Theology and Literature. Orpheus, their great instructor, was the disciple of Mu sæus, and carried with him that mixture of Mosaic revelation and Egyptian superstition, which is still discernible in all the Orphic fragments, and which in the course of time melted down into the fabulous mythologies of Hesiod and Homer.

During the revolutionary violence consequent upon the downfall of the ancient Assyrian empire, the same merciful Providence kept up a communication with the kingdoms which sprung out of its ruins, by the mission of Jonah to Nineveh,-by the connexion of the princes of Samaria with Syria.-by the disper

*That this Museus was Moses, see the very curious remarks of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and the extraordinary Orphic Fragment addressed to Musæus, beginning Φθέγξομαι οἷς θέμις ἐστι : and from some fragments still remaining, I have no doubt but that the celebrated Phoenician sage, Moschus, was the same person.

sion of the ten tribes over the territories

aser, and

upon

of the Medes and Assyrians by Salmanthe full re-establishment of the Chaldean empire at Babylon, a knowledge of the truth was diffused far and wide by the captivity of the Jews themselves.

The conversion of Nebuchadnezzar, and the decrees of himself and his successors, both of the Chaldean and Persian line, in favour of the Jewish dispensation, had a very powerful effect upon the religious and philosophical sentiments of the East. And whether it originated with the captivity of the Jews, or proceeded from the previous dispersion of the Israelites, the reformation was general throughout the civilized world.

Into

Persia and Chaldea the reformation was introduced by Zoroaster;* into China,

*The history of Zoroaster is a complete compound of that of Daniel, and Shadrach and his companions; in his favor with the king-his religious purity of sentiment-the conspiracy of the

Japan, and Siam, about the same time by Confucius,* Xaca, and Somnocodom; and into India by that personage, who assumed, or to whom was attributed, the last Avatar, under the name of Buddha: and it was at this time that the Upanishads and Puranas of the Vedas were compiled, and indeed all their sacred. volumes written or retouched. In Egypt the reformation was forced upon the natives by the Persian conquerors: and the general destruction of their images and temples, and the restrictions which

Magi-the lion's den-the fiery furnace-and his final triumph and reformation in the reign of a Darius. His name in the Zend is always written Zerethaschtro according to Duperron, and Zaratashtru according to the English pronunciation of Hyde. His name looks extremely like a Persian version of the Babylonian Belteshazzar, Zor being the Persian Shah equivalent to Bel, (as in Nebo Zar Adon,) both signifying Lord, and Tashtr a Persian substitute for Teshazzar.

* Martini says, that this Confucius according to some, was born B. C. 550; but according to Le Compte, B. C. 483.

were laid upon the ancient worship of the conquered, almost abolished the priesthood, and obliterated their old religion. The reformation was also carried by Pythagoras into Italy and Greece; and introduced the second era of Theology, Philosophy, and Literature, that distinguished Greece.

The effect of this reformation was to give a higher and more metaphysical character to the speculations of the Philosophers; by blending the newly acquired truths with their old philosophy: and such a character was long retained. The Persians seem to have profited by it most and whilst it appears to have re-animated their zeal against idolatry, it led them to convert the two independent principles of Mind and Matter into spiritual agents in opposition to one another, and to have revived the unmingled worship of the Sun and Fire, at first but as an emblem and image of the Supreme, though it soon again degene

rated into the Sabaism of old, the substitution of the creatures for the Creator. By this revolution, the ancient character of the Destroying principle of the Heathens was almost lost, as he was in the East converted into Arimanes, and in the West confounded with the ancient Chaos, and in both considered as the origin of Evil.

A summary of the Pythagorean doctrines may be found in the commencement of the celebrated treatise of Timæus Locrus.* The Forms, that is, the Ideal world, and Matter, were now substituted for the ancient Duad; superior to which was placed the Efficient Cause as the Monad, Deity, or Demiurgus. This Duad was, nevertheless, regarded as two eternal and independent principles, and by their combination the Deity formed the sensible world, a living animal, composed of soul and body. Sub

* See Anc. Frag. p. 301.