PREFACE. HIEROGLYPHICS, or mystical characters, were originally invented by the Egyptian priests, to conceal their wis dom from the knowledge of the vulgar. They considered that sacred things should only be communicated to sacred persons, and therefore amused the people with symbols or figures, the meanings of which were explained only to those, who were to succeed to the priesthood or the crown. The word is derived from two Greek words, which signify "holy" and "to engrave,” it being the custom to have the walls and doors of their temples, pyramids, and obelisks, engraved with such figures. The design of the present hieroglyphics, is not to veil the truth impenetrably from the general eye, but to exercise the ingenuity of the young reader in bringing it to light, and to excite his interest in the study of sacred things, which happily are no longer confined, as in Pagan worship, to the noble and the learned, but are freely published to all by the ministers of our holy Christian faith. It is recommended that the reader should endeavour to make out the signification of the engravings, before he refers to the correct and historical reading given at the bottom of the page. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. |