Armenian, Greek, Latin, German, Sclavonian, and Celtic, and from the study of which new light has dawned, and is still dawning, on the origin and affinity of nations.

Now, in the Sanscrit there are, as Peter Jones was told, two great epic poems, one of which, the Mahabhratara, relates to a civil war in India, which took place several centuries before the siege of Troy. The other poem, the Ramayana, is more ancient still; its subject is the descent of Vishnu, to avert the destruction of the whole world, by the prince of the dæmons, Ravana. Who was this Vishnu? He whom the Hindu theology describes as having been successfully incarnate; who, at one time, foretels a flood, and commands the building of an ark; at another time, destroys a race, whose blood purifies the earth; and who is yet to come for a tenth and last time, to re-establish righteousness, and bring about a millenial or golden age. Not the least wonderful of all, are the adventures of Krishna, a fraction or portion of Vishnu. Krishna is born of a woman. A mighty dæmon, having learned that a Deliverer was coming, who should destroy infernal power, commanded the destruction of all young male children the parents of Krishna flee for safety; and the young child grows up, conquers the serpentking, and then performs many other marvels. All this is associated with much that is strange, puerile, and even revolting; but the primal traditions are of great antiquity, while stript of whatever appears ridiculous or mean, the successive incarnations of Vishnu, coming each time to punish iniquity, and reward righteousness, carry within them ideas full of poetry.

Once more, Peter Jones turned to the account of

the Vedas; and there noticed, that though the original gods constitute a triad, Brahma, who is creation; Vishnu, who is preservation; and Siva, who is destruction; yet these proceed from a Supreme Being; and though the Hindu theology groans under the burden of accumulated elemental deities, the early faith was comparatively simple, and acknowledged an uncreated and invisible ONE. From this fountainhead was derived the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, received by the Egyptians, and propagated by Pythagoras; from this remote source came the notion that the soul of man was an emanation of the Deity, or as it was expressed by the Grecian poet, quoted by Paul,-" For we are also his offspring;" and the Hindus, like their western descendants, had an awful, sacred, ineffable NAME, not to be profanely pronounced by mortal lips. The Egyptians condemned to death the man who spake the word "Iouah;" the ancient Greeks recognised with dread "Iahoh;" the old Clusian oracle, in reply to a question as to which of the gods should be reckoned greatest, said, "Learn that the God supreme is Iao;" and the ancient Germans, and the British Druids, placed above their idols the supreme God, without name. Here, said Peter Jones, amid the superincumbent mass of error, the great primeval TRUTH ever struggles through-all points to a far distant period, when man worshipped God in simplicity and truth.

There was a race in Hindustan, before the Brahmins entered it, with their letters, their laws, and their literature; and the subjects of the mythical poems are presumed to refer to the contest which ensued, between the aborigines and the invaders. Now, at the present day, there are wild tribes in India, inhabiting mountain districts, and protected by almost

impenetrable jungles, who speak a language different from those derived from the Sanscrit, and whose manners and customs are yet scarcely known. Human sacrifices-the horrid practice of annually sacrificing young children to their gods is a cherished custom amongst them. "Is it possible," exclaimed Peter Jones, "that this practice of Human Sacrifice was a rite of an Elder Race; and that it passed from barbarism to civilization, when the two came into contact ?" For Human Sacrifice can be traced up to the remotest period of the history of man. Although the Vedas, these antique scriptures, show that it was not a primitive practice of the Brahminical faith, it early crept into common use, and the Thugs cherish it, in a form abhorrent to whatever constitutes man a rational being. The civilized Egyptians practised it, as their paintings testify; the Jews did so, likewise, as their records mournfully declare; little doubt can there be, that Jepthah sacrificed his dutiful daughter, even as Agamemnon was called on to devote Iphigenia; and children were passed through the fire to Baal, as the Druids of Britain consumed men. From the dawn of time to the present day Human Sacrifice appears as a rite indigenous to barbarism, but passing from barbarism to imperfect civilization, until civilization threw it out. Did Human Sacrifice originate with Cain? Did the two races, when they subsequently met, exchange letters and rites? and was the OFFERING UP OF ISAAC by Abraham a sublime protest against a horrid custom, which still stains barbarian altars with human gore?

CHAP. X.

ISRAEL IN EGYPT.

AND thou hast walk'd about-how strange a story!-
In Thebes's streets three thousand years ago,
When the Memnonium was in all its glory,

And Time had not begun to overthrow
Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous,
Of which the very ruins are tremendous !

Perchance that very hand, now pinioned flat,
Has hob-a-nobbed with Pharaoh, glass to glass;

Or dropped a halfpenny in Homer's hat,

Or doffed thine own to let Queen Dido pass!
Or held, by Solomon's own invitation,
A torch, at the great Temple's dedication!

I need not ask thee, if that hand, when arm'd,
Hast any Roman soldier maul'd and knuckled,
For thon wert dead, and buried, and embalmed,

Ere Romulus and Remus had been suckled :-
Antiquity appears to have begun

Long after thy primeval race was run.

SMITH-Address to a Mummy.

ABOUT this period in his mental progress, Peter Jones participated in a pleasure, which made an era in his existence. Hitherto, he had been confined to his native place, or to a ramble a few miles around it; and all his knowledge was derived from the lectures in the Mechanics' Institution, and from the perusal of books in its library. But he was now included in a large party which went up to London by a cheap train" one of the new sources of rich enjoyment which recent times have opened to the bulk of the community. For several days before he started, Peter Jones was almost beside himself, from

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