great a length these reflections upon what is called, in India, the worship of Dewtahs, and, in other countries, that of Dæmons, yet, before I shall be able to give any clear or satisfactory idea of the probable devotion antiently practised in the caverns of Salsette and in the magnificent pagoda of Elephanta, it is necessary that we should still wider extend our survey of this stupendous subject. What has already engaged our attention is but a portion of that gigantic fabric of superstition which cast its mighty shadow over all the anțient world, The more splendid part of that devotion remains still to be noticed. The former were earth-born deities, and we have loitered too long with the untutored Indian who only sees "God in clouds and hears him in the wind." As there were deities who were permitted to range the earth, so there were deities of a more exalted nature, who, as we before observed, had their station in the celestial orbs. Those glittering orbs now demand our attention. Let us ascend the empyreum with some portion of the zeal and fervour of the adorers of those shining, but senseless, deities.

Two of the principal sources of all mythology, particularised by Sir W. Jones, are, a wild admiration of the heavenly bodies, particularly

of

of the SUN, and an immoderate respect paid to the memory of powerful, wise, and virtuous, ancestors, especially the founders of kingdoms, legislators, and warriors. If this remark on the origin of mythology be generally applica ble to most nations, so it is in a peculiar manner forcible in the survey which we are now taking of that of the Hindoos. It is the SUN, that vast body of fire, which, Milton says, "Looks from his sole dominion like the god of this new world," it is that glorious planet, which beams with such transcendent and unceasing splendor in Eastern countries, whose ray hath kindled the devotions of mankind from age to age, and hath been the great fountain of idolatry in India. Indeed, the most antient superstition of all nations has been the worship of the SUN, as the lord of heaven and governor of the world, and in particular it prevailed in Phoenicia, Chaldæa, Egypt, and, from later information, we may add Peru and Mexico. Represented in a variety of ways, and concealed under a multitude of fanciful names, through all the revolutions of time the great luminary of heaven hath exacted from the generations of men the tribute of devotion..

How particularly the antient Persians were addicted to this mode of worship, how pro

found

found and universal was their veneration of FIRE, and particularly of the SOLAR FIRE, is evident in every page of Dr Hyde, who has made that religion the subject of his accurate investigation. The infatuated votaries of this religion were forbidden to spit into the fire, or to throw water upon it, even if the metropolis were in flames. The Magi, however, as has been before remarked, did not deny a SUPREME PRESIDING PRINCIPLE, the Creator and Governor of the universe, who was the proper object of man's adoration, but they considered the SUN as his image in the visible universe, as a faint copy of the bright original, worthy to be honoured with external worship and devout prostration. They They imagined his throne to be seated in the SUN, and that it was the paradise of the blessed. From the Magi of Persia the idolatrous infection might easily spread to the Brachmanes of India, between whom an occasional intercourse, from the earliest ages, may, without violating probability, be supposed to have existed. Under the character of the god SURYA, of whom, and his car, drawn by seven green horses, and guided by his charioteer ARUN, or the Dawn, an engraving

* Green, as the emblem, I presume, of eternal youth.

is