OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENTS. 461 



It was because the old Sabearis regarded fire 

 as the universal spirit or soul of nature, that 

 they worshipped the sun, moon, and planets, 

 with all the host of heaven, which they repre- 

 sented as the body of God. It was the sun that 

 was adored as the fountain of light, life, wisdom 

 and goodness, in ancient India, under the titles 

 of Boodh-ha and Chreeshna; which, in the old 

 Celtic language of Ireland, also signify the sun, 

 according to Higgins. (Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 

 159.) The Baal and Belus of the early Chal- 

 deans were names of the solar orb, which they 

 represented as the seven-rayed god that fills the 

 planets with life, power, and harmonic motion. 

 Nor is it less certain, that under the various titles 

 of Saturn, Jove, Osiris, Vulcan, Hercules, 

 Molech, Elion, Adonis, Jupiter, Apollo, Pan, 

 Dionusus, Esculapius, and a multitude of other 

 appellations, the worship of fire was practised 

 for thousands of years in Egypt, Phoenicia, 

 Arabia, Persia, Greece, Italy, and among all 

 the ancient tribes of Europe.* Nor is it sur- 



Thursday after Jupiter, Friday after Venus, and Saturday after 

 Saturn, as in several of the more modern languages, including 

 French and Italian. 



* Under the mythological titles of Eoodh and JFo, the sun has 

 been worshipped from the earliest ages to the present time, in 

 the vast empire of China, where elementary fire is still regarded 

 as the formative principle, which was called Tien by the great 

 Confucius and his disciples. Nor is it unworthy of notice, that 

 the ancient Persians represented light as the source of all good, 

 and darkness as the evil principle, which according to Bishop 

 Theodoras, they termed Satana, or Arimanius. (Enfield's Hist. 



