a renowned deity of ancient Egypt. He was an emblem of the sun. Plutarch (in his treatise de Isid: et Osiride) says, "that virtue which pslides over over the sun, whilst he is moving through space, the Egyptians called Horus and the Greeks Apollo." Job also calls Ur or Orus the sun—"If I gazed upon the sun (Ur, Orus) when he was shining, or on (Yareba) the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been severely enticed (i.e., to worship), or my mouth hath killed my hand; this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge, for I should have denied the God who is above." Chap. xxxi. ver. 26, 27, 28.

The interpretation left by Hermaphion of the hieroglyphics engraved on the obelisk of Heliopolis (according to Ammianus Marcellinus), offers these remarkable words: "Horus is the supreme lord and author of time." These qualities, it is known, were chiefly attributed to Osiris: that they may apply, therefore, to Horus, he must necessarily denote the star of the day in certain circumstances; and this is what is explained to us by the oracle of Apollo of Claro:

Learn that the first of the gods is Jao. He is called invisible in winter, Jupiter in the spring, The sun in summer, and towards the end of autumn the tender flood.

The star of the day, on attaining the summer solstice, and called per excellentiam The sun, is the same as Horus. In fact, the Egyptians represented him borne on lions, which signified his entrance into the sign of the lion. They who presided over the divine institutions, then placed sphinxes at the head of the canals and sacred fountains, to warn the people of the approaching inundation. Macrobius †, who informs us why the Greeks gave Horus the name of Apollo, confirms this sentiment: "In the mysteries (says he) they discover as a secret, which ought to be inviolable, that the sun arrived in the upper hemisphere, is called Apollo." These testimonies concur in proving, that this emblematical deity was no other than the star of day, passing through the signs of summer.

These lights may lead us to the explication of the sacred fable, which the priests published on the subject of Horus; for they enveloped in mystery every point of their religion. Plutarch gives it at length in his treatise of Isis and Osiris: Of the following are the principal traits. They said that he was the son of Osiris and of Isis; that Typhon, after killing his brother Osiris, took possession of the kingdom; that Horus, leaguing himself with Isis, avenged the death of his father, expelled the tyrant from his throne without depriving him of life, and reigned gloriously in Egypt. A person who has travelled ever so little in Egypt, easily discovers natural phenomena hid under the veil of fable. In the spring, the wind khamisin frequently makes great ravages there. It raises whirlwinds of burning sands, which suffocate travellers, darken the air, and cover the face of the sun in such a manner as to leave the earth in perfect obscurity. Here is the death of Osiris and the reign of Typhon. These hurricanes break loose usually in the months of February, March, and April. When the sun approaches the sign of the lion, he changes the state of the atmosphere, disperses these tempests, and restores the northerly winds, which drive before them the malignant vapours, and preserve in Egypt coolness and salubrity under a burning sky. This is the triumph of Horus over Typhon and his glorious reign. As the natural philosophers acknowledge the influence of the moon over the state of the atmosphere, they united her with this god, to drive the usurper from the throne. The priests considering Osiris as the father of time, might below the name of his son on Horus, who reigned three months in the year. This, according to Mr Savary †, is the natural explication of this allegory. And all enlightened men, he thinks, must have understood this language, which was familiar to them. 403

The people only, whose feeble sight extends no farther than the exterior, without diving into the true meaning of things, might regard these allegorical personages as real gods, and decree prayers and offerings to them. Jablonowski, who has interpreted the epithet of Arueri, which the Egyptians gave to Horus, pretends that it signifies efficacious virtue. These expressions perfectly characterize the phenomena which happened during the reign of this god. It is in summer, in fact, that the sun manifests all its power in Egypt. It is then that he swells the waters of the river with rains, exhaled by him in the air, and driven against the summits of the Abyssinian mountains; it is then that the husbandman reckons on the treasures of agriculture. It was natural for them to honour him with the name of Arueri, or efficacious virtue, to mark these auspicious effects.