of 4320000 years of mortals, or a divine age, is in fact so many Matires, or five days of twenty-four hours. For as 432000 Matires denote one day of 12 hours, so must 4320000 denote ten days of 12 hours, or five of 24 hours*. And as a thousand Sadrijugans are a day of Brahma †, so does that day contain five thousand days of 24 hours. St. Peter says, "Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 2 Pet. iii. 8. This is the Maha or great day of Brahma, his usual day being a period, or a thousand years, and our text goes on to say, his " night is of the same duration." So that the 10000 years in the second column of the fourth Table, are the two thousand Sadrijugans, or day and night of Brahma: The first column, or morning twilight, represents the four ages, as will be presently explained; the evening twilight denotes a period of time very similar to that which is connected with the ancient belief of a millennium. This period the Hindus divide, supposing that during the first five hundred years, Narayana, or Vishna, the spirit that moved on the waters at the creation, and became incarnate soon after the fall of man, will return and sojourn on earth, with the Ree-Shees (saints,) and Buddhas (pro

phets,) for the purpose of judging all departed souls, preparatory to the final decree of the Almighty, which will occupy the remaining five hundred years. The Hindus express it as a period of time equal in duration to the last age of the world, which the above table states at one thousand years. Here you will observe the great similitude between the opinion of the Hindus and that of the primitive Christians, as well as the ancient Jews, who professed that the world was created to last 6000 years; that these periods of 1000 years were represented by the six days of the week; with God, one day being as a thousand years; and that the seventh day was a thousand years of peace; which some authors consider as elucidatory of 500 years before the law was given, and of 500 years before the temple was completed: The fourth table is very comprehensive. The first column explains the duration of the ages, as they return in every thousand years; the second, the great day of Brahma, or 2000 Sadrijugans; the third, the Millennium; and the fourth and fifth, the aggregate of the whole, or the period during which Satan will have influence over the world. For of the 4320000 days, or 12000 years, Brahma sleeps one half: consequently the period which the Jews assigned for the duration of the world, or six thousand years, coincides with that of the Hindus.

The enigma then is solved. The human ages are represented in Matires, and the divine one in days: For

Yet although each age in one sense, denotes a time or 360 days, the aggregate of the four human ages or Matires 4320000, are, in the general cypher, considered but as five days of twenty-four hours.

And 5 days are to 4320000 Matires as 360 days are to 1555200000, which is half the year of Brahma. And Mena explains a year of mortals to be a day and night of the Gods, or regents of the universe; their day being the northern, and their night the southern course of the Sun.

But the divine age

has a more recondite meaning, and, when it is used as an historic date, it always denotes one year. For a divine age is considered as the duration of time (erroneously rendered the duration of the

world) at the expiration of which nature becomes. regenerate at the vernal equinox: on which account, it is said "there are numberless Menwantaras, and creations also." In this sense the prophet Daniel denotes 360 days by "a time;" and as seventy-one divine ages form a Menwantara, so does a Menwantara denote, when applied to dates, seventy-one years.

The present year being the Cali year 4917, answers to the year of the world 5817. For as the three firstages comprised 3888000 suppositious years equal to nine hundred; so does 900+4917-5817, or the three first ages and the portion of the fourth that is past which admitting the Hindus to be correct in placing the Christian era at a. M. 4002, answers to the year of Christ 1815, and places us in the end of the sixth or last Calpa of Brahma.

The name of Sir William Jones is sufficient to carry conviction, without enquiry. To his researches the world are indebted for vast funds of Hindu knowledge, and his memory must ever be revered by the lovers of Asiatic literature. Yet no one was more easily deceived respecting chronology, or less tolerant when treating thereof. In the 345th page of the third volume of his works, we read "that the aggregate of the four first ages constitutes the extravagant sum of four millions three hundred and twenty thousand years; which

aggregate multiplied by seventy-one is the period in which every Menu is believed to preside over the world. Such a period one might conceive would have satisfied Archytas, the measurer of the sea and earth, and the numberer of the sands; or Archimedes, who invented a notation that was capable of expressing the number of them; but the comprehensive mind of an Indian chronologer has no limits, and the reigns of fourteen Menus, are only a single day of Brahma; fifty of which days have already elapsed, according to the Hindus, from the time of the creation. All this puerility may be an astronomical riddle, alluding to the apparent revolutions of the fixed stars, of which the Brahmans make a mystery, but so technical an arrangement excludes all idea of serious history."

The foregoing tables demonstrate that we are now towards the end of the sixth day of Brahma, for as one thousand years are as one day, so must 5817 be nearly the close of the sixth. An Hindu would say, that, as we have entered into the 4917th year of the Cali age, five Calpas, eleven Menwantaras, thirty-five divine ages, three human ages, and four thousand and nine hundred and fourteen years of the fourth age of the twelfth Menwantara are passed.