The Mercurius or Hermes Trismegistus of legend was a personage, an Egyptian sage or succession of sages, who, since the time of Plato, has been identified with the Thoth (the name of the month September) of that people. This Thoth is the reputed author of the "Ritual of the Dead," or, as styled in Egyptian phraseology, the "Manifestation of Light" to the Soul, who through it declared the will of the Gods and the mysterious nature of Divine things to Man. Dr Pietschmann, in his work on Hermes, which exhaustively treats of this subject, gives a list of authorities for these facts, ranging from Plato down to Syncellus, circa A.D. 790. He states, however (p. 33), that by