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language. We may now state, that the Persian Mithras, the Greek Neilos, Abrasax or Abraxas, and Emreis, will signify the 365 days of the year, all of them meaning the SUN. Thus,

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Emrys written also Emreis, is the Welsh or Celtic name of Stonehenge. The ancient division of the Zodiac is into 360 degrees: 360 days the lunar year. 366 is the number designating (after the Celtic custom) the year by the nights, 365 days, 366 nights. These may be coincidences, but they are strange ones. Our author has shown elsewhere that the disposition of the stones at Stonehenge and Amesbury, looks toward an astronomical system, and have a cycle-character. That the Druids, every where, acted as astrologers, and possessed or pretended to all the astronomical knowledge obtainable at the time, is a part of their history well settled. The notation of Emreis we have added. See Mr. Higgins' appendix, pp. 308-309, for several proofs of a similar kind. See, as to the notation of Emreis, (Stonehenge) appendix, p. 310.

In like manner the coincidences of notation, in the same succession in all these alphabets, is too much for mere accident to explain.

The present Arabic alphabet may be modern (p. 249): that is, the letters may be so: but the system, the alphabet, and the notation, conforming with all the old systems of the world, cannot be so.

"The Greek, the Hebrew, the Arabic systems, are evidently the same: though in the latter numbers (of the 28 Arabic numbers) the powers of notation vary. But they do not vary till they arrive at the nineteenth letter, where the hundreds begin. From all this, I am inclined to think that the Arabic language, in which all the roots of the Hebrew and Chaldee are found, was a language before the existing systems of the Hebrew, Greek, Sanscrit, and Deva Negari letters were invented." There is neither proof nor reasonable presumption of this, in our opinion, as to the Sanscrit, whatever may have been the case as to the Hebrew and Greek. Of the Deva Negari, Parsi and Pahlivi, we know too little historically, to risk any positive

assertion. M. Anquetil and Sir William Jones have contributed something of information concerning them; Meninski and Richardson nothing historically: nor so far as we know have the German orientalists; we are yet in the dark. Mr. Higgins proceeds-"I am inclined also to think that the first system of arithmetic was that now possessed by the Arabians, though not invented by them in their present country at least; and that the inventors of the first alphabet made it of right lines at angles, and called it after certain names of its numbers; which in that time, probably in the first lost language, had the names of trees; and from this came all the allegories of Gnosticism respecting the trees in the Garden of Eden, held by the Valentinians, Basilidians, Bardesanians, &c. Allegories of Gnosticism, the produce of a very ancient oriental system, in existence long previous to the birth of Christ-the tree bearing twelve fruits, one in each month, &c. The alphabet was the wood or forest; the tree was the Beth-luis-nion Ogham system; the upright stem was the alpa the Chaldee name for the trunk of a tree. The letters were the leaves growing out of the stem; and the fruits were the doctrines or knowledge of good and evil, learned by means of receiving these doctrines from letters. The allegory may be nonsensical enough, but it is pretty and ingenious; and is precisely the gnostic allegory, with the Irish words Bethluisnion Ogham inserted into it. It is the allegory alluded to in ch. 1, § 30, in the Welsh poem of Taliessin of the battle of the Trees; the battle between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, Oromasdes and Arimanes. The dance of the trees to the Orphic Lyre, noticed in the same section, is a Grecian allegory from the same source: and so is the Elm-tree which Æneas found loaded with dreams at the side of the road to the infernal regions; the tree called by the name of the first letter of the alphabet, the Alpa, the trunk which bears all the rest, the Ailm loaded with science, histories, sermons, poems, theories of philosophers, and this book among the rest, in a very conspicuous part a heavy dream I fear, which, like the baseless fabric of a vision (a dream) shall leave not a wreck behind."

All this is very doubtful, but very ingenious and amusing speculation. That the first attempt at writing would be picturedelineation, and the first regular attempt at alphabetic writing would be the different positions and angular junctions of right lines, is, in our opinion, in itself so probable, as to be at first sight admissible. The Ogham character, therefore, is probably the alphabetical character of an ancient but uninstructed people; a people at the commencement of civilization; and it is by no

means indicative of the quantity of knowledge once possessed by that ancient nation we are in search of, and which is irretrievably lost in the stream of time.

Sir William Jones labours to establish an ancient monarchy in IRAN or Persia, long before the Assyrian monarchy. You may call the people of this ancient monarchy as you please, Hindus, Cuscans, Culdees, or Scythians.

The language of this first Persian monarchy, was the parent of the Sanscrit, the Zend and the Parsi, as well as of Greek, Latin and Gothic. The Chaldaic and the Pahlivi are offsprings not of the more ancient language directly, but of the Assyrian empire, wherein the primary Tartarian language also prevailed.

That there were three distinct races of men who peopled India, Arabia and Tartary, and who migrated from Iran as their common country. Hence, the first inhabitants of Britain came from Armenia; or possibly the Irish and the old Britons came originally from the Caspian. Iran, therefore, was the original cradle of languages, of science, of art, and of population, which proceeded thence by streams, not westward merely, but in every direction.

To all this hypothesis of Sir William Jones, Mr. Higgins opposes the astronomical considerations advanced by Baillie, in favour of latitudes 50-40°, and in or in the vicinity of Bactriana. These are, that the mythological, astronomical, Hindoo allegories are applicable to the state of the heavens in and near those latitudes, but are perfect nonsense in Bengal, or even at BeNo astronomers, priests or poets would form their mythoi, allegories, &c. from celestial appearances nearly invisible to them, and neglect the stars immediately over their heads.

nares.

Mr. Higgins supposes the modern written Sanscrit to be the work of the Buddists, or of the Bramins. Sanscrit is holy writ: sanctum scriptum. It is later than the seventeen letter system, which was common to the Celts, Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Etruscans, (or Umbri) and Romans. In pages 56 and 304, of this work, the instances given of similarity in meaning, in sound, and in grammar, between very many words of the Celtic, Sanscrit and Roman, is too obvious to be doubted. See also the alphabets in p. 257, which shew, beyond controversy, the Phonician, Cadmean, Etruscan and old Latin alphabetical characters to be the same.

The quotation from Mr. Huddlestone deserves notice. (p. 255.) "Of all the post diluvian languages, the Chaldaic has the fairest claim to antiquity: Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldees, and must have carried that language along with him.

That the Celtic is a dialect of the same language, is highly probable. Nations have, in all ages, been extremely solicitous to preserve their own names, and the names of their Gods. The Chaldaic, Chaldach and the Gælic Caltach, (a Celt) are exactly the same. That the same God BEL was the chief object of worship in both nations, is beyond dispute. From the same source, the Brahmins, the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, &c. borrowed their language and their God, Bel or Baal. The most probable etymon of the word Celt or Caltach is Cealtach, (Cælestes) men addicted to the study of the heavens. Ceal or Cal, in the Celtic, signifies heaven, and its regular adjective is Cealtach or Caltach. The Chaldeans, from the most remote ages, have been famed for judicial astrology, and the Celts, while their Druids remained, were equally so."

We would submit in corroboration, that Ceal or Cal, may be the parent of Cœlum, Ciel.

Mr. Higgins thinks the Bethluisnion Irish alphabet was brought along lat. 45, from Bactria to Gaul, Britain, Wales and Ireland: and the same seventeen letter system and alphabet the Bobeloth by another colony through Asia to Phoenicia, thence by Marinus to Ireland by the way of the Pillars of Hercules. we cannot distinguish the Irish characters in the Phoenician, we see no proof of this hypothesis. It may be so, and it may not

be so.

As

The Pelasgi, (p. 258,) were the colonists who came by sea from Phoenicia to Greece. This name was given to them by the Greeks, who knew nothing of their origin, and is, therefore, not their original name. It is probable they came from Dora near to Libanus or Carmel, or elsewhere in Canaan; they were Dorian, and spake the Cadmean or Doric dialect, yevos Awgrov. Concerning Dora, (see Josh. xii. 1 Chron. vii. 29. Judges i. 27.) The Thracian and Attic was yevos IwVIxov. These Thracian Pelasgi were Scythians or Hyperboreans. Bishop Marsh proves, according to many ancient authors, the Thracians extended to Scythia. All about them is obscure and uncertain, except their very early settlement in Thrace, and their being Dorians. Mr. Higgins' conjectures in pp. 262, 263, are conjectures and no more; nor can we give implicit credit to the positions from thence to p. 267.

Hierarchy and power of the Druids. (pp. 270-275.) Druids, assertors of their country's rights. Celta and Druids in Germany, (p. 277.) The Celts and Germans were perfectly distinct people. (Cæsar de Bell. Gall. lib. ii. and lib. vi.)

All the instruction given by the Druids was like that of the Pythagoreans, not written but oral. This thirst after a mono

poly of knowledge is the cause of its being lost. It is a monopoly connected with the ORDER.

The Celts generally, and the Druids particularly, held the same doctrines with Pythagoras, (p. 305.) The worship of one Supreme Being, a state of future rewards and punishments, the immortality of the soul, and a metempsychosis. Cæsar, who knew them well, says, (lib. vi. De B. Gall.) "In primis hoc volunt persuadere, non interire animos, sed ab aliis post mortem ad alios transire putant." This was the doctrine of the Chaldees also.

These doctrines, their hatred of images, their circular temples open at the top, their worship of fire as the emblem of the Sun, their observation of the most ancient Tauric festival, (when the Sun entered Taurus*) their seventeen-letter alphabet, and their system of oral instruction mark and characterize the Druid in every age and every country of the world, by whatever name the priests of the country may have been known.

Human sacrifices. (p. 291.) These were not unknown to the Sidonians, Tyrians, Ammonites and Israelites. (Exod. xxii. 29, Judges xi. 30, 1 Kings xvi. 34, compared with Josh. vi. 26.) Nor are the Druids, by any means, exempt from the reproach. Indeed, this horrible practice may be found among the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Scythotauri, Laodiceans, Lacedæmonians, Arcadians and Cretans: in Chios, Salamis and Sicily. The Romans offered human victims after the battle of Cannæ, nor, according to Dion. Halic., did they abandon the practice till one hundred years before our era. For the authorities on which these assertions are founded, see pp. 294, 295, 296.

The author ends his book by an opinion, that the institution of the priesthood, as a separate order of men, has, in all nations, been an evil; adopting, in this respect, the opinion of the Society of Friends, (p. 292,) that such an order is not necessary, and has not been of advantage to pure and practical Christianity. In this, as in other respects, the Society of Friends and Mr. Higgins have an undoubted right to entertain their own opinions, and our readers, a majority of whom are likely to think differently, have an equal right to theirs. It seems unnecessary, at this time, to enter into any controversy, to determine what, on this point, is the result of public or private expedience. Follow

According to Sir William Drummond, the sun entered Tauras at a period which would be 6485 years ago in the year 1820. We are not willing to construe the Tauric festival exactly according to the creed of Sir William Drummond and Mr. Higgins, for reasons too long to be discussed here.

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