OF THE MOON,* which, according to the Ara bian computation, amount in number to twenty-eight, according to the Indian, to only twenty-feven, manfions; and these gates muft, therefore, be confidered as houfes, or spheres, through which the foul paffes in her course to the centre of light and felicity. It may here be remarked that the expreffion occurs fre quently in holy writ, often in the former fenfe, and sometimes even in the astronomical allufion of the word. In the former acceptation we read, in Efther, ii. 19, of the Jew Mordecai fitting in the king's GATE: in Lamentations, v. 14, that the elders have ceafed from the GATE : and, in Ruth, iii. 11, it is used in a fenfe remarkably figurative; all the GATE (that is, house) of my people know thou art virtuous. In the fecond acceptation, the word as well as the attendant fymbol itself, to our aftonishment, occur in the account of Jacob's vifion of the LADDER WHOSE TOP REACHED TO HEAVEN, and in the exclamation, THIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN. This circumstance Q 4 cannot Thefe MANSIONS OF THE MOON are, from Mr. Coftard's Arabian astronomy, accurately marked on the celestial globe, made and fold by Mr. George Adams, in Fleet-street, whose obliging kindness to the author during the compofition of a work, in which aftronomy and theology are fo intimately connected, he thus publicly and gratefully acknowledges. cannot fail of exciting in the reader the utmost furprise, fince it is hence manifested to have been an original patriarchal fymbol, and will hereafter be brought by me in evidence that there was among the poft-diluvian ancestors of the human race an astronomy older than has yet been proved to exift, and poffibly tinctured with ante-diluvian philosophy. A similar idea occurs in Isaiah, xxxviii. 10; I shall go to the GATES of the grave; and in Matthew, xvi. 18; the GATES of hell shall not prevail against it : nor is it impoffible but our blessed Lord him. self might speak in allusion to the popular notion of the two aftronomical GATES celeftial and terrestrial, when, in Matthew, vii. 13, he faid, Enter ye in at the Arait GATE; for, wide is the GATE and broad is the way that leadeth to deftruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because ftrait is the GATE and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. But let us return to the Homeric cave, concerning the fabrication, intention, and ornaments, of which Porphyry has given us a difquifition, which, however obscure it may appear from the very partial information on this fubject which has defcended to us from the ancients, will more than fufficiently ferve to to convince us how deeply were blended toge ther their profound astronomical and metaphyfical fpeculations. This cave had two entrances, or GATES, as they are called even by Homer; the one of which looked to the SOUTH, the other to the NORTH. Perpetual waters through the grotto glide, : On this paffage the great philofopher remarks, "There are two extremities in the heavens viz. the winter folftice, than which no part of heaven is nearer to the fouth; and the fummer folftice, which is fituated next to the north. But the fummer tropic, that is, the folftitial circle, is in Cancer, and the winter tropic in Capricorn. And, fince Cancer is the nearest to the earth, it is deservedly attributed to the moon, which is itself proximate to the earth. But fince the fouthern pole, from its great diftance, is invifible to us, Capricorn is affigned to Saturn, who is the highest and most remote of all the planets. Again, the figns from Cancer to Capricorn are fituated in the following order; the first is Leo, called, by aftrologers, the House of the SUN; SUN; afterwards Virgo, or the House of Mercury; Libra, of Venus; Scorpio, of Mars; Sagittarius, of Jupiter; and Capricornus, or the House of Saturn. But from Capricorn, in an inverse order, Sagittarius is attributed to Saturn; Pisces to Jupiter; Aries to Mars ; Taurus to Venus; Gemini to Mercury; and, laft of all, Cancer to the Moon. From among the number of these, theologifts confider Cancer and Capricorn as two ports; Plato calls them two GATES. Of these, they affirm that Cancer is the gate through which fouls defcend, but Capricorn that through which they afcend, and exchange a material for a divine condition of being. Cancer is, indeed, northern, and adapted to defcent; but Capricorn is fouthern, and accommodated to ascent: and, indeed, the GATES of the cave, which look to the north, are with great propriety faid to be pervious to the descent of men ; while the fouthern GATES are not the avenues of the gods, but of fouls afcending to the gods. On this account the poet does not say it is the paffage of the gods, but of immortals, which appellation is alfo common to our fouls, whether in their whole effence, or from fome particular and most excellent part only they are denominated immortal. It is reported that that Parmenides mentions these two PORTS in his book, concerning the nature of things; as likewife that they were not unknown to the Egyptians and Romans: for, the Romans celebrate their Saturnalia when the fun is in Capricorn; and, during this festivity, the fervants wear the fhoes of thofe that are free, and all things are diftributed among them in common ; the legiflator intimating, by this ceremony, that thofe, who are fervants at present by the condition of their birth, will be hereafter liberated by the Saturnalian feast, and by the house attributed to Saturn, i. e. Capricorn; when, reviving in that fign, and being divested of the material garments of generation, they shall return to their pristine felicity and to the fountain of life. But fince the path beginning from Capricorn is retrograde, and pertains to defcent; hence the origin of the word Januarius, or January, from janua, a gate, which is the space of time measured by the fun, while, returning from Capricorn towards the east, he directs his course to the northern parts. But, with the Egyptians, the beginning of the year is not Aquarius, as among the Romans, but Cancer for, the ftar SoтHIS borders on Cancer, which star the Greeks denominate Kuvos, or the 1 |