custom, there can scarcely be a doubt, originated in India, where large tanks for the ablution of a people, whose laws of unfathomable antiquity are not lefs immutable than thofe of the Medes and Perfians, to this day remain invariably placed in the front of their pagodas, without previous ablution in which the Hindoo dares not approach the altar of his God. The antiquity, therefore, and univerfality of this practice, as well as that of ufing confecrated beads in their worship of the Deity, common to the Brahmins not lefs than the Druids, apparently demonftrate from what primæval fource the votaries of modern fuperftition in Rome, have borrowed this Afiatic rite. One incentive of thefe innumerable prefcribed ablutions was, doubtlefs, to obtain invigorated health in a relaxing clime; but the first origin is to be found in the precepts of religion; for, as they beheld that frequent fubmerfion in water washed away the ftains and leprous diseases of the body, fo from analogy they conceived that purifying element might gradually abfterge the impurities of the polluted foul. I ventured, in a former chapter of this work, when relating the countless ablutions of the Brahmins, to hazard an affertion, and hereafter I fhall en

deavour

deavour fully to prove it, that there was another incentive to ablution to be found in traditions handed down in the family of Noah relative to the purgation and purification which the earth underwent from the waters of the deluge. Spencer, in the following paffage, fpeaking of the Jewish purifications by water, is decidedly of this opinion: Hanc ablutionem arbitror fuiffe inter inftituta vetera orta poft MAGNUM DILUVIUM IN MEMORIA AQUA PURGATI MUNDI.*

We have feen what innumerable vases and bafons for the purifying water there were exfodiated in the ancient caverns of Salfette and Elephanta; and both the period of their fabrication and the cuftoms of the Indians, immemorially established, must prevent any idea being entertained that they were borrowed from any other people. Now that the Druids invariably used fimilar rites is evident from the infinite number of hollow vafes, or rockbafons, as Dr. Borlafe, in his chapter on the fubject calls them, continually found fculptured upon or adjoining to all the Carns, or mercurial heaps, of the old Druids. Some of these rock-bafons which he defcribes

.

* Vide Spencer de Leg. Heb. p. 1099.

M 4

are

are of confiderable depth and breadth; are
placed in regular and fucceffive order one be-
low the other on the loftieft eminences of
their craggy temples, far beyond the reach
of defilement, to catch, as it fell, the hal-
lowed dew for luftration, and to receive the
pure white flakes of virgin fnow, which,
refined by the chemical hand of nature, de-
fcended from that heaven to which their
prayers were addreffed, unpolluted by thofe
earthly particles for ever blended with the
water immediately derived from ponds and
rivers. "I have obferved," fays Dr. Borlafe,
"fo many of thofe rock-bafons in the Carns
of Cornwall, that I may venture to say there
is hardly any confiderable group of rocks in
thefe western parts which has not more or
lefs of them. There are two forts of them;
fome have lips or channels to them, others
have none.
The fhape of them is not uni-
form: fome are quite irregular; fome are
oval; and fome are exactly circular. They
are frequently found on the tops of Logan,
or rocking-ftones, and fhould therefore feem
to have fome affinity to, and be fubfervient
to, the fame fpecies of fuperftition."

* Borlafe's Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 242.

THE

THE TRANSMIGRATION

OF THE DRUIDS

ΤΟ

THE LEADING FEATURE IN THE BRAI-
MIN RELIGION: AND, ACCORDING
BOTH, THE WORLD WAS TO BE DESTROY-
ED BY A GENERAL CONFLAGRATION.

IN that ancient book, the Inftitutes of Menu, compiled, at least, many centuries before Pythagoras was born, there is a long chapter confifting of one hundred and twentyfix flocas or ftanzas, on TRANSMIGRATION AND FINAL BEATITUDE, and that chapter was perhaps the firft public promulgation of this dogma in Afia. The doctrine delivered in it is exceedingly curious, and by no means limits the journey of the metempfychofis to human and beftial forms: it imprisons the wandering foul in vegetables, and plunges it into the depths of the mineral world. All beings emane from the great spirit: "From the fubftance of that Supreme Spirit are diffused, like sparks from fire, innumerable vital fpirits, which perpetually give motion to creatures exalted and bafe." Stanza 15. These, as they firft proceeded from the great Brahme, after traverfing the univerfe, return to and

are

1

are finally abforbed in him, as their centre. The Deity is there reprefented as punishing only to purify his creatures; not to gratify his vengeance, but for the purposes of example and reform. Nature itself exhibits only one vaft field of purgatory for the claffes of existence: eternal torments for temporal offences are utterly difclaimed. The meaning and refult of the whole feem to be fummed in the 73d and 81ft ftanzas. "As far as up vital fouls, addicted to fenfuality, indulge themselves in forbidden pleasures, even to the fame degree fhall the acuteness of their senses be raised in their future bodies, that they may endure analagous pains." "With whatever difpofition of mind a man shall perform, in this life, any act religious or moral, in a future body, endued with the fame quality, shall he receive his retribution." On the subject of FINAL BEATITUDE there occur, towards the close, fome most fublime stanzas on the omnipotence and omniprefence of the Divine Spirit, worthy of the true religion itself, which I fhall notice hereafter, when more particularly examining that venerable fragment, concluding my reniarks at prefent with felecting the following one more immediately connected with our. fubject. " Equally per

ceiving