Note 128 — SECTION VII.

Most historians give the palm of antiquity to the Egyptians. And Lucian, in lib. De Syria Dea, says, “that the Egyptians are said to be the first among men that had a conception of the Gods, and a knowledge of sacred concerns.——They were also the first that had a knowledge of sacred names.” Αιγυπτιοι πρωτοι ανθρωπων λεγονται θεων τε εννοιην λαβειν και ιρα εισασθαι——πρωτοι δε και ονοματα ιρα εγνωσαν. Conformably to this, also, an oracle of Apollo, quoted by Eusebius, says that the Egyptians were the first that disclosed by infinite actions the path that leads to the Gods. This oracle is as follows:

Αιπεινη γαρ οδος, μακαρων, τρηχειατε πολλον,

Χαλκοδετοις τα πρωτα διοιγομενη πυλεωσιν.

Ατραπιτοι δε εασσιν αθεσφατοι εγγεγαυιαι

Ας πρωτοι μεροπων επ’ απειρονα πρηξιν εφηναν,

Οι το καλον πινοντες υδωρ Νειλωτιδος αιης·

Πολλας και Φοινικες οδους μακαρων εδαησαν,

Ασσυριοι, Λυδοιτε, και Εβραιων (lege Χαλδαιων) γενος ανδρων.

i.e. “The path by which to deity we climb,

Is arduous, rough, ineffable, sublime;

And the strong massy gates, through which we pass

In our first course, are bound with chains of brass.

Those men the first who of Egyptian birth

Drank the fair water of Nilotic earth,

Disclosed by actions infinite this road,

And many paths to God Phœnicians show’d.

This road th’ Assyrians pointed out to view,

And this the Lydians and Chaldeans knew.”

For Εβραιων in this oracle I read Χαλδαιων, because I have no doubt that either Aristobulus the Jew, well known for interpolating the writings of the Heathens, or the wicked Eusebius as he is called by the Emperor Julian, have fraudulently substituted the former word for the latter.