arsenical corrosive.

The symbols, or at least some of them, may be traced even in the Chinese
characters for gold, silver, &c.

The connection of Egypt with India shortly after the Christian era is
distinctly indicated in the works of Apuleius. He lived in the early
part of the second century after Christ, and was educated first at
Carthage, then renowned as a school of literature. He then travelled
extensively in Greece, Asia, and Egypt, and became initiated into many
religious fraternities and an adept in their mysteries. He was admitted
a priest of the order of Æsculapius, and describes the ceremony of the
offering of the first-fruits by the priests of Isis, when the navigation
opened in spring. The vessel, which was to be set adrift upon the ocean
freighted with the offering, was splendidly decorated and covered with
hieroglyphics, and after having been “_purified with a lighted torch, an
egg, and sulphur_,” was allowed to sail away into the unknown as a
sacrifice to procure the safety of the convoy of ships which would soon
after start upon their voyage. These rites were of great antiquity.

He speaks, in his first tale, of a witch who, by means of her magic
charms, made not only her fellow-countrymen love her, but “_the Indians
even_,” and in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis, his robes
“bore pictures of Indian serpents.”

From what I have now laid before you, in what must necessarily be a very
imperfect manner, you will see that there is good reason to believe that
in the study of science and philosophy the Indian races were much in
advance of the Western nations. The age of science amongst them is very
great; we fail utterly in trying to find its beginning, unless we accept