race, before they were sufficiently skilled in architecture to erect temples, consecrated cells and caverns to the Deity;" and, what is more particularly to our purpose, he adds, Tavтax δε οπε τον ΜΙΘΡΑΝ εγνωσαν, δια σπηλαις τον θεον Meμevov, that is, wheresoever men acknowledge MITHRA as the supreme divinity, they performed the sacred rites in caverns. This account, indeed, appears inconsistent with what we read of the PYREIA, or fire-temples, which were generally erected on the summits of mountains; but these are of far later date than the periods to which Porphyry alludes, and owed their origin, according to the magi, to the zeal of Zoroaster, to preserve the sacred flame, which descended from heaven, from extinction by the tempestuous violence of storms and rain. But these caverns were not only the temple of the most splendid religion, they were the solemn schools of the sublimest sciences inculcated in these early ages of the world. What was the science principally inculcated in them, besides theology, we may learn from the same Porphyry in his description of the cave of Zoroaster: that it was consecrated to the honour of MITHRA, the parent of the universe; that the cave represented the world created by MITHRA; and that the elements of nature, and the various

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quarters of that world were represented by different symbols properly disposed around it. The SUN was probably represented by a sphere of gold, or some resplendent gem of immense value, suspended aloft; and, the roof, glittering with gold and azure and with well-imitated representations of the celestial bodies, inspired the enthusiastic soul of the Brahmin as well with the most elevated conceptions of his own religion as of the high dignity of his distinguished order. If the scenes of the SACONTALA* be picturesque of the manners of the times in which that drama was written, there cannot be entertained a doubt, but that, upon certain occasions, also in those caverns were practised the most mysterious rites of MAGIC, and that they sometimes echoed with the most tremendous incantations.

The assertion of PORPHYRY, relative to the original purpose to which the MITHRATIC CAVES were applied, is strongly corroborated by a passage in CELSUS, quoted by Origen, where that learned writer informs us, that, in the rites of MITHRA, the Persians represented by symbols the two-fold motion of the stars, the fixed and the planetary, and the passage of

"Who, like the choleric DURVASAS, has power to consume, like raging fire, whatever offends him?" Sacont. p. 40.

the

the soul through them. By way of illustrating this doctrine of the sidereal Metempsychosis, they erected in their caves a high ladder, on the ascent of which were seven different gates, according with the number of the planets; the first gate was of lead, which was intended to mark the, slow motion of the planet SATURN; the second gate was composed of tin, by which they shadowed out the brilliancy and softness of VENUS; the third gate was of brass, which they imagined a just emblem of the solidity and durability of JUPITER; the fourth gate was of iron, by which MERCURY was typified, because he is suited, like iron, to all sorts of labours, whence pro

fit

may be derived; the fifth gate consisted of a mixed mass, of which the heterogeneous composition, variableness, and irregularity, rendered it the fit emblem of MARS; the sixth gate was of silver, exhibiting an apt similitude. of the mild radiance of the silver empress of THE NIGHT; and the seventh was of gold, a proper emblem of the SUN, the one being the king of metals, and the other being the sovereign of the sky." I must again repeat, that this notion, of the orbs of heaven being animated intelligences, was intimately blended with the most antient superstition of the earth; *

* Celsus apud Origen contra Celsum, lib. iv.

we find it particularly predominant in the Phoenician Cosmogony of TAUT, which asserted their ZOPHES AMIN, or the Overseers of Heaven, to be thus animated,* and the reader will remember a remark quoted before from the Ayeen Akbery, + that many of the antient Hindoo philosophers believed that the stars were the souls of men departed this life, and raised to that high dignity in reward for their virtues and austerities."

It was, then, in periods when the solar worship, in this part of Asia, flourished in the zenith of its glory, that THESE CAVERNS were scooped out of the native rock, with that indefatigable labour and with that presevering. patience which devotion could alone have inspired, and which the hopes of eternal reward could alone have supported. It was in these solemn retreats of religion and philosophy that the contemplative and absorbed soul approached nearest to the perfection of the divine nature; it was here that the bright emblem of the divinity beamed forth a lustre insupportably resplendent and powerful; but particularly at that awful season, when the world, was deprived of the blessing of the li

* Cumberland's Sanchoniatho, p. 42.

Ayeen Akhery, vol. iii. p. 11.

ving solar orb, and when nature lay buried in profound silence and in midnight darkness. If as Mr Hamilton informs us,* from ocular survey, no less than a hundred lamps were preserved incessantly burning before the idol JAGGERNAUT, how many thousand must have been lighted up in the extensive caverns of Salsette and Elephanta? It is probable, that in the day-time the Brahmins mounted the eminences of their rocks, and paid their devo tions on the summits of the loftiest mountains. They ascended the heights of Salsette, as the Egyptian priests of old ascended the apex of the pyramids, to adore the Sun, and to make astronomical observations. Accordingly, we are informed, by some accurate observers, that, from the eminence of the rocky steep of CANARAH, to which there is a regular ascent of steps cut out of the rock, a prospect opens itself beyond description beautiful and extensive, and that it is an eminence not to be looked down from without terror, M. Anquetil expressly says, that, to him, one of the mountains of Canarah seemed to be hewn to a point by human art, undoubtedly from the same religious impulse that dictated the form of the pyramids of Egypt, which the learned Greaves insists

* Hamilton's Voyage, vol. i. p. 385.

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were