paufing in the full career of glory, to check the ardour of dangerous ambition, and remembering mercy in the moment of certain victory.

Such are the Engravings and Maps with which the book, now offered to the public, is decorated; and fome of those that are now engraving for the volumes, which are immediately to facceed, are ftill more curious; though poffibly they may not be fo numerous. I again beg permiffion to repeat, that it is impoffible to separate the ancient mythology, and ancient history of any of the great empires of Afia. He who faftidiously rejects the former, muft refign all hope of comprehending the latter. With respect to the history of ancient India, it appears to me to be a fpecies of aftronomical mythology; and poffibly, when more fully investigated, the Teftudo of the Egyptian Hermes, and the Tortoife in which Veeshnu became incarnate, will both be found to have reference to the sign that flowly winds round the North pole. Mercury and Bhood, another incarnation of Veefhnu, evidently relate to the fame planet; for the dies Mercurii of the Greeks, is, undoubtedly, the dies Bhood of India, and Bhood is the God Woden of the Gothic nations, as is evidenced

evidenced in the day of Woden, that is, Woden's day, or, as we are accustomed corruptly to write and pronounce the word, WEDNESDAY. Engaged neceffarily, therefore, in these more extended enquiries ;. and involved, confequently, in great additional expences, I find myself reluctantly compelled to fix the price of subscription to the Hiftory of Hindoftan, at Two guineas, inftead of ONE. I make this alteration with the full concurrence of the major part of my fubfcribers: I truft it will meet the approbation of the remainder; and that those may not be injured, whofe benevolence to the author, and candid opinion of his undertaking, induced them to fubfcribe for two copies of this work, I fubmit it to them that they take no more than one copy.

I have observed before, that, in the course of the wide range, which I have been compelled to take in the field of Afiatic mythology, that certain topics have arifen for difcuffion, equally delicate and perplexing. Among them, in particular, a fpecies of TRINITY forms a constant and prominent feature in nearly all the fyf tems of Oriental theology, a doctrine which, though exceedingly curious, and deeply connected with the old philosophy

of the Eaft, as it concerns the pagan world, having been never yet fully investigated, nor accurate engravings of the Gentile Trinities, in regular feries, ever yet presented to the public, I have ventured, with a trembling step, upon that hazardous task. It was not from choice, but from neceffity, that I have entered thus largely upon a fubject, which from the inceffant operations of the great Indian Triad of Deity, Brahma, Veeshnu, and Seeva, in the mythology of Hindoftan, was intimately blended with others, treated of in these introductory volumes. This extenfive and interefting fubject engroffes a confiderable portion of the SECOND PART of this volume, and my anxiety to prepare the public mind to receive, with indulgence, my efforts to elucidate so mysterious a point of theology, induces me, in this place, in the words of an ADVERTISEMENT prefixed to that fecond part, to remind the candid reader "that visible traces of this doctrine are discovered not only in the THREE PRINCI PLES of the Chaldaic Theology; in the TRIPLASIOS MITHRA of Perfia; in the TRIAD, BRAHMA, VEESHNU, and SEEVA, of India, where it was evidently promulged in the GEETA, fifteen hundred years before the birth of Plato; but in the NUMEN TRIPLEX of Japan

Japan; in the inscription upon the famous medal found in the deferts of Siberia," to the TRIUNE GOD," to be feen at this day, in the valuable cabinet of the Empress, at Petersburg; in the TANGA-TANGA, or THREE-IN-ONE, of the South Americans; and finally, without mentioning the veftiges of it in Greece, in the symbol of the WING, the GLOBE, and the SERPENT, confpicuous on most of the ancient temples of Upper Egypt. Thus universally, and in such remote periods, prevalent in Afia, and the neighbouring regions, it became absolutely neceffary fully to enquire whether so fundamental an article of the Chriftian Faith, were, or were not, known to the ANCIENT JEWS. The Author trufts that the fact of its having been known, thỏ' obscurely, in Palestine, is amply proved in the following pages. He likewife flatters himself that the production of all the evidence, for its having been actually believed by the ANCIENT JEWS, will be a circumstance as highly gratifying to the affenting Christian; as the exhibition of the various fymbols, by which the Trinity was fhadowed out among the Pagan nations, will be to the VIRTUOSO, and the ANTIQUARY."

To those who may not be inclined to credit the affertion, "that this doctrine was obfcurely

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obfcurely known in Palestine," I beg leave, for the prefent, to propofe the following fymbol, by which the ancient Jews were accustomed to defignate the ineffable name, JEHOVAH, in manuscripts of the most ve'nerable antiquity, for their serious reflection.

ト

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The above symbol is a characteristical representation of a TRINITY in UNITY; the former represented by three JoDS, denoting the three hypoftases, or persons in the divine effence, the JoD being the known character of that Jehovah, of whose name, in Hebrew, it conftitutes the firft facred letter; the latter fhadowed out by the circle that furrounds them, as well as by the point Kametz, subjoined to the three Jods, which denotes the ESSENTIAL UNITY common to the three hypoftafes. The fymbol itself is to be found in the writings of the younger Buxtorf, one of the profoundest critics in Hebrew literature, that ever flourished out of the pale of the Jewish church, whofe judgment on this point will, hereafter, be inserted at length: and it is likewise