Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent:
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;
Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos.

12. In burning images his children slain.

The religion of the Celts and Druids, differed from that of Scandinavia, the other great European form of religion, in many essential particulars. The Celts held the doctrine of transmigration. They burnt human victims in great wicker idols: venerated the oak and the miseltoe. Their learning was not generally diffused, but confined to the sacred College of Druids. Their doctrines were kept sacred and secret, and it was prohibited to commit them to writing, and indeed they had no alphabet. In all these points they differed from the Scandinavian scalds, minstrels, and sages, as will appear when we treat of their doctrines. See Cæsar and Tacitus.

For the Egyptian Mythology, see Jamblicus de Mysteriis Egypt.-Jablonski's Pantheon Ægyptiacum, Frankfort, 1750.-Kircher's Edipus Ægyptiacus.-Manetho in the Ancient Fragments by Cory, 1832.-Horapollo.Sanchoniathon.-Plutarch de Iside.-Rosellini's fine plates of Egyptian Antiquities:—and the fine specimens in the British Museum, and many Collections in Europe.Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Warburton, Cudworth, &c. &c.

BOOK II.

1. O happy country, Nature's darling child.

India was celebrated in ancient times for its wealthy productions, as at present. An elegant description of it is given in the Periegesis of Dionysius, a writer of the Augustan age, which the classical reader will not be displeased to see.

Πρὸς δ ̓ αὖγας, ἰνδῶν ἐξατεινὴ πέπταται αἷα
Πασάων πυμάτη, παρὰ χείλεσιν Ωκεανοῖο·
*Ην ῥὰ τ ̓ ἀνερχόμενος μακάρων ἐπὶ ἔργα καὶ ἀνδρῶν
*Ηέλιος πρωτῃσιν ἐπιφλέγει ἀκτίνεσσι,
Τῷ γαίης ναιέται μὲν ὑπὸ χρόα κυανίουσι,
Θεσπέσιον λιπόωντες· ἐειδομένας δ ̓ ὑακίνθῳ
Πιοτάτας φορέουσιν ἐπὶ κράτεσφιν ἐθείρας,
Τῶν δ ̓ οἱ μὲν χρυσοῖο μεταλλεύουσι γενέθλην,
Ψάμμον ἐϋγνάμπτησι λαχαίνοντες μακέλησιν,
Οἱ δ ̓ ἱστοὺς ὑφόωσι λινεργίας. Οἱ δ ̓ ἐλεφαντὼν
̓Αργυφέους πρισθέντας ὑποξύουσιν ὀδόντας·
*Αλλοι δ ̓ ὀχνεύουσιν ἐπὶ προβολῆσιν ἀναυρῶν
"Ηπου βηρύλλου γλαυκὴν λίθον, ἢ ἀδάμαντα
Μαρμαίροντ ̓, ἢ χλωρὰ διαυγάζουσαν ἴασπιν,
Η καὶ γλαυκιόωντα λίθον καθαροῖο τοπάζου,
Καὶ γλυκερὴν ἀμέθυστον ὑπηρέμα πορφυρέουσαν.
Παντοῖον γὰρ γαῖα μετ ̓ ἀνδράσιν ὄλβον ἀέξει,
*Αεννάοις ποταμοῖσι κατάῤῥυτος ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα.
Ναὶ μὴν καὶ λειμώνες ἀεὶ κομόωσι πετήλοις·
*Αλλοθι μὲν γὰρ κέγχρος ἀέξεται ἄλλοθι δ ̓ αὖτε

Υλαι τηλεθόωσιν Ερυθραίου καλάμοιο. κ. τ. λ. line 1107.

Critics understand the sugar cane by the Erythrean reed.

There is no necessity to translate these lines, as the ancient state of India was exactly like the present, which is described in the text. I therefore omit Jacob Bryant's elegant translation.

2. Ere history began, in ancient times.

The principal scriptures of the Hindus are the six Sastras. These are, the Veda, the Upaveda, Vedanga, Purana, Dherma, Dersana. Of these the Veda and the Purana are the principal. The Sastras comprehend all knowledge, human and divine. Besides the doctrines of religion and morality, they contain the practical arts of life, law, grammar, poetry, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, music, dancing, and the mechanical arts. The Puranas contain the history of the creation, and an infinite number of the romantic adventures of the gods and men.

The Upanishods are parts of the Vedas, being treatises on the unity of God, and the identity of spirits with him.

The Sanscrit language, in which they are written, is of a wonderful structure, more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more refined than either. It appears to have been the origin of an innumerable number of some of the principal languages of the world: the Greek, the Latin, the Celtic, and the Gothic.

The Hindus boast of three inventions: the method of instructing by fables, the decimal scale of arithmetic, now in general use, and the game of chess. They have a fertile and inventive genius. Their lighter poems are lively and elegant: their epic, magnificent and sublime. Their Puranas comprise a series of mythological histories

in blank verse, and their Vedas abound with noble speculations in metaphysics. They have besides a great number of plays, and innumerable books on all subjects. Sir William Jones's Discourse on the Hindus. Asiatic Researches, vol. i.

The oldest monuments of the Hindu religion are the Vedas. A summary of their contents was published by Mr. Colebrooke, in the eighth volume of the Asiatic Researches, and reprinted in his Miscellaneous Essays, 2 vols. 8vo. 1837, for Allen and Co. Parts have been translated by Dr. Rosen, Mr. Stevenson, and others. The Vedas are four in number, Rich, Yajush, Saman, and Atharvan; or, as usually compounded, Rig-veda, Yajurveda, Sama-veda, and Atharva-veda. The latter differs from the others, and is not uncommonly omitted from their specification. Each is an unarranged aggregate of promiscuous prayers, hymns, injunctions, and dogmas, unconnected. The Hindus hold them to be coeval with the creation, uncreated, and simultaneous with the first breath of Brahma, the creative power. They furnish in themselves, internal evidence of their having been composed by different hands, and at different periods. They were collected, from a scattered form, by the son of Rishi, or Vyasa, the arranger. Probably he flourished about thirteen centuries

before the Christian era.

They are each distinguishable into two portions, the one practical, and the other speculative. The practical part is mostly obsolete; consisting chiefly of prayers to divinities no longer worshipped, and some now even unknown. In many parts of India the Vedas are not studied at all, or merely for the sake of repeating the words, which are

not understood by the Brahman who recites or chaunts them.

The religion of the Vedas differs in many very material points from that of the present day. The worship is chiefly domestic, consisting of oblations to fire, and the other elements, and their presiding deities. Such as

Vayu, the deity of the air, Indra, of the firmament, Mitra, the sun, Varuna, of the waters. This, perhaps, was the earliest character of their worship. But their fundamental doctrine is undoubtedly Monotheism; "adore God alone" is their injunction.

There is a Society in Calcutta, chiefly instituted by Rammahun Roy, which substitutes the worship of one God in lieu of idolatry.

It seems doubtful if, in the time of these compositions, idolatry was practised in India. The personification of the divine attributes, of creation, preservation, and regeneration, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, originated no doubt with the Vedas, but are rarely named, and are blended with the elementary deities. Even now, the priests of idolatrous temples are not considered as of a reputable order. And the worship of images is defended only upon the plea that the vulgar cannot raise these conceptions to abstract deity, and require some perceptible objects to address.

The dwelling house of the householder was his temple, and, if qualified, he was his own priest. Afterwards there was a family priest, and a Gurse, or spiritual adviser. The worship of the Linga had no place in the Vedas, and the great body of the present religious practices are subsequent