DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0017
7
fiigrit of Bacchus, and wandering of Ceres, are ranked, by Plu-
tarch, with the /Egyptian ales concerning Osiris and Typhon, as
having the same meaning as the other modes of concealment em-
ployed in the mystic religion.1
1 1. The remote antiquity of this mode of conveying knowledge
by symbols, and its long-established appropriation to^religious sub-
jects, had given it a character of sanctity unknown to any other
mode of writing ; and it seems to have been a very generally re-
ceived opinion, among the more discreet Heathens, that divine
truth was better adapted to the weakness of human intellect, when
veiled under symbols, and wrapt in fable and enigma, than when
exhibited in the undisguised simplicity of genuine wisdom, or pure
philosophy.2
]2. The art of conveying ideas to the sight has passed through
four different stages in its progress to perfection. In the first, the
objects and events meant to be signified, were simply represented :
m the second, some particular characteristic quality of the indivi-
dual was employed to express a general quality or abstract idea; as
a horse for swiftness, a dog for vigilance, or a hare for fecundity :
in the third, signs of convention were contrived to represent ideas;
as is now practised by the Chinese: and, in the fourth, similar
signs of convention were adopted to represent the different modifi-
cations of tone in the voice; and its various divisions, by arti-
culation, into distinct portions or syllables. This is what we call
alphabetic writing ; which is much more clear and simple than any
other; the modifications of tone by the organs of the mouth, being
much less various, and more distinct,, than the modifications of
ideas by the operations of the mind. The second, however,
which, from its use among the ./Egyptians, has been denominated
1 Ta yap TiyavriKa Kai TiraviKa Trap' 'EAA.7)rnv aSopieva, icai Kpovov rwos aSea/ioi irpa-
£eiy, Kai Hudavos avrirafcis izpos AttoAAcoi/ce, (pvyai re Aiovvaov Kai irXavai Aw/j-yTpos,
ouSei' wnoXiEnrovffi tojj/ QaipiaKoiv Kai TucptMiKav, aWwv Te, wv -naffiv e^e&Tiv av£$-t]v p.vOo~
\oyov}xsvuv aiiovav offa re fivtrrlicois tepois TrepiKa\vTTTopia>a Kai T«AeTat?, apprfra 5ia-
aa'£erai Kai aSeara irpos tovs ttoXKovs, bjxoiov e^ei Xoyov. Plutarch, de Is. ct Osi.r.
% Maxim. Tyr. Dissert, x. s. 4.
fiigrit of Bacchus, and wandering of Ceres, are ranked, by Plu-
tarch, with the /Egyptian ales concerning Osiris and Typhon, as
having the same meaning as the other modes of concealment em-
ployed in the mystic religion.1
1 1. The remote antiquity of this mode of conveying knowledge
by symbols, and its long-established appropriation to^religious sub-
jects, had given it a character of sanctity unknown to any other
mode of writing ; and it seems to have been a very generally re-
ceived opinion, among the more discreet Heathens, that divine
truth was better adapted to the weakness of human intellect, when
veiled under symbols, and wrapt in fable and enigma, than when
exhibited in the undisguised simplicity of genuine wisdom, or pure
philosophy.2
]2. The art of conveying ideas to the sight has passed through
four different stages in its progress to perfection. In the first, the
objects and events meant to be signified, were simply represented :
m the second, some particular characteristic quality of the indivi-
dual was employed to express a general quality or abstract idea; as
a horse for swiftness, a dog for vigilance, or a hare for fecundity :
in the third, signs of convention were contrived to represent ideas;
as is now practised by the Chinese: and, in the fourth, similar
signs of convention were adopted to represent the different modifi-
cations of tone in the voice; and its various divisions, by arti-
culation, into distinct portions or syllables. This is what we call
alphabetic writing ; which is much more clear and simple than any
other; the modifications of tone by the organs of the mouth, being
much less various, and more distinct,, than the modifications of
ideas by the operations of the mind. The second, however,
which, from its use among the ./Egyptians, has been denominated
1 Ta yap TiyavriKa Kai TiraviKa Trap' 'EAA.7)rnv aSopieva, icai Kpovov rwos aSea/ioi irpa-
£eiy, Kai Hudavos avrirafcis izpos AttoAAcoi/ce, (pvyai re Aiovvaov Kai irXavai Aw/j-yTpos,
ouSei' wnoXiEnrovffi tojj/ QaipiaKoiv Kai TucptMiKav, aWwv Te, wv -naffiv e^e&Tiv av£$-t]v p.vOo~
\oyov}xsvuv aiiovav offa re fivtrrlicois tepois TrepiKa\vTTTopia>a Kai T«AeTat?, apprfra 5ia-
aa'£erai Kai aSeara irpos tovs ttoXKovs, bjxoiov e^ei Xoyov. Plutarch, de Is. ct Osi.r.
% Maxim. Tyr. Dissert, x. s. 4.