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are evidently connected also with the ancient hieroglyphics: the first of them will be seen (if the north-side of the moon be placed uppermost) with the head of a jay or a daw, (in light) immediately in the light space which forms the face of Crowdero in Hudibras (fig. 14); its eye being formed out of the circular mark on Crowdero's cheek, and its beak lying on Talgol's shoulder (fig. 17): if to this head the human form which constituted the body of Crowdero be added, and the whole figure thus composed, be set beside Figure 146,

the identity of the two (however the latter may be varied a little by the sculptor, with a view to ornament) can scarcely be a subject of doubt. This latter, fig. 146, is a real hieroglyphic, copied exactly from the façade of the Temple of Tentyris as engraved in Denon's Travels in Egypt, Pl. 39, No. 2; and it is very frequently found among other groupes of hieroglyphics. On the same temple is seen the hieroglyphic of another jay or daw which looks the other way, as copied in

Fig. 147,

from the same Plate in Denon; the prototype of this last may be traced in the moon likewise, having its head and eye composed of the same spaces there as constituted those of the other, viz. fig. 146, but with its beak pointing the opposite way, or due south; and the human body which belongs to this (namely that which constitutes the body the prototype copied from the moon in fig. 145), is situate on the opposite side of the moon to the former and made up of the body of Talgol in Hudibras (fig. 17,) or Fortinbras in Hamlet, (fig. 52).

But what is that instrument in the right hand of figure 146? This is no light question; on the contrary it is of the greatest consequence to have that instrument satisfactorily explained, as it is well known to be an extremely common symbol in the hieroglyphics; and there are many ancient gems and other remains of sculpture and statuary with little or nothing else upon them, which

proves the great importance attached to it. My own opinion is, that it is neither more nor less than the letter T, such as it is simply represented in

Fig. 148.

which is extracted from Pl. 114 of Denon's Travels, as copied there from one of the Temples of Egypt) but more commonly seen, (as in fig. 146,) annexed to a ring (or circle of the year, annulus, quasi annus,) and the meaning of it I take to be this, that the letter T being the nineteenth of the English and Greek alphabets, is intended to represent the golden number, as marking the number of years,* within which the heavenly bodies return (very nearly) to the same point of space from whence they departed at the beginning of that period; a fact well ascertained

* It is often called the toth, a name derived perhaps from tau, the Greek name for the T, and, which last letter would be formed by the ring annexed to it, as held by the fingers of a hand.

by astronomers, the discovery of which is ascribed particularly (I believe) to MeTwv, whose name seems to be derived from, and to imply, mensuration, or calculation. In the language of Milton's Comus, it is,

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-that golden key,

That opes the palace of eternity;

and, as exhibited in the hand of this figure so representing one of those in the moon, is a symbol of that immortality which belongs to the moon. By examining one of the Isiac Tablets, from Denon's Travels in Egypt, Pl. 132, of which a small part is engraved in Pl. iv. groupe 2, in the next volume, some presumption will arise, that my interpretation of this instrument is likely to be right; for the number of boats engraved there (in which are figures, most of which bear this symbol in their hands) is, in two several successions of figures, exactly nineteen: and though, from the stars over the heads of those figures there is good reason to apprehend that the tablets from which my small extract is taken, have regard to an astronomical subject, yet it does not appear that the use of this symbol is confined to those subjects: but that it is introduced among the hieroglyphics whenever there is an intention to allude to any thing as being either everlasting or greatly durable in its

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nature. But, in respect of fig. 148, in particular, where the letter T is introduced in so marked a manner, it seems to me to have been peculiarly intended to point thereby to the immortal nature of the moon, or rather perhaps (since that attribute as of the moon, must be sufficiently obvious) to the everlasting truth of that system of Physics, in which, according to the citation made just above from Pliny, her influence was esteemed to be of a paramount nature in the order of the heavenly luminaries. That some such object was in the contemplation of the artist who designed fig. 148, will scarcely be doubted if it be compared with the map of the moon; for the two human figures that support the T seem to be no other than those of the prototypes of Hudibras and Ralph, with their feet meeting down at the northern corner of the moon, their bodies coiled up, and their faces averted looking over their shoulders, while the upright line of the great T they are supporting is formed by the light in the center which was the prototype of Osric in Hamlet, (fig. 77), and the cross-top of the latter is formed by the strong gleam of light on the crown of Osric's head, terminating on the left in the hand and forceps, so often noticed, and on the right, in the truncheon of the Ghost in Hamlet (fig. 51).

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