Ritterschaft oder Chevallerie. Knighthood or Chivalry.-The origin of those orders is to be sought in the eleventh century, and they are not derived from Arthur, who is said to have founded the Round Table about the year 516. This King Arthur appears to owe his existence entirely to the romances of the middle ages. Prior to and during the eleventh century the strong oppressed the weak. The Frankish and German provinces were overrun with castles and fastnesses, whose owners lived by robbery, and every one called that his own which he could obtain by the sword. Those who wished to preserve their property never durst lay down their arms. Incendiarism and robbery were universal. Neither church, widow, or orphan property was spared; even kings' daughters were ravished. This entire absence of all that is called justice, morality, honour, or virtue, was the cause which called into existence the spirit of knighthood, that spirit which raised amongst the roughest people modesty and morality as virtues, justice and generosity as duties, and protection to the oppressed as the noblest employment. If we view knighthood in this lovely and beneficial form, we are compelled to consider its members as children of that spirit which, in Lessing's opinion, has produced men in all ages who have united to combat the evils which have afflicted the human race, to curb their violent internal dissensions, and keep them within due bounds, and to promote the best interests of mankind, according to the necessities and wants of the age: who, in short, were Freemasons without the name. The origin of the system is to be sought for in France, and the Crusades assisted in forming it. The knights had their own peculiar ceremonies and rules for governing their actions as men and members of the order. They were bound by an oath, and had different degrees, which the youths had to go through before they were invested with the honour of knighthood.

Rosaisches System. Rosa's System.-Rosa was W.M. of a Lodge in Halle, and in the year 1763 he introduced alchymy, theosophy, and cosmosophy into Freemasonry. He maintained that in those things were contained the true secrets of the Order, and for some time he found followers, not merely in Halle, but also in other places. He wished to make it appear that his system was derived from the Knight Templars, but he had mixed it up himself with the other things.

Rosen. Roses.-United red and white roses are a beautiful emblem of innocently shed blood. Roses were also, in the earliest ages, considered a symbol of secrecy; from whence we have the expression sub rosa (under the rose), and roses upon the clothing in some systems. Roses also remind us of the union between the branches of the royal family in England in the fifteenth century, whose wars were known as the wars of the Roses.

Rosenkreutzer auch Gold-und Rosenkreutzer neuen Systems genannt. Rosycrucians, called also Gold and Rosycrucians of the modern System.―This society first appeared at the commencement of the seventeenth century, in Holland and England, but gave out that they were forming their new building upon the ruins of a fraternity which had existed about a century before. As early as 1618 there appeared a copious discovery of the collegii and the axioms of the enlightened brotherhood of Christian Rosencross; so that we must doubt that John Rose in the Hague was the founder of the society, as some maintain. It was more probable that it was founded by Valentine Andrea, who probably wished to continue the society which had previously been

founded by Agrippa von Nettlesheim. Others maintain that, prior to the year 1470, certain mystical philosophers joined together in a society, and that from this society, in about the before-named year, the ancient Rosy crucians originated. The Rosycrucians wore, in their assemblies, a gold collar, from which was suspended a gold cross and a rose. The Rosycrucians willingly admitted alchymists and mystics into their order; they also endeavoured to draw Freemasons to them, especially such as had got the three first degrees. Every one was obligated to the following duties:-1. So long as he lived to adore the Eternal Almighty Jehovah in spirit and in truth. 2. As much as possible to learn His omnipotence and wisdom from nature. 3. To renounce the vanities of this world. 4. To promote the welfare of the brotherhood as much as lay in his power, to love them, and to support them with advice and assistance under all circumstances; and, finally, to keep the affairs of the society an impenetrable secrecy, as true as God is immortal. The Rosycrucians divided nature into four regions-viz., the warm, cold, dry, and damp. They further said, nature had three commencements, as salt, sulphur, and mercury, by means of which all things were produced, supported, and maintained. The mystics and alchymists thus found here a large and an agreeable field for them to work in, and it is not to be wondered at that many of them suffered themselves to be allured into it. The Freemasons were allured with the hope of being able to do much more good, and to live in closer bonds of fraternity. One class of them, also, adopted the name of Theoretical Brethren, in opposition to Practical Freemasonry. Their principal degrees were as follow:-juniores, theoretici, practici, philosophi, minores, majores, adepti, exempti, magistri, and magi. From the end of the eighteenth century we hear no more of Rosicrucianism in a Freemason's Lodge, and in general we hear little of it in the world.

Rosenorden. Order of the Rose.-This was founded, in 1784, by Franz Rudolph von Grossing, for ladies, and as a financial speculation for himself; but his trickery found a very short support. He asserted that his object in the formation of the society was-1st. Improved cultivation and perfection of himself. 2. Education and cultivation of others, especially of the female sex. 3. Benevolence, especially towards widows and orphans. There were two degrees: first, male and female friends; and, second, confidants. The assemblies were called holding the rose. Grossing reported that a Frau von Rosenwald was the foundress, and that he was the secretary of the Order of the Rose, and that all letters were to be addressed to him.

UPON THE ANTIQUITY OF THE ARABIANS, THEIR LANGUAGE AND LETTERS, AND THE ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE AND THEIR EMPIRE.

BY MRS. COLONEL HARTLEY.

IN TWO PARTS.-PART II.

THE first inhabitants of Egypt were noted for their justice and piety, and the horror they entertained of shedding human blood, until a fierce Pagan race, called Hycksoes, envying their happiness and the richness of their country, broke in upon them like a torrent, destroying all before them, and, taking possession of the happy place of their ancestors, cast the unfortunate inhabitants into slavery, compelling them, upon the pain of death, to worship not only idols, but beasts, and even insects. Terrified by the daily massacres of their people, they fled into the deserts, but the greatest part of them agreed to build ships, or boats, rather than fall into the hands of such monsters, and to try their fortune at sea. Their great Father, Mezzoraim,* had taught them the art of making boats, to cross the branches of the great river Nile, which even before the flood had been extensively acted upon. These people, flying from persecution, originated the Chinese empire, and also the Chinese language. Josephus says, that Hycksoes, or Hyckloes, was an old Egyptian word, signifying King of Shepherds, or King of Beasts, an appellation given to them by the native Egyptians, as a name of disgrace and contempt. It is certain that this infamous race altered the government of that interesting country, and their conduct seems to corroborate this curious statement. How the early colonists from Egypt arrived in China is a speculative question; ancient writers talk of the lesser sea, which means the straits of Babelmandel. This passage,

no doubt, let them into the vast Eastern ocean, and it is likely that the colonists were carried to China, for there are the strongest reasons for believing that the Chinese, notwithstanding their vast distance from Egypt, came originally from that country, about the time of its invasion by the Hycksoes, before adverted to. Whoever compares the account given by the Bishop of Meaux, in the third part of his Universal History of the lives and manners of the first Egyptians, with those of the Chinese, will find them agree in many essential points; as 1st, their boasted antiquity; 2nd, their early knowledge of arts and sciences; 3rd, their veneration for learned men, who have the preference before others; 4th, their policy; 5th, their unaccountable superstition for their deceased parents; 6th, their annually visiting the family of their ancestors; 7th, their religious worship, &c. As for the last, it is well known that the first Egyptians worshipped the Sun long before the gods Apis and Anubis were introduced among them by their idolatrous invaders and the Chinese to this day worship the material heaven, as is seen in the condemnation of the Jesuits by Clement the Eleventh; lastly, the use of the pyramids, which in China as in Egypt had reference to the solar worship, (see the account of them in Moreri.) No om, or no on, signifies in the old Egyptian language the house of the sun. Another affinity exists in their language, for in ancient Egypt the words

*Noah.

are made up from monosyllables, put together like the Chinese, which offers a further reason why the Chinese should be regarded as a colony of the Egyptians.

The patriarch Joseph married the daughter of a priest of On, a word which several learned men say is the same with Heliopolis, or City of the Sun. From Nos comes the Egyptian nomes, or divisions of the country, which the great Bochart, in his Phaleg, says is an Eqyptian, not a Greek word, though dynasty is Greek.

Hence came the Nomades, and Numidæ, from their wandering, and frequently changing their habitation or names.

The Eastern tongues are in general extremely deficient in vowels. It is, or rather was, much disputed whether the ancient Orientals used any characters to express them, their languages therefore had an inflexible thickness of sound, extremely different from the vocal harmony of the Greek, which abounds not only in vowels, but in diphthongs. This circumstance denotes the Greek organs of perception as more acute, elegant, and discerning; they felt such faint variations of liquid sounds as escaped the dulness of Asiatic ears, and invented marks to express

them.

They distinguished in this manner not only their articulation, but their quantity, and afterwards their musical intonation; yet the Chinese language, from modern experience, would baffle the finest Greek ear that ever existed.

So remarked the celebrated Dr. Gillies, who so ably has written upon sound and form.

When the Almighty created the world, he saw that all was very good. The language of Adam, who spontaneously named every living thing, even the grass of the field, must have been perfect-it was no doubt the Hebrew tongue, a language which lends to all, and borrows of none.

The vanity of each nation induces them to pretend to the most early civilization; but such is the uncertainty of ancient history, that it is difficult to determine to whom the honour is due.

It should seem, however, that the contest may be confined to the Egyptians, Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Cadmeans.

Languages undergo a thousand alterations, as luxury advances. More substantives and qualities are wanting to express names, and denote adjectives by weight, measure, number, &c. The best Grecians at the colleges are not understood by the present Hellenes, or at least but very partially so; the Lingua-Franca, has spoiled the pure dialect of Athens. Lord Byron declared the Albanians spoke a language called Romaic, as notoriously corrupt as the Italian of Naples; and he continues to observe, Yanina (where next to the Fanal, Greek is purest) although the capital of Ali Pasha's dominions, is not in Albania, but Epirus, and beyond Delvinachi, in Albania Proper, up to Argy vocastro and Gepaleen, worse Greek is spoken than even by the Athenians; and he mentions that as the modern Greek is a powerful auxiliary, not only to the traveller and foreign merchant, but also to the classical scholar, the old language is conjectured to be probably more attainable by foreigners than by the modern Greeks themselves. Is not the Hindostan language, or the Moorish Arabic at Madras disused, by the native people, for a vile one called the Malabar, almost too gross a language to take the trouble of learning? Again, we find in India the invincible Usun Chasan, or as the true reading is, Uyen Hasan (that is, Hasan the tall in Turkish, Hasan al Tawil in Arabic), was the sixth greatest prince of that Turco

man family, which is distinguished by the name of Ak Koyunli, that is, Turcomans of the white sheep, as another clan was styled Karah Koyunli, that is, Turcomen of the black sheep, these emblems being borne on their respective standards. These tribes were governed by great princes; in process of time one state swallowed up the other. What, however, makes this branch of history the more worthy of notice is, that under the wing of this Turkish, or Turcoman house, first arose, and on its ruins was founded a far more celebrated state, that of the Persian Sophies. Still the Turkish and Persian languages are totally different, though both are dialects originating from the Arabian.

That great Arabian intercourse must have taken place with India there can be little doubt; for Cabul, where such disastrous tragedies have so recently occurred, was well known to them, and in all ages it seems to have been despised for its situation. The lots of the twelve tribes must have extended beyond all calculation, for this city became the lot of Asher, as is fully expressed in the nineteenth chapter of Joshua in the twenty-ninth verse, and this portion of Oriental ground King Solomon once offered to Hiram, King of Tyre, who named it Cabul, to express his displeasure at the present, for that Hebrew word implies "dirty," displeasing."

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Thus the Arabians diffused themselves over a great part of the world. We read of Jason, whose finest ship was Argo, and built by him to fetch the golden fleece from Colchis. Losing sight of fable, the first notice of shipping was undoubtedly taken from the ark; and it must be remembered, that the first Arabian Egyptian colonies were not the idolators of a later period, who were very secondary to the former tribe, they (the former) having had the honour of teaching the Grecians, as can readily be proved.

The Sidonians, whom Bochart proves to be the descendants of Canaan, used shipping, as he also asserts, before the children of Israel departed out of Egypt.

The Chinese, who certainly descended from the first Egyptians, and are great traders at home, possess the like pride and contempt of other people, saying that all other nations have but one eye, whereas nature has given them two; signifying, thereby, how much wiser they think themselves than other men.

Like the Hebrews, the ancient Egyptians reverenced the word Al, or perhaps EL, which, with them means very grand, or high: Al Cair for Grand Cairo; alchymy, for the highest chemistry, &c.

The earliest inhabitants of Egypt had a hatred of idolatry, as well as the earliest Chinese, but their rites made them appear idolatrous in effect. The modern Chinese have degenerated in consequence of their conquest by the Tartars, for they worship the material heavens, and pay superstitious rites to their deceased ancestors. The Canaanean, or

Phoenician language, was one. The Chinese had a great many significations for the same word, either from the plain simplicity or poverty of the ancient languages, or, more probably, from an affected mysteriousness in all they did, clothing every thing in fable. Josephus against Apian, distinguishes two languages of the ancient Egyptians, the one sacred, the other common. Their sacred language was full of mysteries, perhaps like the Cabala of the Jews.

It would take the writer too much paper, and cause this essay to exceed the prescribed bounds, to explain geologically why Egypt has, in many spots, lost its original fertility, and become converted into vast