fcendants, difgufted with the increasing idolatries of Shinar, did actually retire from that polluted plain, and lay the foundation of the great empires of India and China, as contended for by Raleigh and Shuckford; though the hypothefis of the ark, refting on the Indian Caucafus, cannot, confiftently with the facred writings, be maintained. One of my principal inducements for this belief is, that the pious patriarch is by this means removed from all participation in the counsels of that nefarious race, who after the fignal deliverance of their great ancestor from a watery grave, dared, by that erection of Babel, fo atrocioufly to infult the power and providence of the Moft High. But this fubject, and others connected with it, will be hereafter difcuffed more at large in their proper place, the Indian Hiftory; and are here only noticed as preparatory to future ftrictures in this volume on the Inftitutes of Menu, which in the main, may be confidered as the work of that primæval legislator. 1 The fum, therefore, of the preceding remarks is, that the great outlines of the Brahmin creed of faith, confifting of an heterogeneous mixture of the principles of the true and false religion, were formed in the school of of Chaldæa before they left Shinar: that after the difperfion, pursuing the decrees of Providence in the peopling of the world, they migrated from Perfia, and the country in its neighbourhood, to regions ftill nearer the rifing fun; bearing with them, across the Indus, the new-formed code of religious and political laws, afterwards enlarged, purified, and accommodated to their fituation in a different region; a region in which innumerable ablutions and other local fuperftitions were indifpenfable: that they were ftill divided into many fects bearing the name of Brahma, Veefhnu, Seeva, and Buddha; and that Thibet, the highest and most northern region of India, was peopled with Brahmins of the fect of the laft-mentioned holy perfonage, who appears from indubitable evidence to be the Mercury of the weft: that these priests spread themselves widely through the northern regions of Afia, even to Siberia itself; and, gradually mingling with the great body of the Celtic tribes who purfued their journey to the extremity of Europe, finally established the Druid, that is, Brahmin, fyftem of fuperftition in ancient Britain. This, I contend, was the firft Oriental colony fettled in thefe iflands. In the course of ages, their extenfive commerce led hither Phoenician colonies in queft of that tin which they exchanged for the fine linen and rich gems of India. The Phoenicians, whose anceftors were educated in the fame original school with the Brahmins, fuffered not the ardour of Afiatic fuperftition to fubfide, but engrafted upon it the worship of the Tyrian Hercules, and other rites of that ancient nation. How aftonishingly great that commerce was, and of what nature thofe rites were, are points which will be amply difcuffed in the Differtation that follows. END OF THE DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF THE DRUIDS. |