HIEROGLYPHICS, in antiquity, mystical characters, or symbols, in use among the Egyptians, and that as well in their writings as inscriptions; being the figures of various animals, the parts of human bodies, and mechanical instruments.
But besides the hieroglyphics in common use among the people, the priests had certain mystical characters, in which they wrapped up and concealed their doctrines from the vulgar. It is said, that these something resembled the Chinese characters, and that they were the invention of Hermes. Sir John Marsham conjectures, that the use of these hieroglyphical figures of animals introduced the strange worship paid them by that nation: for as these figures were made choice of, according to the respective qualities of each animal, to express the qualities and dignity of the persons represented by them, who were generally their gods, princes and great men, and being placed in their temples, as the images of their deities; hence they came to pay a superstitious veneration to the animals themselves.
The meaning of a few of these hieroglyphics, has been preserved by ancient writers. Thus we are told they represented the supreme Deity by a serpent with the head of a hawk. The hawk itself was the hieroglyphic of Osiris; the river-horse, of Typhon; the dog, of Mercury; the cat, of the moon, or Diana; the beetle, of a courageous warrior; a new-born child, of the rising sun; and the like.