of the fables with which their theology is infected."* The sublime notions of the deity inculcated in the Baghvat Geeta, and the Indian and Persian doctrine of subordinate intelligences guiding the revolving orbs, govern ing the world, and presiding over the ele ments of nature, are all discovered in their system of theological belief, as detailed by M. Mallet; and his representation of their ancient worship in vast forests, and unco vered shrines, forcibly brings to our recollection the wide-spreading banian-tree of India, the solemn groves of Mona, and the open temples of Stonehenge and Abury, Their religion forbade them to represent the divinity under any corporeal form. They were not even to think of confining him within the inclosure of walls, but were taught that it was only within woods and consecrated forests that they could serve him properly. There he seemed to reign in silence, and to make himself felt by the respect which he inspired. It was an injurious extravagance to attribute to this deity a human figure, to erect statues to him, to sup * Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 108. pose pose him of any sex, or to represent him by images. From this supreme God were sprung (as it were, emanations of his divinity) an infinite number of subaltern deities and genii, of which every part of the visible world was the seat and temple. These intelligences did not barely reside in each part of nature; they directed its operations; it was the organ or instrument of their love or liberality to mankind. Each element' was under the guidance of some being peculiar to it. The earth, the water, the fire, the air, the sun, moon, and stars, had each their respective divinity. The trees, forests, rivers, mountains, rocks, winds, thunder, and tempests, had the same; and merited on that score a religious worship, which, at first could not be directed to the visible object, but to thein telligence with which it was animated. The motive of this worship was the fear of a deity irritated by the sins of men, but who, at the same time, was merciful, and capable of being appeased by prayer and repen-. tance."* A very just and ingenious remark of our author follows on the WATER and FIRE: Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 80. ORDEALS ORDEALS equally in use among the Indian and Northern nations; for he observes, that, as all the elements were supposed to be animated by an intelligence as incorruptible in its justice as the deity whence it sprang, they thought they had nothing to do but to unite the accused person to one of these divinities, and so oblige it to declare, by the manner of its acting upon him, what judgement it entertained of his innocence. Thus sometimes they cast him into a deep water, tied about with cords: if he sunk, that is, if the Genius of the water received him into its bosom, it declared him to be innocent: if it rejected him, if he swam upon the surface, he was considered as convicted of the crime. It was the same with their fire-ordeals; and he, who, unhurt, could thrust his hands into iron gauntlets, made red-hot, or could walk, at ease, over burning ploughshares, was concluded to be guiltless. From those Asiatic and Northern regions, in remote æras derived, a similar custom prevailed in Britain; and Dr. Percy, his translator, remarks, that, long after Christianity was established among the Anglo-Saxons, King Edward the Confessor (a reputed saint) is said to have put his mother to the proof of the burning plough shares. shares. And even down to our own times, the WATERY ORDEAL, or proof by swimming, has been employed by the vulgar for the trial of witchcraft, whenever they could find means to put it in practice.* On the whole, nothing can be more strikingly true than what Pliny, speaking of the ancient Magian superstition, near eight hundred years ago, observed concerning the Druids of Britain; Britannia HODIE eam éam (Magiam) attonite celebrat tantis ceremoniis, ut eam Persis dedisse videri possit. But, as we have proved the Persians and Indians to have been originally the same race, and the Magi and Brachmans to have belonged to the same grand Eastern school, the hypothe sis on which this Dissertation is built is proportionably corroborated by the remark of this ancient writer, and with this remark I conclude the second section. * Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. 190. SECTION SECTION III. The Subject discussed in the last Section continued, by a farther display and Parallel of the Superstitions of the Druids and Brahmins after the true patriarchal Theology became corrupted.-Worship of rude stones in consecrated Groves and Caverns, and their sanguinary Sacrifices of Men and Beasts.The horrible human Hecatombs of the more ferocious Druids in Wicker Inclosures.-The Veneration paid to Stones, conical, pyramidal, or placed in circular Heaps, Remains of the ancient solar Superstition, since his Disc, or Rays, were shadowed out under those Emblems. The greater astronomical Cycles were also thus symbolized, since the Circles are generally formed of Sixty, Thirty, or Nineteen, columnar Stones; the First representing the grand sexagenary Cycle of the Asiatic Astronomers; the Second, the celebrated Druid Age; the Third, the Metonic, or rather Indian, Cycle.-In this Light, and with |