the model or plan by which he produced every thing, or the archetype of the world."

The attributes of Osiris, under his several forms, correspond with those of Jupiter, Sol, Bacchus, Pluto, Oceanus, &c. He will accordingly assimilate with Siva in his majestic and vindictive characters, as well as with Yama, with Indra, Rama, and Varuna.

The goddess Isis (called also Isha, the woman) is termed the mother of the gods, and like the Hindu Parvati (Bhavani or Durga), the goddess of a thousand names. The Greek and Roman writers make her the same as Juno, Minerva, Diana, Proserpine, Venus, Ceres, Hecate, &c. &c. She thus corresponds with the three great sactis of the Hindu triad. As the unarmed Minerva, she is the goddess Suraswati; as Ceres and Venus, she is the Hindu Lakshmi, the goddess of fecundity and beauty; as the Olympian Juno, she is the mountain-born goddess; as Vesta or Cybele, she is Bhavani; as Bellona, Durga, and as Hecate and Proserpine, the terrific and sanguinary Kali, under her numerous vindictive and destructive forms.

Orus, or Horus, is the emblem of light, whose parent is the solar orb. He is thus the son of Osiris; and, as light, flows through all æther or spaces of Isis. He is the Roman Cupid; and, as such, may be compared with the beauteous Kamadeo, the Hindu god of love.

The striking similarity between almost every part of the Heathen and Hindu mythologies, will scarcely leave room to doubt that the origin of both was derived from the same source. Among the numerous instances of analogy, the wars of the Devas and Daityas of the Hindus, and of the gods and giants of the Heathens. will perhaps not be the least remarkable. The charmed instruments of war; the hydra-headed and many handed monsters; the enormous mountains and missiles of the stoutest trees which were used in battle by the one, were equally familiar to the other. The Heathen gods were driven from the heavens by the giants, and obliged to seek shelter in Egypt. The Hindu deities were frequently compelled by the Daityas to abandon Swerga, and wandered about the earth like common beggars. Vishnu was taken prisoner, and his heavenly hosts defeated, by Jalandhara, whom he afterwards subdued. Jupiter also was captured,

and the heathen gods put to the route by Typhon, who was also, like Jalandhara, finally overcome. In all these battles, Pallas and Durga, in their respective mythologies, acted distinguished parts.

The Typhon above-mentioned is described as the brother of Osiris, whom he dethroned and murdered, by shutting him up in a chest and throwing him into the Nile. Isis found the body and buried it; but Typhon having discovered it, cut it into many pieces, which he scattered abroad. Isis went in search of the different parts; which, as she found them, she caused to be interred. In the places where the parts were buried, magnificent temples were afterwards erected. This corresponds with Siva having commemorated the spots where the fifty-one pieces of Suti's body had fallen, by ordaining that they should become places of distinguished worship.

Osiris is historically described by some authors as the king of the Argives, who resigned his crown to one of his brothers and went to Egypt, where he married Io (or Isis), the daughter of the king of that country. He afterwards travelled into various parts of the world, civilizing and instructing mankind in the useful arts in his progress. On his return he was slain by his brother Typhon, who usurped his throne; but was soon after subdued and put to death by Isis and her son Orus.

Osiris was deified, as were Isis and Orus, and became the personified emblems of the solar orb; of Æther, the pervading spirit of the universe; and of Light, the efflux of the sun. It is doubtful if the Egyptians considered these representations otherwise than as symbols: but the Greeks, who appear not to have been very particular on these points (like the Chinese at Java, who having obtained a portrait of Buonaparte, placed it among some casts of Hindu deities from the ruins of Brambana, saying, “as they had no gods of their own country, they might as well worship those of others"), seem, on adopting the Egyptian mythology, to have placed the gods of it in higher estimation. After the death of Osiris, his soul was supposed to have transmigrated into the bull, Apis: hence the bull was worshipped under that name, and Osiris, as Serapis, became another pro

minent form of Egyptian worship; and in like manner numerous other forms were in time given both to him, Isis, and Orus, under which they were also worshipped.

It is foreign from my intention to enter farther into the Egyptian mythology than the before-going sketch, and to describe as briefly the figures contained in plate 36. It will be observed that, whatever coincidences there may be in the attributes of the Hindu and Egyptian deities, there are none whatever in the graphic illustrations of them, those of Egypt being entirely hieroglyphical.

Fig. 1, plate 36, represents Osiris seated on a chequered throne, supposed to be expressive of the vicissitudes of night and day. His head is that of a hawk, the symbol of the solar orb; and his head-dress is adorned with orbs, in allusion to his dominion over innumerable worlds. One hand is stretched forward in a commanding attitude, and the other holds a staff with a curved top, which also points forward.

Fig. 2 is the goddess Isis, also seated on a throne. Her dress is described as being composed of wings, expressive of the velocity and universal diffusion of æther. On her head is an African hen with expanded wings, said, from its party-coloured feathers, to denote the variety of created beings. Above that rises a sort of coronet, supposed to be a basket, from which project two leaves, and over it are two horns (in allusion to the crescent, one of the emblems of Isis), which enclose a circle emblematical of the sun. One of her hands is held up in a monitory attitude; and in the other is a staff or sceptre surmounted by a flower of the lotus, which is also held in high estimation among the Egyptians, as with the Hindus. Probably the circle may be symbolical of the sun or fire; the crescent, of æther; the leaves issuing from beneath it, of the productions of the earth, or the Earth; and the flowering lotus, of humidity or water; thus expressive of universal dominion over all things.

Fig. 3 is Orus, represented with a youthful countenance, supposed to indicate the perpetual renewal of the solar efflux. In one of his hands is a staff crossed, with other hieroglyphics, surmounted by the head of a

transient bird, called the houp, denoting that every thing in nature is un

dergoing a perpetual change.*

Fig. 4 represents Isis as nature.

Her head is crowned with a handsome

tiara, and the whole of her body, downwards from the shoulders, is covered with human breasts, indicative of her universal bounteousness and fecundity.

Fig. 5 is the bull Apis; or Osiris as Serapis.

* Boyse.