The second is taken from the benefit which these several animals procure to mankind:(355) oxen by their labour; sheep by their wool and milk; dogs by their service in hunting, and guarding houses, whence the god Anubis was represented with a dog’s head: the ibis, a bird very much resembling a stork, was worshipped, because he put to flight the winged serpents, with which Egypt would otherwise have been grievously infested; the crocodile, an amphibious creature, that is, living alike upon land and water, of a surprising strength and size,(356) was worshipped, because he defended Egypt from the incursions of the wild Arabs; the ichneumon was adored, because he prevented the too great increase of crocodiles, which might have proved destructive to Egypt. Now the little animal in question does this service to the country two ways. First, it watches the time when the crocodile is absent, and breaks his eggs, but does not eat them. Secondly, when the crocodile is asleep upon the banks of the Nile, (and he always sleeps with his mouth open,) the ichneumon, which lies concealed in the mud, leaps at once into his mouth; gets down to his entrails, which he gnaws; then piercing his belly, the skin of which is very tender, he escapes with safety; and thus, by his address and subtilty, returns victorious over so terrible an animal. Philosophers, not satisfied with reasons which were too trifling to account for such strange absurdities as dishonoured the heathen system, and at which themselves secretly blushed, have, since the establishment of Christianity, supposed a third reason for the worship which the Egyptians paid to animals, and declared, that it was not offered to the animals themselves, but to the gods, of whom they are symbols. Plutarch, in his treatise where he examines professedly the pretensions of Isis and Osiris, the two most famous deities of the Egyptians, says as follows:(357) “Philosophers honour the image of God wherever they find it, even in inanimate beings, and consequently more in those which have life. We are therefore to approve, not the worshippers of these animals, but those who, by their means, ascend to the Deity; they are to be considered as so many mirrors, which nature holds forth, and in which the Supreme Being displays himself in a wonderful manner; or, as so many instruments, which he makes use of to manifest outwardly his incomprehensible wisdom. Should men therefore, for the embellishing of statues, amass together all the gold and precious stones in the world; the worship must not be referred to the statues, for the Deity does not exist in colours artfully disposed, nor in frail matter destitute of sense and motion.” Plutarch says in the same treatise,(358) “that as the sun and moon, heaven, earth, and the sea, are common to all men, but have different names, according to the difference of nations and languages; in like manner, though there is but one Deity,