Stukeley delin.
E. Kirkall sculp.
Kist vaen
In Cornwal
In Cornwal
In Monkton field by Abury
Further, we have another very important piece of history from Abraham’s being in Egypt, which the learned are not aware of; for hence ’tis more than presumption, that the Egyptians learn’d the use of letters or alphabet-writing. If we seek into the accounts transmitted to us by letters, concerning their own origin, Philo the Jew expressly attributes the invention thereof to Abraham. Whence Plato in Philebo and in Phædro, contends for their first appearance in Egypt, discover’d by Theut, “who, whether he be a god, or a man, is doubtful,” says he; meaning, the use of them must be a divine communication. Syncellus writes, “the opinion of some is, that Abraham brought letters out of Chaldea, and taught them to the Phœnicians, and they taught them to the Greeks.” Diodorus V. writes, “the Syrians invented letters, and the Phœnicians learn’d the great secret from them.” Eusebius, pr. ev. X. confirms this, but asserts, “that by the Syrians are meant the Assyrians (as was often the case in old accounts) or the Hebrews more particularly.” It was, in truth, the ancestors of Abraham. And this I believe is the real truth. God first imparted this knowledge to the patriarchal family, for preserving the sacred records of his church; and Abraham now taught their use to Assis, the Hercules, son of Nilus Jupiter, who wrote in the Phrygian letters, says Cicero.
All this is exceedingly confirm’d by the explication which Mr. Toland gives us concerning Hercules Ogmius, in his history of the Druids. Lucian says, ’tis a word of their own language, by which the Celts call Hercules. And the word has hitherto been inexplicable. He relates the picture of him (in Hercule Gallico) which he saw in Gaul, which was explain’d to him by a Druid. He was pictured as clad with a lion’s skin, a club in his right hand, a bent bow in his left, a quiver hanging o’er his shoulders. As for his form, he was an old man, bald before, wrinkled, and in colour like a sun-burnt sailor. A multitude of people were represented as drawn after him by golden chains from their ears, center’d in his tongue. The Druid told Lucian, that Ogmius accomplish’d his great atchievements by his eloquence, and reduc’d the people of this western world, from rude and barbarous to a state of civility.
A memorial of this knowledge which Hercules had of letters, we find in Hephæstion V. where he writes, “Hercules gave the name of Alpha to the first letter, in honour to the river Alpheus, when victor at the olympic games.” My late learned friend, Mr. Keysler, in his Antiq. septentrional. guessed well that Ogmius means literatus, a man of letters, as we commonly say; more properly spoken of Hercules than of others. But Mr. Toland shews evidently, that Ogum is a word in the Irish language, importing the secret of alphabet writing; the literarum secreta, as Tacitus calls it, de mor. germ. So that Hercules Ogmius fully imports the learned Hercules, and especially one that was master of alphabet writing; without which learning is but a vague and uncertain thing. This our Hercules learn’d of Abraham in the east, and this he brought with our Druids into the extremest west, in this very early age of the world, as we have all the reason imaginable to believe. That they had letters, we have Cæsar’s express testimony, and they were the same as the greek letters, because the very same. They had them from the same fountain as the Grecians, tho’ somewhat earlier; for I take our Hercules to be a little prior in time to Cadmus, who carry’d letters into Greece.
Hercules therefore was learned and eloquent, a great astronomer, and philosopher. A fragment of Palæphatus in the Alexandrian chronicle, calls him the Tyrian philosopher, who found out the purple dye: Suidas in the word Hercules, the like. And long before, Heraclitus in Allegoriis Homericis, says, he was a wise man, a great philosopher, και σοφιας ουρανιου Μυστης, one initiated into the wisdom from above; we may call him a professor of divinity.
Thus he appears a worthy scholar of the great Abraham, and from him the Druids learn’d the groundwork of learning, religion, and philosophy, which they were so famous for ever after. But my purpose is to be very short on this head at present: nevertheless I must remark that our Assis was not only acquainted with Abraham in Egypt, but likewise in the land of Canaan or Phœnicia; for he quitted Egypt by compact with Tethmosis A.M. 2120, carrying away with him 240000 men, which enabled him to transport colonies all over the Mediterranean and the ocean. And he must dwell several years in Canaan before his projects of that kind were ripe. But Abraham dy’d A.M. 2183, so that there was abundantly time enough for the two great men to renew their acquaintance, and there is much reason to think they actually did so.
Therefore as it was the patriarchal custom to raise temples wherever they came; so of our hero Hercules, whether thro’ his own pious disposition,or in imitation of Abraham: we hear of his raising pillars too, which means our temples. And thence he obtain’d the name in antiquity, of Hercules Saxanus.
Thus the learned Lud. Vives on St. Augustin C. D. viii. 9. “The philosophy of the Egyptians is very ancient, but for the most part deriv’d from the Chaldeans, especially from Abraham, tho’ they, as Diodorus writes, refer it to Isis, Osiris, Vulcan, Mercury, and Hercules.” Further from Joseph’s administration, the Egyptian learning commenc’d, for which they became so celebrated. He not only instructed the priests in religion and philosophy, but settled their colleges and possessions, as we read in Gen. xlvii. 22, 26. so that if Moses was learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians, he deriv’d it only thro’ them from his own ancestors. Which note may be useful to give us a true notion of this matter, which some learned men exalt too high. And this at the same time shews idolatry commenc’d in Egypt, after his time. They consecrated Joseph into the genius or intelligence of their first monarch Osiris, Serapis, &c. with the bushel on his head. But what I chiefly insist upon at present, is of Hercules making these serpentine temples, which in his history is call’d overcoming serpents and the like. And hence the fable of his squeezing two serpents to death in his cradle; and the Tyrian coins struck to his honour, some whereof I have exhibited.