It is plain, that the golden calf set up near mount Sinai by the Israelites, was owing to their abode in Egypt, and an imitation of the god Apis; as well as those which were afterwards set up by Jeroboam (who had resided a considerable time in Egypt) in the two extremities of the kingdom of Israel.
The Egyptians, not contented with offering incense to animals, carried their folly to such an excess, as to ascribe a divinity to the pulse and roots of their gardens. For this they are ingeniously reproached by the satirist:
Who has not heard where Egypt's realms are nam'd,
What monster-gods her frantic sons have fram'd?
Here Ibis gorg'd with well-grown serpents, there
The Crocodile commands religious fear:
Where Memnon's statue magic strings inspire
With vocal sounds, that emulate the lyre;
And Thebes, such, Fate, are thy disastrous turns!
Now prostrate o'er her pompous ruins mourns;