the deities, moft confpicuous in that mythology. The SUN and ELEMENTARY FIRE Confidered in both countries as the moft perfect emblems of Deity. Worship paid to the Sun, or SURYA, under the plea of adoring God in that orb, whofe throne the Perfians fuppofed to be feated in it, afferted to have been in ancient times nearly as general in India, as in Perfia-proved to have been fo from a very great variety of paffages inferted in order from page 190 to 206, and extracted from the VEDAS, the AYEEN AKBERY, and the three principal translations yet made from ancient Sanfcreet writings, viz. the GEETA, the HEETOPADES, and the SACONTALA-the fect of the fun-worshippers at this day called SAURA-the account given by Philoftratus, of a moft fuperb temple to the fun-another from the Ayeen Akbery. -The Indian mysterious triliteral word AUM, the fame with the Egyptian oм, and both used to fignify the folar fire.-Fire-temples mentioned in the fame book to have flourished at Benares, RaiJird, and other places, in the time of the fecond Boodh, about a thousand years before Chrift.-The Moon, or CHANDRA, a male deity in Hindoftanthat very fingular circumftance adduced in proof that India has not borrowed the whole of her mythology from Egypt, where the Moon was a female divinity, adored under the name of Isis, and whence the Greeks had their horned goddess Io-The Indian Chandra drawn by antelopes-a RABBIT his fymbol, as the CAT was of the moon in Egypt, for a curious philofophical reafon adduced from Plutarch in page 291-FOUNTAINS facred to the moon in

India-no less than 360 fountains confecrated to that orb at Kehrow, in Cafhmeer-a circumftance pointed out as exceedingly remarkable, being the number of the days of the ancient year-The two fupreme rajah families of Hindoftan denominated SURYA-BANS, and CHANDRA-BANS, or children of the fun and moon-The elements perfonified and venerated under various names-AGNEE-VARUNAPAVAN CREESHNA, the Indian Apollo-CARTICEYA, the Indian Mars-LACHSMEE, the Indian Ceres-SERASWATI, the Indian Minerva—CAMA, the Indian god of love-BHAVANI, the Indian Venus, &c. &c.-From adoring God in the fun, the Orientals proceeded by degrees to worship the planetary train-that worship promoted by their general cultivation of the science of aftronomy-An enlarged view taken of the ancient SABIAN SUPERSTITION-its rapid progrefs over all the East-stigmatized in Job and the prophetic writings-The rife and progrefs of aftronomy in Afia-pursued with uncommon ardour in India-remains of stupendous astronomical inftruments at the obfervatory of Benares, and other places.

-The Indians believed the stars to be exactly what the Phoenicians imagined their zOPHESAMIN to be, ANIMATED INTELLIGENCES-of the former, evidence adduced from the Ayeen Akbery; of the latter, proof brought from Bishop Cumberland's Sanchoniatho-Their greatest princes, legiflators, and heroes, confequently exalted to the fkies-reprefentative images formed of them-thofe images by degrees adored instead of their originals-Various animals, as their respective symbols, affigned to them

by fuperftition-thofe animals venerated in their turn-A retrofpective furvey of the deities and fym> bols of Egypt, and a fhort parallel, preparatory to one more extended, of those deities, and their fymbols, with the Indian divinities and fymbols-The bull of OSIRIS-the bull of SEEVA-SERPENTS facred in both countries-the EAGLE of Jove-the GARUDA, or eagle of VEESHNU-That furvey extended to the temples of either country-the fimilitude aftonishing, but referved for full examination after the caverns of Salfette and Elephanta fhall have been defcribed-The ftupendous myfteries of fuperftition practifed in them attempted to be investigated, and the profound arcana taught in them unfolded-The Author enters upon that task, hitherto unaccomplished, and even unattempted by the greatest Indian scholars, and the most celebrated Afiatic travellers, with diffidence, blended with firmnefs, resulting from long and elaborate investigation into fuch books of antiquity as treat of CAVERNS, and fuch modern publications as beft defcribe the GROTTOES of Egypt, the ROCKY SUBTERRANEOUS fhrines of MITHRA, and the particular caverns in queftion-The authors, in this part, more immediately confulted, are Porphyry, in his very curious and beautiful treatise de ANTRO NYMPHARUM; Mr. Norden's Account, and elegant engravings, of the EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES; and Montfaucon and Dr. Hyde on the MITHRATIĆ CAVES, RITES, and SYMBOLS-Convinced that the mystery, confidered by M. Anquetil Du Perron, and M. Niebuhr, as infcrutable, was only to be folved by aftill clofer examination of the principles of the ZEND

and

and the VEDAS, by means of Dr. Hyde and Sir William Jones, he attempts to investigate still deeper thofe facred depofitories of either religion-He enters with some minutenefs into the history of Zoroaster the REFORMER, not the INVENTOR, of the Magian religion; he traces his "fecret footsteps," and thofe of Darius Hyftafpes, his royal patron, to the "woody folitudes" (as they are exprefsly called by Ammianus Marcellinus) of the venerable BRACHMANS in "Upper India," most probably the mountains of NAUGRACUT, and, again following the reformer back to Perfia, after having been inftructed in the most profound and mysterious rites practifed in their confecrated caverns, attentively marks his motions, and obferves his imitative conduct. From the invaluable treatise of Porphyry, above mentioned, the author is enabled to describe the particular ornaments of that lonely CAVE to which he afterwards retired in Media, "the aftronomical fymbols, and other mathematical apparatus," with which it was decorated, and from his reviving, throughout Perfia and Media, the veneration for fire, as well as his erecting the ftupendous FIRE TEMPLE at Balk, the author forms thofe conclufions which are fubmitted to the reader in the pages more immediately following. The author fupports his deductions, by a very curious paffage, given at large by Origen, from Celfus, one of the most learned philofophers among the ancients, concerning the SEVEN GATES, emblematical of the SEVEN PLANETS, erected in the M1THRATIC caverns, through which the fydereal Metempfychofis was performed; and contrafts that

paffage with others others cited from the Aycen Akbery, in proof that there actually did exift, even fo late as in Abul Fazil's time, among the rocky mountains in Upper Hindoftan, EXCAVATIONS the most numerous and prodigious, and CARVED IDOLS of the most aftonishing fabrication.

A general view taken, in page 239, & feq. of the fculptured imagery in the caverns of Elephanta, in which are exhibited, as well the fubftance of all the preceding defcriptions, as the refpective hypothefes formed from the furvey of them by French and English travellers.-Thofe of Niebuhr by far the most correct and fatisfactory-A more particular defcription of the Elephanta Pagoda; its ftyle of architecture, dimenfions, ornaments, receffes, cifterns for the water of purification, &c. &c.-The ftupendous figure of the grand Indian triad of Deity, BRAHMA, VEESHNU, and SEEVA, minutely described, and illustrared by an accurate engraving.— The other more remarkable ftatues fucceffively delineated. Both the figures, and their ornamental fymbols plainly allufive to the theological notions at this day prevalent among the Hindoos.-The Hindoo nation divided into innumerable fects, but ultimately branched forth into two principal ones, that of VEESHNU, and that of MAHADEO, or SEEVA, i, e. the worshipers of the Deity, in his preferving, and his destroying capacity.-The system of religion profeffed by the former, throughout this Differtation, reprefented as the primitive, mild, benevolent system of theology originally eftablished in Hindoftan.-That profeffed by the

latter