Reprint Of Scarce, Or Curious, Books On Freemasonry.

REPRINT OF SCARCE , OR CURIOUS , BOOKS ON FREEMASONRY .

"THE LIFE OF SETIIOS . " ( Continued from page 29 . ) fl-IE Egyptians , Avho go farther back in the relations of their origin than our histories reachsay the gods were their first kings . They

, name seven : Yulcan , the Sun , Agathodemon , Saturn , Osiris , Isis and Typhon . By Vulcan , to Avhom they assign no beginning , their philosophers meant that elementary fire Avhich is diffused everywhere . This same fire , reunited into one globe , is the Sun , the son of Vulcan . Agathodemon , defined by his very name , Avas their good genius or principle . Saturn , or Time , Avas the father of Osiris and Isis , brother and sister ,

husband and Avife , tho two sexes of nature . _ Typhon , their third brother , Avas ahvays regarded by them as their CA'il principle . Horus Avas tho son of Osiris and Isis , reason , or human wisdom , and he began the reign of tho demigods . These were nine in number—Horus , Mars , Auubis , Hercules , Apollo , Amnion , Tithoes , Sosus , and Jupiter , or Menes . I shall not speak of every one of these in particular , most of them being prettwell known to the Greeks and Romanseven in their allegorical

y , signification . I shall only observe , in order to set the times of my hero in a clearer light , that the latter of these demigods began the reign of men . He was indeed looked upon but as a man in his life-time ; but after having ruled all Egypt alone by the name of Menes , he Avas , after his death , in consideration of his happy reign , numbered Avith the gods by tho name of Jupiter . He had four sons , Thot or Mercury , iEsculapius , Athotes and Cm-udes , of which the two first Avere , as Avell as himself , adA anced to the

skies . Menes , to render the succession to his states equal , divided Egypt into four kingdoms . Mercury reigned in Thebes , iEsculapius at Memphis , Athotes at This , and Curudes at Tanis . This Avas the rise of the four great . dynasties of Egypt , -which . Avere collateyal or cotempovary for sixteen hundred years , to the time of the famous Sesostris , king of Thebes , and conqueror of Asia . * The other Egyptian dynasties , Avhich some historians mention , to the number of twentyfrom the times of Menes to SesostrisAvere but

, , separate branches of these four chief divisions ; and the different names they give them , as Heraclcopolites , Noitos , Elephantins , and tho like , were taken from the residence of some of the kings of each dynasty in different cities of the same kingdom . As for the Shepherd Kings , who Avere foreigners , and having dwelt in Egypt during the space of three or four agesseem to have interrupted

, this succession ; they never had any settled possession on this side Tanis , on the borders of Delta , though they obliged tho natural kings of those regions to retire to Hcliopolis . But as these foreigners , originally Arabians , made frequent incursions into tho other parts of Egypt , the Egyptians , being reunited , attacked , and having vanquished them , obliged them , and their descendantsto furnish all Egypt Avith sWes . This victory was

, obtained near two hundred years before tho birth of Sesostris , Avho found Egypt in a state of tranquillity , and made it A ^ cry flourishing . This hero had the ambition to set the god Osiris for his pattern , and like him according to the Egyptian traditions , visited a great part of the earth