of honour and virtue, tends so to elevate the mind of the reader as to cause him to think with abhorrence of all that is base and trivial. That elegance and sweetness of expression; that nobility and elevation of sentiment which pervades their writings, fled from the world with them. Never, as appears by history, was the memory of men more highly, and indeed more deservedly honoured by posterity than that of Hesiod and Homer: Divine Messengers of Truth.

The following epigrammatic prophecy, the fulfilment of which has evidently been ordained by Providence, is beautifully remarkable.

Stars first shall cease to shine; bright Phœbus mask
In gloomy night; salt waves grow fresh; his task
The plowman plying, sow the boisterous main,
The dead with those alive converse again

E'er Homer's muse forgotten be, or name
Effac'd from records of eternal fame.

In these prophetic lines respecting Homer's celebrity, the master subject of his poems is glanced at here, under the mask of allegory, we discover the representation of a terrestrial conflagration, and a resurrection. Which appears to prove, if further proof be necessary, that the war of Troy was anciently understood as we have interpreted it.

First the descent of the heavenly fire is alluded to; then the circumstance of the water of the new earth being fresh, instead of salt as now, so it evidently must be. The ploughman, sowing the

VII. 4. 5.

boisterous main, is significant of the Creator causing the earth to send forth new creatures, after that the ocean, or great part of it, has been caused to enter into the formation of dry terrestrial substance, as Scripture says: "And, behold, the Lord GOD called AMOS to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee; by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small." We have before explained that Jacob is a personification of the new world. Thus we observe that this allegorical representation, which sets forth the grand centre from which all Homer's discourses emanate, is identical with the depictions of Scripture. Where also we find the breaking up and destruction of the old earth, in the resurrection of the new world, allegorized under the similitude of the operation of ploughing in the old world : "Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall shall break his HOSEA clods." The mother of Jacob and Esau, that is, x. 11. the old mother, or many nurturing, earth, is destroyed in their resurrection, or, as Scripture relates, "The mother was dashed in pieces upon her children." HoSEA The offering of savoury meat to the father of Jacob. and Esau before his death, is evidently allegorical of the resurrection of the ambrosial world, that is, the coming forth of Jacob, or the God of Jacob. As is particularly well shown in that remarkable. passage in which Isaac smells the smell of Jacob's raiment, saying: "See, the smell of my son, is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed." Jacob, being representative of the new world, his raiment, signifies the vegetable garment of the new earth the field is figurative of a raised and restored

X. 14.

GEN.

XXVII.

27.

XXVII.

36.

region of the earth, blessed by the bringing forth of the ambrosial condition; that is, the institution of the first state of nature. Those words of Esau are also very remarkable, when he is represented as GEN. saying, "Is he not rightly named Jacob? (the word, Jacob, signifies a supplanter,) for he hath supplanted me these two times." This alludes to Hesiod's two great resurrections: the first, the war of the Titans, or that Scriptural war which we have placed by the side of it: the second the war of Typhoeus, in Scripture called the war of Michael and the dragon. Again, the thrice ploughed field of Homer's shield of Achilles is figuratively representative of the old earth, three times destroyed in the resurrection of the new worlds. First by the great Creation, as more particularly described by Hesiod: secondly by the Titanian war: and thirdly by the Typhoean war. The dance in the last compartment of the shield of Achilles, in which, the maids crowned with flowers, are dressed in fine linen, and the youths in rich shining stuffs, with golden swords, is significant of the joys of the immortal, or golden age, represented by means of the circumstance of the old world. They dance in a circle, in allusion to the diffusion of those joys throughout the all inhabited circle of the earth, and apparently to the heavenly circle of Hyperion.

How true, the prophecy of Homer, when he said, "Man will forget the original conditions of the world in which he lives." Alas! will he now believe them? Yes, his mind, as of old, by Hesiod's grandeur fired, and Homer's, with the love of sacred wisdom, or knowledge of himself and of his world,

he will with ineffable delight, believe them.

Thus, as the poets say, to the mind of man, are things continually revealed, and again lost in immeasurable time.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT, THE PURPOSE OF
THEIR ERECTION.

THE ancient Egyptians have left many stony mountains built by art, commonly called pyramids. They are found scattered, in very great numbers over the countries of Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia: it is not known how many there are in all. They are not built in any uniform manner, except that they all rise up like mountains and hills, from a wide base, becoming gradually smaller towards the top. So far as is known however they are square at the base; and in most instances that form is preserved throughout; but many are rounded towards the summit. Their materials consist of stone, bricks, parts of buildings, broken statues, and the like.

The pyramids of Memphis or Djizeh, are those with which we are best acquainted. The first or largest of these is called Cheops, the second Cephrenes, and the third Mycerinus. They stand on the margin of the sandy desert of Libya.

The pyramid called Cheops is built on a stony elevation, which rises to a hundred and fifty feet above the level of the plain. The base of the pyramid measures two hundred and fifty yards each way, covering more than eleven English acres of ground. Outwardly it is composed of square blocks of stone, forming steps four feet deep, which gradually diminish to two and a half at the summit.